{"id":25069,"date":"2026-05-18T06:30:45","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T06:30:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/?p=25069"},"modified":"2026-05-18T06:30:45","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T06:30:45","slug":"eric-church-uses-guitar-to-share-life-advice-during-unc-graduation-speech-in-front-of-7000-graduates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/?p=25069","title":{"rendered":"Eric Church Uses Guitar to Share Life Advice During UNC Graduation Speech in Front of 7,000 Graduates"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eric Church\u00a0spoke to the class of 2026 through song at UNC-Chapel Hill\u2019s commencement ceremony on Saturday (May 10), where the country star gave an inspired keynote address and performance of \u201cCarolina\u201d for his fellow Tar Heels.<\/p>\n

Pieces didn\u2019t fall into place for the commencement speech Church delivered at Saturday\u2019s ceremony at Kenan Stadium in Chapel Hill, N.C., until he wrote the way he knows best. Sunglasses on, instrument in hand, he looked out at the crowd celebrating more than 7,000 graduates and turned their commencement speech into the most sincere guitar lesson they\u2019ll likely ever experience.<\/p>\n

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\"Eric<\/p>\n

\u201cI have torn up multiple speeches,\u201d said Church, who\u2019s twice topped the Billboard 200 albums chart, and had three No. 1s and two No. 2s on Top Country Albums. \u201cI have thrown things. And in one of my fits of frustration, I sat down with a guitar. And I thought, man, who am I kidding. I need to figure out a way to do this with a guitar.\u201d<\/p>\n

To begin, the Granite Falls, N.C., native told the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill\u2019s graduating class, \u201cI want to start with a sound. You know this sound. It\u2019s a guitar that\u2019s out of tune \u2014 something that almost gets there, it tries, but doesn\u2019t. Some ancient, honest part of your brain knows it immediately. You don\u2019t need training to hear it. You just know. That sound is the sound of something beautiful that has not been tended to.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Then the metaphor that carried Church\u2019s commencement speech came in: \u201cSix strings. When all six are in tune, the chords they make can stop a conversation cold, carry a broken person through the worst night of their life, or make a room full of strangers feel for three minutes like they\u2019ve known each other forever. But if even one is off, the whole chord unravels. Not gradually, not politely. The moment you strike it you know. I believe your life runs on this principle.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Eric<\/p>\n

In the singer-songwriter\u2019s address to students, the six strings of a guitar represented faith, family, heart, ambition and resilience, community, and one\u2019s sense of self. Church spoke of each guitar string and its significance to the life they\u2019d construct post-graduation, encouraging the class of 2026 \u2014 4,453 undergraduates, 1,608 master\u2019s and 981 doctoral degree students, 5,594 of which are North Carolina residents \u2014 to aspire to flourish while tending to their roots.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want you to want things. You should want things. The world has more than enough people standing at the edge of their own potential waiting for a permission slip that was never gonna arrive. Want the thing. Say it out loud. Build toward it with everything you have,\u201d Church said.<\/p>\n

But he cautioned, \u201cYour generation faces a temptation no generation before has ever faced. The temptation to perform to everyone and belong to no one. To be globally visible and locally invisible. To have thousands of followers and no one knows actually where you live. Resist it. Plant yourself somewhere. Put down roots with the full intention of growing there. Learn the actual names, not usernames, of the people around you. Volunteer. Coach the team. Build the thing your community needs even if the internet will never see it.\u201d<\/p>\n