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This week, Chris Stapleton releases his fourth solo album,Starting Over.
Elegant writing and delicate musicianship combine in an album ranking among the years best.
I had Mickey Raphael on quite a few of our records; he plays in Willie Nelsons band.
[I played with] Robby Turner, who played with Waylon Jennings late in his career.
I also feel this way about Fleetwood Mac.
What kind of music is it?
Its Tom Petty and Heartbreakers music.
You could say it was rock.
You could say it was folk.
You could say it was Americana.
I could say theres country influences.
It is its own thing to me.
I think thats the ultimate compliment to them and their music, that they have their own thing.
Fleetwood Mac kind of have the same key in of thing.
A lot of really iconic bands and artists are that way.
Is that something you want for yourself?Of course.
Thats something that anybody would want as an artist, but I dont consciously think about that.
Theres two kinds of music: good music and bad music.
I take a stab at lean into the good as much as I can.
Were all figuring it out.
Thats continuing the journey.
Thats attempting to be an artist.
If somebody else thinks Im an artist, thats the highest compliment.
Was that exhausting?Oh, no, not at all.
If I dont like something musically, generally, I just think its not meant for me.
It doesnt annoy me if somebody thinks that I like country music, because I do.
I look a certain way.
I look how I look.
But, I also play things that are probably extremely contrary to whatever people think I am sometimes.
Thats the beauty of music.
I was the worst self-promoter on the planet, and it probably held me back.
I was never a hustler.
I mightve pitched a song to maybe two people in my entire career.
There were always much better salesmen than me.
Man, what a cool artist she is.
It would be fun to get into some R&B things.
I think shes a brilliant artist all the way around, as a player and singer.
I likedSteve Earlea lot for the storytelling elements of some of his music.
Theres a song called Copperhead Road that tells the story of this backwoods hillbilly running moonshine.
You could hear them searching on the regular.
So theres some real stuff in there.
The song Watch You Burn addressingthe Route 91 shooteris going to spark conversation.
Thats a very direct song about good and evil shit, to me.
Its kind of like, What the hell, man?
I see it as a feeling and an expression of anger at the existence of senseless tragedy.
I hope, I hope we did the scenario justice.
I struggled with putting that song on the record because of the question you just asked.
I didnt want it to be viewed as political.
I wanted it to be viewed or heard maybe as therapeutic.
To be fair, I wouldnt characterize the song as political.
Watch You Burn is more of an emotional response than a political one.
It feels like theres a directness that hasnt always been there.
On this record, Maggies Song is about my dog dying.
Thats probably one of the most personal things.
Slowly, it stuck with me.
I started playing it live a little bit.
Then I said, Lets give a shot to record it.
Thats a very real day out of my life in that song.
When Im With You started the day I turned 40.
Age is just an arbitrary number in some ways.
And I think it got in my head that day, and I started trying to beMerle Haggard.
I was being reflective.
That song took a minute to write.
It was probably a year before I fully got happy with that song.
But it came round.
That song, for me, is what I like to hear out of country music.
You caught a little flack from places like Fox News in the fall forsayingBlack lives matter.
I see people yell atJason Isbellover politics on Twitter every week.
Everybody has the right to an opinion.
Thats what America is, what its supposed to be.
Do I agree with everybody?
Does everybody have to agree with me?
Is it hurtful when somebody says something hurtful about you?
Do I have to take it to heart?
Thats what I stand for.
If you dont stand for those things, thats okay.
You have that right in this country and in the world in general.
I think thats important.
Thats all I can really say about that.
I lost wisdom when I lost my dad.
I lost wisdom when I lost my grandparents.
You lose wisdom when you lose your aunts and uncles and your friends.
Like, Man, were not going to get anymore music.
The cool thing with musicians is that a lot of their wisdom and humor and life is recorded.
I dont have that with my dad, or my aunts and my uncles, or my grandparents.
I dont have recordings of them pondering the world.
But we get that with musicians.
Who are your favorite songwriters?Willie Nelson and Tom Petty.
Favorite singers?My favorite singer of all time isAretha Franklin.
It almost makes me cry to think about her.
Favorite whiskey?Its probably E.H. Taylor, Colonel E.H. Taylor Jr. Its in the Buffalo Trace family.
Its kind of small, but its delicious.
Making a mental note.
Favorite bud strain?Im not picky, whatevers around.
Heres one I think about a lot.
That track happened at the record release party.
We had press there, and we had stations where they could listen to the whole record.
Thats what we did.
The applause at the end was from the record release party.
Ive never heard of an artist finishing the album at the release party.Well, I hadnt either.
And so maybe that was the reason we tried it.
It could have gone horribly wrong.
It was a beautiful moment.
[But] we have to remain optimistic.
Im optimistic about 2021.
Im not going hungry.
Ive havent had any tragedies in my personal circle, my personal life, so Im optimistic.
And Im optimistic that less people will have [tragedies] in 2021 than they did in 2020.
Thats what Im hopeful for.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
