Video by ericchurchmusic

Please join me in welcoming your 2026 commencement speaker, Eric Church.

I've been grinding on this for a little bit about how to do it. I have torn up multiple speeches. I 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.

So if you'll indulge me, I want to start with a sound. You know this sound. It's a guitar that's out of tune. something that almost gets there that tries but doesn't and some ancient honest part of your brain knows it immediately you don't need training to hear it you just know that sound is the sound of

something beautiful that has not been that has not been tended to six 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've 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. And I'm going to break it down for you right now and tell you about your strings, okay? Okay. String one, the low E, that is your foundation. The low E is the thickest string.

It is the heaviest. Every chord a guitar can make rests on this string being in tune. Your faith is the low E of your life. The thing that sits at the very bottom of you. your belief about what this life is for, what you owe, what holds the universe together when science reaches the edge of its own explanation