Born in Granite Falls, North Carolina, Eric began writing songs of his own at the age of 13, later teaching himself to play the guitar. He started playing gigs at a local bar in his native North Carolina during his senior year in high school.
While attending college at Appalachian State, Eric formed a band, the Mountain Boys, that played around western North Carolina. They consisted of his college roommate, brother, and a fellow guitarist.
In 2001, he moved to Nashville, with his sights set on being a songwriter, and earned a publishing deal with Sony/ATV Tree. "I came here to be a songwriter," Eric told Billboard magazine, "I never really came to town to be an artist. I didn't know how to do it. But there were so many people in town that kept saying, 'We love this or that song, but it sounds like it's his.' When that started coming back time and time again we started thinking, 'Maybe we're going about this wrong.' That's when we started at least entertaining that I should be an artist."
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