Chris Stapleton Wanted ‘Traveller’ To Be An Album That Would Make His Dad Proud: “He’s Been Chasing That Ever Since”

The album that changed everything.

In May of 2015, Chris Stapleton released his debut record Traveller, which would go on to redefine the genre of country music as we know it today. It initially charted at #2 on the country charts, but only managed to sell 27,000 copies… not exactly a smashing debut for the superstar we now know Chris to be. However, once November rolled around, and Stapleton took the stage alongside Justin Timberlake at the CMA Awards, Chris Stapleton became a 10 year, overnight sensation.

One that would single-handedly change the course of country music forever.

He took the stage with Justin Timberlake at the 49th Annual CMA Awards, and that moment started a drastic shift in country music. Many fans will argue that in the minutes it took Stapleton and Timberlake to perform “Tennessee Whiskey,” a Dean Dillon and Linda Hargrove penned tune that was initially cut by David Allan Coe and then by George Jones, bro-country’s demise was set in motion. Until this moment, country artists across the board were playing the radio game, each falling into the cookie-cutter mold, and it felt like the genre had significantly moved away from the roots of country’s sound.

But the performance put Stapleton in the national performance, and obviously, everyone was in awe of his generational talent and incredible music. And make no mistake the cookie-cutter game was still played, but rather than trying to copy Sam Hunt and Florida Georgia Line, labels started looking for burly bearded bros with big voices.

But that record was born out of a place of authenticity and circumstances in his life that found Chris and his powerhouse wife, Morgane, driving to Phoenix, Arizona to buy a 1979 Jeep Cherokee back in 2013, and spent 11 days driving it back to Nashville. He previously told Billboard that he had just lost his dad in October of 2013, and needed to do some “soul-searching” to figure out how to move on from such a huge loss.

He wrote the title track on the drive home, and the rest, as they say, is history:

“I lost my dad in October 2013 and did a little bit of soul-searching. My wife was kind enough to buy me an old Jeep. We flew out to Phoenix and drove it all the way back to Nashville through the desert.

I thought a lot about music and my dad, and the things that he would have liked that I should be doing. Out of that, I actually wrote the song ‘Traveller’ driving down Interstate 40 through New Mexico. That became the cornerstone for the record and wound up being the title track.”

It’s one of the greatest country records ever, and cemented Stapleton as one of the leaders in country and the absolute best mainstream has to offer. He became the standard with that once-in-a-lifetime kind of album.

And in a new feature with Billboard’s Josh Brolin, Morgane talked about how Chris was searching for something deeper in his music after exiting the bluegrass band that he started, and was subsequently fired from, in his solo music:

“After SteelDrivers, he went solo on a heavy riff, sex rock’n’roll-type music. A departure. And he had a lot of fun doing it, but it didn’t hit. This was before the ‘Traveller’ album. So we were sitting on the couch one night talking about what we were going to do. And I’ll never forget it: He looked at me and said he needed to do something with meaning.”

Chris wanted to make his dad proud, and thus, the idea for Traveller was born, she explained to Billboard:

“He had already written all the songs. Brian Wright and him. You know, a close-knit team. And he said, ‘I would like to make a record that would make my dad proud.’ And that’s the root. I think he’s been chasing that ever since.”

Chris has obviously consistently put out some of the best music in the genre in the decade following the Traveller release, but of course, the magic of that album was like lightning in a bottle, so to speak, and I don’t think it’s possible to recreate because it was just so special, I can certainly see why he still seeks that same type of feeling with each project.

That type of generational album is typically the result of a perfect storm of inspiration, time in culture, and obviously a talented artist doing something no one has ever heard before, and if anyone can strike gold like that twice, Stapleton is certainly the man for the job. It’s an artists dream to somehow pull off what he did the first time, and very, very few ever do it at the level he did.

Again, I’m not saying subsequent Stapleton albums haven’t been fantastic, they all are, as we all well know, but there’s a reason Traveller shot him into the stratosphere and it will forever be one of my all-time favorites.

You can watch some of the interview below:

The post Chris Stapleton Wanted ‘Traveller’ To Be An Album That Would Make His Dad Proud: “He’s Been Chasing That Ever Since” first appeared on Whiskey Riff.