| "Johnny" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Eric Church | ||||
| from the album Evangeline vs. the Machine | ||||
| Released | September 12, 2025 | |||
| Recorded | 2024–2025 | |||
| Studio | Neon Cross Studio (Nashville, Tennessee) | |||
| Genre | Country | |||
| Length | 5:03 (album version) 4:20 (radio edit) | |||
| Label | EMI Nashville | |||
| Songwriter(s) |
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| Producer(s) | Jay Joyce | |||
| Eric Church singles chronology | ||||
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"Johnny" is a song by American country music singer Eric Church. It was released on September 12, 2025, as the second single from his eighth studio album Evangeline vs. the Machine . Church co-wrote the song with Luke Laird and Brett Warren.
Church debuted "Johnny" during the 2025 Country Radio Seminar (CSR) in Nashville, Tennessee, an annual industry event attended by country music professionals. [1] [2] He performed the song on the Ryman Auditorium stage, initially with only an acoustic guitar before being joined by a gospel choir, surprising the audience with its dramatic arrangement. [1] [3] [4]
The song was written in the aftermath of the Nashville school shooting in March 2023 at The Covenant School, which occurred roughly a mile from the school attended by Church's two songs. [1] [2] [3] Church described the difficulty of dropping off his children at school the following morning, calling it "the hardest thing I've ever done in my life, parent or otherwise." [1] [2] [4] Sitting in the parking lot, he heard Charlie Daniels's "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" on the radio and reflected, "Man, we could use Johnny right now, because the Devil is not in Georgia. He is everywhere." [1] [3] He went home and wrote "Johnny" that same day. [1] [4] [5]
The performance also drew from Church's personal history with mass shootings, as he had performed at the Route 91 Harvest in Las Vegas the night before the mass shooting that killed 60 people. [3]
Following its live debut at CRS 2025, "Johnny" was regularly featured in Church's To Beat the Devil residency shows at his Nashville bar, Chief's, where it was performed as a climactic moment often involving a surprise choir. [5] [6] The studio version was released alongside his eighth album Evangeline vs. the Machine on May 2, 2025. [2] [6] In September 2025, Church issues a standalone single edit, timed amid a series of widely publicized violent events in the United States, which critics described as especially poignant. [5]
Church also included "Johnny" in the setlist of his Free the Machine Tour, which launched in September 2025. [5] [6]
"Johnny" was co-written by Church with Luke Laird and Brett Warren and produced by longtime collaborator Jay Joyce. [2] The track interpolates and references Charlie Daniel's 1979 Southern rock hit "The Devil Went Down to Georgia", reimagining the titular fiddler Johnny as a messianic figure needed to confront present-day evils. [1] [3] [5] [6] The lyrics weave in lines and imagery from the Daniels song, including "fire on the mountain" and "run boys run," while altering Daniels' reassuring lyric "Granny, does your dog bite? No, child, no" into the grim update, "These days? Yes." [2] [6]
Musically, the song begins with acoustic guitar and a sparse beat before expanding into a sweeping arrangement with fiddle flourishes, a choir, and orchestral textures. [2] [5] Church's impassioned vocal delivery anchors the song's cinematic style. [2]
Thematically, "Johnny" reflects on societal violence, technological anxieties, and the fragility of hope. [1] [2] Lines such as "Now machines control the people, and the people shoot at kids" directly reference issues of artificial intelligence and school shootings, underscoring the urgency of the message. [2] [5] Church pleads for Johnny's return to "send the Devil to hell again" and "crush that serpent's head," invoking both biblical imagery and Daniels' Southern gothic storytelling. [1] [3] [6]
Critics praised "Johnny" as one of the most striking and ambitious songs of Church's career. [2] [6] Rolling Stone described it as "fire, brimstone, and, if we're lucky, salvation," noting its risk of veering into melodrama but crediting Church's delivery with grounding its emotional core. [6] Other reviewers highlighted its "haunting portrait of our modern world" and its boldness in tackling politically sensitive themes without direct partisanship. [2] [3] Wide Open Country emphasized that while the premise could have fallen flat, Church's "weight and drama" lent the song thematic weight. [4]