Chris Stapleton stopped by The Bobby Bones Show studio this morning to catch up on life outside of music and that latest with new music.
He walked into the studio wearing a hat for Nashville’s minor league baseball team, the Nashville Sounds. He doesn't watch a lot of sports, but he enjoys going to games. However, he would never coach his kids' sports teams because he doesn’t think he has the skills to do so. Stapleton is a father of five and said he has a lot of dedication for them. Bobby Bones expressed his fears of having children to Stapleton and wanted his advice. Bones fear stems from his father abandoning him when he was younger, but Stapleton thinks that shouldn’t scare him and instead it should inspire him to want to become a better father. He also shared that there would be times when you will fail as a parent, but you must allow yourself not to be perfect. His advice was the healthiest way to handle it is to allow yourself to be human and your kids will see that and forgive your shortcomings. Stapleton believes people should face their fears, like he did with his fear of heights when he almost went bungee jumping. He was in line to go bungee jumping, when the person ahead of him went and their line snapped. Thankfully, the guy was fine and landed on a cushion they had below, but it was enough for him to get out of line and not go anymore.
Stapleton is one of the best and most successful musicians who truly enjoys his job. Even when he’s not working, he finds joy sitting around, playing guitar and spending time with his family. His current single, “White Horse” he loosely wrote for the movie The Lone Ranger. When he wrote the song with Dan Wilson, he told him they were looking for songs for that movie. Neither one of them necessarily had a connection with anyone working on that film, they just thought it was a good idea. It also was a good catalyst in that writing session that inspired them to write a song they thought would sound good for a movie like that. When Stapleton writes a song and sends it to the label, they discuss which song they want to make a single and shared that they both make each other feel uncomfortable and then land somewhere in the middle. He does like to be disruptive and do things that are maybe harder to sell or different, and so far, it has worked in his favor.
Stapleton spent years writing songs for others. When he’s creating a song, he does not like to recycle himself but has found a way to rephrase and reuse ideas. He treats songwriting like a regular day job and said even on days when he shows up to a session and does not have an idea, most of the time the co-writer does. He starts from the musical side of things most of the time and will strum and hum along and then start working on the lyrics. There have also been times when he’s walked in and a co-writer has handed him an entire lyric but can’t figure out a melody, so he’ll help with that. His best advice was to be open to any way the idea may present itself that day and not focus too much on creating a new idea because chances are it’s already been done in some type of way before.
While in studio, Bones asked Stapleton if some urban legends about him were true like if he drove the same car and took the same guitar to the studio with every time, which Stapleton said was not true. His latest album, Higher, came out in November, and as of now he’s not working on any new music. His All-American Road Show starts up in March and tickets go on sale February 9th.