Chris Stapleton. Itās a name every country fan now knows. In the last year, heās 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 Chrisā name, but many fansāand country starsāare claiming to have āknown about Chris for years,ā a gag that Luke Bryan and Dierks Bentley got some laughs out of at this yearās ACM Awards.
Although Chris had fronted the bluegrass troupe The SteelDrivers from 2007ā2010 and written a handful of No. 1 hits, including Kenny Chesneyās āLoveās Gonna Make It Alrightā and Darius Ruckerās āCome Back Song,ā he was relatively unknown to the casual-country-music-loving world in 2013āthe year Luke Bryan recorded āDrink a Beer,ā a song that Chris co-penned.
Luke released āDrink a Beerā in November 2013 and dropped the music video in December, which featured footage from Lukeās performance at the 2013 CMA Awards, where he paid homage to his late brother and sister.
In the foggy background of the video, thereās a hairy guy in a cowboy hat who is singing backup: that man is Chris Stapleton.
Enjoy Chrisā performanceāand Lukeāsāin our Throwback Thursday video.
At a No. 1 party in 2014 celebrating the success of āDrink a Beerā and three other singles, Luke declared Chris Stapleton āThe Best Singer On Earth.ā