Eric Church turned the carolina-at-chapel-hill" rel="tag">University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s commencement on Saturday into a homecoming performance, delivering an Eric Church commencement speech in a graduation gown and sunglasses before strumming his guitar and closing with “Carolina.”

The singer used the instrument as a metaphor for a life held in harmony, telling graduates: “Six strings, six strings of life and willingness to keep them in tune.” He added, “Six principles, six pillars,” and said, “When all six are in tune with each other, the chord your life makes is full and resonant and true.”

Church pressed the point further, telling the students that “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.” He followed that with a blunt warning: “Because you will notice.”

The message landed with added weight because Church was not speaking as a distant celebrity dropping in for applause. Born in Granite Falls, North Carolina, and a graduate of Appalachian State University with a marketing degree, he was addressing graduates in the state where his own story began. His eighth studio album, “Evangeline vs. the Machine,” came out last year, but Saturday’s ceremony took him back to the song that helped define an earlier chapter of his career.

After the speech, Church sang the chorus to “Carolina,” the title track of his second album, first released in 2009. He told the crowd, “Trust what your heart hears and what it’s telling you about your song,” then wrapped his remarks by urging them to “take your six strings, make it something worth hearing, and play your song.”

The emotional pull of the moment came from the way the message and the music fit together. Church ended with, “Thank you for calling me home,” a line that framed the day as more than a commencement appearance and left the ceremony sounding like a return rather than a stop on a tour calendar.

For the graduates, the closing note was clear: Church did not offer abstract advice about success. He gave them a simple standard for the years ahead — keep the strings in tune, listen when something sounds off, and treat a life that makes music as something that has to be adjusted, not just announced.