Eric Church - A Man Who Was Gonna Die Young - Official Video

Eric Church seems to be really drawing on that habit of pulling the unexpected. If you're not up to speed, he began The Outsiders era late last year, releasing a controversial rock/metal song to radio, coupled with some mysterious album teaser videos. Come 2014, he releases a new more commercial song called 'Give Me Back My Hometown', but along with it a story video that makes absolutely no sense.

Then, as that song begins to climb the charts and his critically acclaimed album hits stores, he releases a video without musical accompaniment that is basically the same events from the previous video but with the sound from the conversations, and with scenes expanded a little. Still, they make little sense. Around the time he was taking pre-orders for the album, he released 'A Man Who Was Gonna Die Young' as an instant digital download with each pre-order, but I thought that was put to bed until, in the midst of 'Give Me Back My Hometown''s run on the charts, he releases a music video for the former that includes some familiar shots and some new shots that cryptically try to flesh out a couple of small background details on the story, but it's still pretty confusing.

Phew! So, on that note, here it is. Interestingly the song, which is just played acoustically anyway in the studio, was performed live for the purpose of this video. I think I need a lie down after that explanation.