Last year in Nashville, over 23 performances, Eric Church used the then-unreleased song “Johnny” as the climax of his one-man show To Beat the Devil, pairing it with one of the most viscerally moving and well-kept live surprises ever seen in Music City.

Even as he’s signed to one of Nashville’s biggest labels, Eric Church has amassed more than a little experience over the past nearly two decades in pushing back against the typical Music Row way of doing things, and thus, bursting the confines of how and when artists are expected to create and release albums, approach touring and build a fanbase.

Eric Church's new album 'Evangeline vs the Machine' (May 2) deals with an ongoing battle between good and evil.