Eric Church has doubled down on his Stagecoach headlining set which was branded  'disappointing' by fans and left many festivalgoers to leave.

The 46-year-old country megastar released a statement over the weekend in response to the criticism he received over his Friday headlining set which featured a heavy gospel influence at the festival attended by many celebrities. 

Eric drew the ire of many fans on social media as he played an acoustic set full of hymns and gospel covers.

The musician sat on a stool the entire performance and was backed by a 16-person choir and did not have the flash and flare that his fellow headliners did. 

He also opted not to play many of his hits and as a result several attendees fled the main stage to head to Nickelback's performance or left the festival altogether. 

Eric Church has doubled down on his Stagecoach headlining set which was branded 'disappointing' by fans and left many festivalgoers to leave.

Eric drew the ire of many fans on social media as he played an acoustic set full of hymns and gospel covers

This infuriated many fans with one festivalgoer sharing a video of fans walking away from the mainstage.

They wrote: '@Stagecoach we paid $600 to see a headline where people are mass leaving… @ericchurch is a legend, but he hasn’t gotten off the stool and most songs are covers with the choir. This isn’t what we came for.'

Another said: 'can someone tell me if eric church ever ended up singing any of his own songs lolll.' 

Church responded to the criticisms the following day with a press release which began: 'This was the most difficult set I have ever attempted. I’ve always found that taking it back to where it started, back to chasing who Bob Seger loves, who Springsteen loves, who Willie Nelson loves, you chase it back to the origin. 

'The origin of all that is still the purest form of it. And we don’t do that as much anymore. It felt good at this moment to go back, take a choir and do that.'

The country star continued by saying that any artists need to take risks and challenge themselves.

He continued: 'For me, it’s always been something with records, with performances, I’ve always been the one that’s like, "let’s do something really, really strange and weird and take a chance." 

'Sometimes it doesn’t work, but it’s okay if you’re living on that edge, because that edge, that cutting edge, is where all the new guys are going to gravitate to anyway. So if you can always challenge yourself that way, it always cuts sharper than any other edge.'

The 46-year-old country megastar released a statement over the weekend in response to the criticism he received over his Friday headlining set which featured a heavy gospel influence

@Stagecoach we paid $600 to see a headline where people are mass leaving… @ericchurch is a legend, but he hasn’t gotten off the stool and most songs are covers with the choir. This isn’t what we came for. pic.twitter.com/GcsMrqAIT7

— Anastassia Olmos (@StassiOlmos) April 27, 2024

This infuriated many fans with one festivalgoer sharing a video of fans walking away from the mainstage

Several more expressed their displeasure 

The headlining gig was already off to a rough start as there was a 20 minute delay to his 9:30pm scheduled start time

He performed covers including Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah, Edwin Hawkins' Oh Happy Day, and This Little Light Of Mine

The headlining gig was already off to a rough start as there was a 20 minute delay  to his 9:30pm scheduled start time.

He performed covers including Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah, Edwin Hawkins' Oh Happy Day, and This Little Light Of Mine.

Church did make the bold choice of throwing in snippets of Tupac's California Love and Snoop Dogg's Gin And Juice during the 75-minute set. 

The annual Stagecoach Festival happens the following weekend after Coachella at the same venue of the Empire Polo Fields in Indio, California and welcomes about 70K country music fans every year.