Eric Church has had an incredible year on tour and on the charts. Now, the country star adds a bright, shiny platinum exclamation mark to the wrap-up of 2014.
Just as Church is set to finish the year as country music's top-selling artist with the highest debut and sales of any release in the format for 2014, his album, "The Outsiders," reached platinum status - marking more than 1 million in sales.
"The Outsiders" was one of the year's top albums regardless of genre, as verified by Billboard. Released February 11, the album sold more than 288,000 copies in its first week, according to the Taste of Country.
"The Outsiders" garnered four Grammy nominations, bringing Church's career total to seven. He received nominations in all four genre categories: Country Album of the Year for "The Outsiders," Country Song of the Year, Country Solo Performance of the year for "Give Me Back My Hometown," written by Church and Luke Laird, and Country Group/Duo Performance of the Year for "Raise 'Em Up" with Keith Urban.
On Dec. 15, "The Outsiders" took the Album of the Year award at the first-ever American Country Countdown Awards on FOX. During his acceptance speech, the singer emphatically rejected the idea that albums no longer matter.
"There's a lot of people that think that albums are a thing of the past in the world of a $0.99 sound bite," Church said after thanking each of his band members. "I will say that albums matter more now than ever."
