- 5/29/2025
Billboard cover star Chris Stapleton gets real in an intimate interview with Josh Brolin where he reflects on his musical journey about his roots and finding his voice. He dives into how he balances the demands of his professional ambitions with his personal life, the power of authenticity, and more!
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00:00We should have to stand up here and just hang out.
00:21Let's do it.
00:22Let's do it.
00:23Yeah.
00:24Let's grab this.
00:25This is where...
00:26You're gravitating that you're just sitting?
00:27I don't know.
00:28Where do you think?
00:29I don't care.
00:30I think we should start with a sit down and just talk.
00:32Sounds good.
00:33Tell me what this staircase is.
00:36What's on the other side of it?
00:37Nothing.
00:38Just like a mechanical stuff.
00:39A hot water heater.
00:40A hot water heater.
00:41It's all right.
00:42We shorted up.
00:43So perfect.
00:44Josh says, I think we should sit down and talk.
00:46Tell me it's fine.
00:47That didn't sound too good.
00:50It is a disco floor.
00:51It's a real one.
00:52Okay.
00:53We can disco on it if we need to.
00:55Yeah.
00:56It's disco.
00:57That is to cope.
00:58What's the thing that, like, most means something in this whole place?
01:03There's lots of things in here that mean things to me, instrument-wise.
01:06I mean, so there's a guitar that I wrote most of my songs on.
01:10I would love to see that.
01:11Woo!
01:12Yeah!
01:13I can't even woo properly.
01:15How did we get here?
01:16How did, why are we doing this?
01:18Well, I don't think either one of us are exactly sure.
01:21Right.
01:22But.
01:23I think that's accurate.
01:24I think it kind of started.
01:25You guys showed up to a show.
01:26Right.
01:27It was Ryman.
01:28It was a Ryman.
01:29It was.
01:30It was here.
01:31It never heard you before.
01:32You went.
01:33You started playing.
01:34And a guy who grew up with, you know, I grew up at the Palomino Club, listening to
01:39Mel Tillis, listening to Marty Robbins.
01:41Yeah.
01:42We had, you know, Waylon Jennings over at our ranch.
01:44We had, you know, I listened to George Jones my whole childhood.
01:47My mother was from Texas, big country western fan.
01:50And country western turned into something at some point, which was more poppy.
01:55It was just a different kind of pop.
01:57And I didn't respond to it the way I remember responding to it when I was a kid.
02:01And then you started playing.
02:03When I heard you play at the Ryman, I didn't know you.
02:08I hadn't met you yet.
02:09But I remember tears welled up in my eyes when you started.
02:12It was probably the second or third song.
02:14And I was like, the thought that I don't want to say it because it sounds so stupid.
02:19For me, country music had been saved.
02:27I told you.
02:28It sounds pretty stupid.
02:29I told you.
02:31I told you too.
02:33I told you.
02:34It sounds fucking stupid.
02:36I appreciate that.
02:37No, it's true, man.
02:38It's true.
02:39It means so much to me the type of music that you play because it reminds me of like going back and listening to Lightning Hopkins or Robert Johnson or something visceral.
02:51I know you're technically proficient, but there's something that you do that's extremely visceral that just gets me.
02:59And that's what I got from the old school country music singers that weren't in it for the money.
03:05They weren't playing to 90,000 people, even though you're playing to way more people than they played back in the Palomino Club or wherever it is they played.
03:13There was a root that they all shared.
03:16And I don't know if it was a destructive root.
03:18I don't know if it was a musical root.
03:20I don't know what it was.
03:21It was all of it.
03:22It was all of it.
03:23Yeah.
03:24It was all of those.
03:25So all that having said that, so where's your roots?
03:29Where are my roots?
03:30Yeah.
03:31Uncomfortable kid.
03:32I have to go there because this is how this is going to work, right?
03:34We just go wherever we're going.
03:35Yep.
03:36You're holding the wrong guitar.
03:37Hang on, I got to go get the right guitar for you.
03:38Really?
03:39Yeah, you're holding the wrong guitar.
03:40Wait, is there a better guitar?
03:41Yes, for you to hold, yeah.
03:42Really?
03:43Absolutely, after you told me what you just told me.
03:45Well, that's going to say a lot about how you feel about me.
03:52Whoa, look at that!
03:53Okay, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
03:55So you think of me, and this is the guitar you pull out?
03:59Well, that's Whites.
04:00Wow.
04:06Wow.
04:08Wow.
04:09It wasn't his number one, but it was one of his backups.
04:11It doesn't matter.
04:12Yeah.
04:13He touched it.
04:14There's his road case.
04:15You can see all the...
04:16Where'd you get that?
04:17What's the history of that?
04:18My wife got it for me.
04:19As a gift?
04:20Yeah.
04:21I mean, that's unbelievable.
04:22Yeah.
04:23That was his last...
04:24Yeah.
04:25He played that guitar maybe in the 90s.
04:26In the 90s.
04:27Yeah.
04:28I'm playing Waylon Janney's guitar.
04:29Pretty great.
04:30Pretty great.
04:31So tell me about your roots a little bit.
04:33Like how...
04:34Well, there's one.
04:35You know, like...
04:36Did you listen to him?
04:37Sure.
04:38My dad listened to, you know, Waylon Willie and...
04:40Yeah, me too.
04:41Things like that.
04:42But also, you know, kind of R&B, like Otis Redding and Ray Charles and stuff like that.
04:48Well, and I just brought it up to you.
04:49Lightning Hopkins, Robert Johnson, which is before that.
