Chris Stapleton: What Album Shaped Him Musically
Chris Stapleton recently talked with CBS Mornings and revealed an album he heard as a young man, which changed him musically. That album was Tom Petty’s Wildflowers, released in November 1994.
Chris said, “I have this theory that people discover what is their favorite thing between the ages of like 16 and 24. Somewhere in there, it kind of shapes their opinions of music and things like that. That was that record for me.”
When asked what he heard in it, Stapleton said there were “no skips,” which was a new experience for him at that moment, “It’s kind of my barometer; this is the goal.”
Chris went on to say that Tom could always write things so lyrically, so simply but in ways that were “so impactful” and in ways that got you to the “meat of what you wanted it to be.” He noted that he always felt like that was the goal in songwriting: “less words mean more.” To find the things that people could “attach themselves to” or “find themselves in.”
Stapleton will join Lainey Wilson, George Strait, Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, Wynonna Judd, and Dierks Bentley to pay tribute to Tom Petty. The new album, dubbed Petty Country: A Country Music Celebration of Tom Petty, is slated for release later this year.
The country superstar’s “White Horse” is from his latest album, Higher, produced by Stapleton, his wife, Morgane, and Dave Cobb. All 14 tracks were written or co-written by Stapleton.
In a recent interview with Cowboys & Indians magazine, Chris revealed how he makes an album and who has the biggest say. He said, “My wife picks the songs. Most of the songs are heavily influenced by things that she likes. She has excellent taste in songs.”
In the same interview, Stapleton shares how he and his wife Morgane first got together. They met as fellow songwriters at the same publishing house in 2003. Chris said that she would make the joke that he would ask her to write songs at 8:00 on a Friday night. He admits, “She wasn’t wrong.” He added, “Some things are electricity,” and sometimes you just know those things “intuitively about who your love interest is.”
The couple married in 2007 and have five kids together. He noted of their connection that there is an “electricity to it.” He continued that he feels when people talk about “lightning striking this way,” it’s not really like a bolt. It’s more “like a buzz.” He admitted that those are the things that happen that aren’t “really explainable,” and then one day, you wake up “16 years later” and still feel “kind of buzzed.”
