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Eric Church is extending his headlining “Free the Machine Tour” into 2026 with a powerhouse lineup.
Church announced the new tour details on Wednesday morning (September 24). The 2026 run kicks off on January 22 in Washington, D.C., and runs through April 11 in Tampa, Florida. Special guests include Caylee Hammack, Ella Langley, 49 Winchester, Stephen Wilson Jr., Kashus Culpepper and Ashley McBryde on select dates.
Church spoke about his tour so far when he caught up with Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show earlier this week. Fallon noted that the country megastar is “doing something different,” and doesn’t “like to do the same thing twice.” Church explained of his tour:
“I think artistically, I’ve always been a guy that, I’ve — creativity has been my accomplice, right, in my career. So, I think that with every album we’ve done, we had our most success with an album called Chief, and it was a big album. And everybody after Chief said, ‘well, why don’t you just make Chief again?’ But once you’ve made that, you’ve don it, right? you’ve been there. And it’s always chasing the next thing. And so, I’ve always been — I’ve been creatively restless, and with this album, it’s the first time we’ve brought in strings and horns and choir. There’s over 20 people on stage, and when we play nightly, it starts with this big orchestral thing. And then we start to let people go away, and we get back to our OG band…and then we strip it down more, and it ends up with just me and an acoustic guitar, which is where it started, Jimmy. That’s where it all started. …If you come to a show, you’re gonna get the whole picture of our journey.”
Church, who also delivered a powerful performance on The Tonight Show, is on tour after releasing his eighth studio record, Evangeline vs. The Machine. The 8-track album, produced by Grammy winner Jay Joyce, arrived earlier this year. It includes “Hands Of Time,” “Johnny,” “Darkest Hour” and more.
“People keep asking me about the ‘vs.’ in the title,” Church said in a previous statement via his record label. “They want to know, is it a battle, Eric? And I say, yes. It is a battle. A battle for everything creative. That’s the whole reason I’m here in the first place.
“I believe in that time-tested tradition of making records that live and breathe as one piece of art,” Church said when Evangeline vs. The Machine made its debut. “An album is the ultimate creative expression, and the way we consume art now just takes the edges off that creativity. It’s built to confine it, to choke it out. With this record, it’s really my way of fighting for the creative spirit, that spirit of ‘Evangeline.’ Because I know that where we are in the world, it probably shouldn’t exist. But it does. It can live here. It can run free here. And, the best music has to fight the hardest to get out.”
Tickets to Church’s newly-announced tour stops will be available to the general public at 10 a.m. local time on Friday, October 3. See the list of tour dates here.