Eric Church delivered his now-famous graduation speech at UNC Chapel Hill on May 9. It went viral on YouTube, grabbing more than 734,000 views.
But what did he say?
The “Record Year” hitmaker compared life to the strings on a guitar, saying that 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’ve known each other forever.”
“But if even one is off, the whole cord unravels,” he said.
Church then assigned each string a corresponding life component.
The low E, he said, is a person’s “foundation,” their “faith” or “the thing that sits at the very bottom of you.”
“The world will try to un-tune this string,” he added.
Church said the A string represents “family,” saying, “It’s the string that makes you feel like you’re not alone in a room.”
“The A string is not a holiday string,” he added while strumming his guitar. “It’s an everyday string. Protect it.”
Next, Church turned to the D string, which he called the “heart” of the chord: a strong partnership.
“Strike a full chord and the D string is what you feel in the center of your chest,” he said.
Church then moved to the G string, saying “ambition and resilience both live on this string” in a delicate balance.
The B string, Church said, centers on “community.”
“Put down roots with the full intention of growing there. Learn the actual names, not usernames, of the people around you,” he said, warning against the dangers of dwelling only in a social media landscape.
Finally, Church broke down the significance of the high E string.
“This is the thinnest string. It’s the highest note,” he said, calling the E string “that single line above the chord that everyone in this room recognizes and takes with them.”
Church highlighted the importance of originality with this string.
“You were made uniquely, wonderfully, distinctly. There’s a sound only you can make, a voice that has never existed before you and will never exist again,” he said.
Church finished the metaphor by explaining that over time, each of these “strings” will go out of tune.
“The difference between a life that sounds like music and a life that sounds like noise is whether you stop and listen — whether you’re honest enough to hear which string has drifted out of tune and humble enough to make the adjustment instead of just turning up the volume and hoping nobody notices,” Church said.
He finished his speech with a rendition of his 2009 song “Carolina.”
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