Chris Stapleton is unofficially known as country music's soul man, and with good reason. The Kentucky native has released hits that seamlessly blend genres, while also collaborating with some of pop music's best singers. Rooted in country music, there isn't another artist who can compete with Stapleton's soulful sound. Keep reading to find four reasons why Chris Stapleton will likely go down in history as country's most soulful singer.
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1. Chris Stapleton Releases "Nobody to Blame"
All of Stapleton's Traveller album blurs the line between soul, blues and country music, but especially "Nobody to Blame." The song, which Stapleton wrote with Barry Bales and Ronnie Bowman, could have just as easily been sung by Ray Charles or Al Green.
It was also a bold move by Stapleton. Aside from singing "Turned my life into a country song" in the lyric, "Nobody to Blame" wasn't exactly a classic country song, which is probably why Stapleton released it. Apparently the country music industry agreed: "Nobody to Blame" won an ACM Award for Song of the Year.
2. Chris Stapleton Sings "Say Something" With Justin Timberlake
Justin Timberlake tapped Stapleton to join him on "Say Something," out in 2018. The song is from Timberlake's Man of the Woods album. What makes the song stand out is not only how good Stapleton sounds on the pop track, but the video was shot in one take, a feat few artists of any genre could pull off.
Stapleton and Timberlake are both writers on the song, along with a few pop writers, which also helped seal their friendship.
"It was the first song we wrote together," Timberlake says (via The Fader). "He kind of came in and I thought to myself, 'It would be really cool to see if we wrote something,' and we just let Timbaland and Danja just dress it and just see what happens."
3. Chris Stapleton Sings "The Star-Spangled Banner"
No one will likely ever forget Stapleton's version of "The Star-Spangled Banner," which he sang for Super Bowl LVII in 2023. Not only did Stapleton look like a soul singer, complete with sunglasses and playing his own Fender guitar, but his version will likely go down in history as one of the best of all time.
"People were like, 'Oh. You made people cry,'" Stapleton recalls on the Today Show, . "I was like, 'Oh, OK. Good, I'm gonna go watch the game.'"
Billboard ranked Stapleton's performance the second best of all time, falling only behind Whitney Houston.
4. Chris Stapleton Duets With Adele On "Easy On Me"
There might not be a better female soulful singer right now than Adele. So, Stapleton performing with her on "Easy On Me" for her 30 album is like pure music magic. The song was already released by Adele, who later included her version with Stapleton on the deluxe version of the record, out in 2021.
"Basically, I've been a fan of him since SteelDriver days," Adele tells Rolling Stone. "I've been covering SteelDrivers for like nearly 12 years now. It's just... his voice is just f--ing brilliant."
Adele could have had her pick of any artist to sing with her. But for Adele, it was always Stapleton, even though they had to record the song on Zoom, due to the pandemic.
"I think our voices work brilliantly together," Adele says. "[He] would've been one person that I would've always have said yes, like 100%."
