Chris Stapleton’s Formative Musical Influences
Chris Stapleton is working his way quickly to becoming legendary in country music. As he told me in an interview a few years back, his influences were all legends.
Chris said, “Some of my earliest memories of music is outlaw country, you know, Waylon, and Willie. Merle Haggard, things my dad listened to but also Otis Redding, Ray Charles, and Aretha Franklin, and those were things that were always present in my mind and are formative things.”
He added, “You can go other places and do other things, but those are always there, and they’re always kind of the standard that you hold music to. There’s a certain level of joy involved with hearing those sounds.”
Stapleton has even had the chance to sing on one country music legend’s record. He told me, “I basically begged a guy to sing on a Don Williams record one time, and I got to.”
He concluded, “So, to get to be a part of the fabric of music in that way is an honor that very few people get to have.”
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Chris recently said he’s finished singing the National Anthem after his memorable 2023 Super Bowl rendition. That performance still has people talking years after he did it.
The country star told Dale Earnhardt Jr. on his Dirty Mo Media podcast, “I would have people ask me to sing the National Anthem for various things. I jokingly always said, ‘No, I’ll just do it when it’s time to do it at the Super Bowl.'”
He added, “I’d just turn it down a lot. And I do say now that I have officially retired from it as well.”
Stapleton even noted that while he doesn’t normally get nervous before performing, it was different before his Super Bowl performance. He said, “That one, I was like, ‘I was gonna make sure I’m as prepared as I can be.'”
His heartfelt performance really touched NFL players and personnel. Cameras caught Eagles coach Nick Sirianni wiping away tears. Both Patrick Mahomes and Jason Kelce got emotional during the song.
