Little Rock is second on Church's year-long tour

Country music singer and songwriter Eric Church returns Friday night for his second headlining show at North Little Rock's Verizon Arena.

But he wasn't always filling arenas. Church's memories of Little Rock date back to the early days of his career.

"I've been coming there to perform since early on, at places like the Rev Room," he says. "I visited a lot of the bar and club locales."

He adds he has a sentimental memory of performing in central Arkansas: "My first gig as a signed recording artist was back in 2005 when I played there with Brad Paisley."

His latest Arkansas stop comes on the second day of his new tour, The Outsiders World Tour, and supports his fourth studio album. The 7 p.m. concert also features Dwight Yoakam and Brothers Osborne.

Church was last here in late 2012, stopping at Verizon Arena on his first headlining tour, "Blood, Sweat and Beers." The year before that, he performed with Jason Aldean at Verizon. The summer of 2010, Church made a stop at then-Riverfest Amphitheatre with Luke Bryan.

His previous albums include Sinners Like Me in 2006, Carolina in 2009, and Chief in 2011, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Top 200 chart.

His Top 20 singles through the years have included "How 'Bout You," "Two Pink Lines" and "Guys Like Me." His Top 10 singles include "Love Your Love the Most" and "Hell on the Heart." Other songs he's known for include "Springsteen," "Creepin'" and "Smoke a Little Smoke."

His third album, the platinum breakthrough Chief (which was first his grandfather's nickname and is now his), brought with it Church's first No. 1 hit single, "Drink in My Hand." In 2013, Church released his first live album, Caught in the Act: Live, recorded at the Tivoli Theatre in Chattanooga, Tenn.

In June, Church graced the cover of Rolling Stone magazine's first-ever country issue.

The 37-year-old native of Granite Falls, N.C., first began playing guitar when he was 13. Church later attended Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C., graduating with a degree in marketing. In the early days of his country music career in Nashville, he co-wrote Terri Clark's 2005 single, "The World Needs a Drink."

Back in 2011, the Academy of Country Music honored him with the New Solo Vocalist of the Year award. Earlier this year, he was given the Country Music Association's award for Album of the Year.

Church's 2014 tour launching today includes more than 30 arena dates stretching across the South, East Coast and Midwest and into Ontario.

"It's a year-long, September to September tour," he says. "We will visit 90 cities domestically and 40 cities internationally."

And that's all Church is working on during that time frame.

"I am 100 percent focused on the tour," he says, when asked about any current projects he may have underway. "I would never go on a tour just to sell an album or to meet a quarterly number for a record label."

His plans for the future?

"I don't know where we're going musically from here yet," he says. "But I do know it has to be something unique and different."

Weekend on 09/11/2014