You Heard Chris Stapleton Sing Long Before You Knew His Name
While the greater country music community got clued into who Chris Stapleton was following his performance with Justin Timberlake at the 2015 CMA Awards, he had been Nashville’s secret weapon for years.
As a songwriter, Stapleton penned some of the biggest hits of the past decade, including George Strait’s “Love’s Gonna Make It Alright,” Josh Turner’s “Your Man,” Darius Rucker’s “Come Back Song,” and Kenny Chesney’s “Never Wanted More.”
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Some Songs You’ve Heard Chris Sing Before
As a singer, he was one of the most sought-after backing vocalists out there.
Now that Stapleton’s voice is one of the most recognizable in all of country music, people have started picking him out in other artists’ songs. One of his most well-known contributions as a backing vocalist was on Luke Bryan’s “Drink a Beer,” which he also co-wrote.
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Other than “Drink a Beer,” Chris Stapleton’s voice can be found on Thomas Rhett’s “Crash and Burn” and Jake Owen’s “If He Ain’t Gonna Love You,” as well as a handful of Miranda Lambert tracks.
In fact, Stapleton has contributed backing vocals on three of Lambert’s studio albums: 2009’s Revolution, 2011’s Four the Record, and 2014’s Platinum. On Revolution, his contribution was on the track “Time to Get a Gun,” and for Four the Record, his vocals are showcased on “Nobody’s Fool,” which he also wrote.
Chris Stapleton’s Most Obvious Collaboration With Miranda Lambert
As for his contribution to Platinum, that came in the form of the album’s 15th track, “Hard Staying Sober.” The song features what are perhaps the most obvious vocal additions from Stapleton on any of Lambert’s songs. Anyone can tell that it’s him!
Of course, since most country fans didn’t know of Stapleton at the time, we bet many of you probably never realized that he was the one singing with Lambert on the song.
The two performed the song live on one occasion. We dug up a video from that performance, which took place back in 2014, just a year before Stapleton’s breakout moment at the CMA Awards.
This fan-filmed video shows Lambert and Stapleton having a good time together as they sang “Hard Staying Sober.” Based on how the crowd reacted, they were also having fun!
Of course, we want y’all to be able to hear Chris Stapleton’s epic vocals on Miranda Lambert’s “Hard Staying Sober” without all of the concert noise drowning him out. So go ahead and jump below to catch the song’s studio version. You’ll be rockin’ out to it right away!
We wonder how many other songs Stapleton sang without us realizing it before.