Chris Stapleton. It’s a name every country fan now knows. In the last year, he’s won multiple Grammys, CMAs and ACMs. His debut solo album, Traveller, reached No. 1 on the all-genre Billboard 200 after his breakout night at the CMA Awards in November 2015.
Not only does every country fan now know Chris’ name, but many fans—and country stars—are claiming to have “known about Chris for years,” a gag that Luke Bryan and Dierks Bentley got some laughs out of at this year’s ACM Awards.
Although Chris had fronted the bluegrass troupe The SteelDrivers from 2007–2010 and written a handful of No. 1 hits, including Kenny Chesney’s “Love’s Gonna Make It Alright” and Darius Rucker’s “Come Back Song,” he was relatively unknown to the casual-country-music-loving world in 2013—the year Luke Bryan recorded “Drink a Beer,” a song that Chris co-penned.
Luke released “Drink a Beer” in November 2013 and dropped the music video in December, which featured footage from Luke’s performance at the 2013 CMA Awards, where he paid homage to his late brother and sister.
In the foggy background of the video, there’s a hairy guy in a cowboy hat who is singing backup: that man is Chris Stapleton.
Enjoy Chris’ performance—and Luke’s—in our Throwback Thursday video.
At a No. 1 party in 2014 celebrating the success of “Drink a Beer” and three other singles, Luke declared Chris Stapleton “The Best Singer On Earth.”
