Chris Stapleton Co-Hosts 7/20-21

The co-host this wknd is Chris Stapleton, who had a #1 with White Horse, and was part of Carly Pearce’s hit We Don’t Fight Anymore. He’s on tour right now, doing his own headline shows, as well as playing stadiums with George Strait. He talks about his friendships with legends Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, and Ringo Starr.

This wknd, Chris will play a show with George Strait at Soldier Field in Chicago. “He doesn’t play many shows, and we have so much fun.  One thing we’ve been doing is we play ‘Pancho & Lefty’ together. To 17-year-old me, it’s like what kind of weird world are we living in?  That was pretty cool.  So I plan on doing them as long as he does them.”

Chris just released his own Traveller Whiskey: ”It’s out in the world now, it’s available for sale, and you can buy it online and other places.  I served my role, I took a sip, and said that’s a good, drinkable thing.  I’m in awe of people who make things.  I’m fascinated by these people.  Things that take years to perfect.”  

Chris has a song on the recently released Tom Petty tribute album: ”To me as a songwriter and artist, Tom Petty is it for me.  I love those guys, they made some of the most important music for all genres. That made it an emotional thing for me to do.  We were on tour with Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, so I cried when he died.  I revere him so much.  I’ll never forget it.”

Tim McGraw was a co-host last year and told us he & Faith had dinner with Chris: ”My wife & Faith have become pretty good friends.  They talk a lot, and we go over their house for dinner.  They’re nice to hang out with, and we enjoy dong things like that.”

Chris was on stage when Willie Nelson was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame: ‘That was a moment.  I was sitting next to Willie, as Dave Matthews gives him his award.  Willie gives a speech, and I was still sitting next to him.  He gets done with his speech, and he leans over to me, and says, ‘What song are we playing?’  I said ‘Whiskey River.’  I wouldn’t trade that experience for anything.”

Chris also sang a duet with Dolly Parton for her RockStar album: ”Dolly Parton called me, I’m sitting in my kitchen talking with Dolly about singing a Bob Seger song.  When Dolly Parton calls, you pick up the phone.  She’s an all-time great.  Any time you can spend with someone like that is time well spent.”

Chris also has great stories this week about Dierks Bentley, Luke Bryan, Thomas Rhett, Keith Urban, and Dan + Shay.

NEXT WEEK: Russell Dickerson

Tags: featured

Category: CO-HOST, Uncategorized