04:52Yeah.
04:53But all those people that you just mentioned were instruments.
04:54Well, everybody we're mentioning there is derivative of that.
04:57Blues.
04:58You know, like, even if we don't know that we're...
05:00Have that thread, if we're listening to somebody that had that thread...
05:03Right.
05:04And we're influenced by somebody that had that thread, that's where that's coming from.
05:07You know, Led Zeppelin squeezed my lemon until the juice runs down my leg from Robert Johnson.
05:11That's a Robert Johnson line.
05:12Right, right, right, right.
05:13You know, so...
05:14Let's see.
05:15What the fuck?
05:17Oh, my God.
05:19This is like Momoa and Choppers.
05:22Probably worse.
05:23I don't know how many Choppers he has.
05:25A hundred.
05:26Okay.
05:27Well, it's worse.
05:28It's worse.
05:29These are all guitars that you've either collected or that have meant something in your professional trajectory?
05:36Both.
05:37Yeah.
05:38You're a traveler.
05:39Okay, here it is.
05:40This is the one.
05:41This is the...
05:42Provided it's in here.
05:45God dang.
05:47You need to make sure it's in here.
05:52It's in this giant case.
05:56There it is.
05:57Wow.
05:58This is the guitar...
05:59Wow.
06:00That I bought when I moved to town.
06:02When you moved to Nashville.
06:03When I moved to Nashville.
06:05This thing.
06:06And so, if I had to walk out of here with one thing...
06:08It would be that.
06:09It would be this.
06:10Yeah.
06:11And all the other stuff.
06:13I would be sad about a lot of it, but whatever I've done, whatever I've made, or whatever I've turned into has pretty much been built on this thing.
06:26The roots are here.
06:27Yeah.
06:28Right.
06:29So, I would say 90% of the things I've ever written in my life have been on this guitar.
06:33Right.
06:34It's not precious in a collector way to anybody because it was in a flood at some point.
06:39There's mud inside it.
06:40You know, somebody used it as a canoe paddle or...
06:42Okay.
06:43You know, all this is...
06:44It's all...
06:45Yeah.
06:46There's a million crack repairs and...
06:48Yeah.
06:49If I were to walk out of here with one thing, if you want to know what's the most important thing in here...
06:52It would be that.
06:53It's probably this.
06:54This is the other thing.
06:55This is...
06:56I moved to town with this chair.
06:58I moved to town with this chair.
06:59You moved to town with...
07:00So, you're sentimental.
07:01Yeah.
07:02You are sentimental.
07:03I moved to town with this chair, I recorded in this chair, and have made every record in
07:08this chair.
07:09Let's sit right there.
07:19I tried to be everybody else but me.
07:21Wow.
07:22Like who?
07:23Vince Gill was one of them.
07:25Wow.
07:26But I don't sound like Vince Gill.
07:27Yeah.
07:28But...
07:29Because I could sing high and he could sing high.
07:30I thought, well, I can try to be like Vince Gill and I would sing Vince Gill songs or...
07:34But you are still so specifically you.
07:38I mean, there's no way to deny that it's you when you hear you.
07:44Well, the problem is I'm not great at impersonating people.
07:46You're not?
07:47Well, maybe that's what it is.
07:48Maybe that's what it is.
07:49Well, I do think that's part of it.
07:51Because, you know, like style is like the equation of technical ability and where your limitations
07:58kind of stop, you know?
08:00Yeah.
08:01Whatever that range is.
08:02Yeah.
08:03And if you get comfortable living in that range, that becomes your style of whatever it
08:08is you do on a guitar or singing or whatever it is, and then you're like, okay, I'm going
08:13to be the best version of me in that that I can be.
08:16So how do you challenge yourself beyond that?
08:18Like how do you challenge yourself musically now or have you found a comfort?
08:23Well, some of it is, well, we're sitting in the middle of a bunch of it.
08:28I try to find instruments I'm not comfortable playing.
08:33Really?
08:34Just guitars that don't feel natural to me or amplifiers that I've never used or a pedal
08:40or I want to make a song that sounds like disco Rolling Stones.
08:43Right.
08:44You know?
08:45Yeah.
08:46How close can we accomplish that mission without sounding like we're a bad cover band
08:51of a disco Rolling Stones?
08:52Right, right, right.
08:53And that's how you challenge, that's how I challenge myself.
08:57Like I lean into-
08:59Different sounds.
09:00Different sounds or lean into something that like, I like this.
09:03I've never done this.
09:04Right.
09:05I like these things.
09:06These are influences.
09:07Yeah.
09:08Maybe I can live here for a minute.
09:22The roots that he talks about are his father's taste in music.
09:33I remember very vividly sitting on the couch.
09:37One night we were just like, what are you doing?
09:39What are we doing?
09:40What are we doing?
09:41He wanted to find more meaning in it.
09:46On that couch, he's like, I would like to make a record that would make my dad proud.
09:49The Traveler album.
09:51What?
09:52And that is the root.
09:53I want to make a record that would make my dad proud.
09:56And that was it.
09:58Yeah.
09:59And I think he's sort of chasing that ever since.
10:03Yeah.
10:04I'm going to push it off just a little bit from the wolf.
10:06So I don't want to put this thing in.
10:27What is that drive for you?
10:29I'm looking for the buzz.
10:34You're looking for the buzz.
10:35I like that.
10:36You know.
10:37And what I mean by that.
10:38What's the buzz?
10:39Well, like, and I appreciate fans and all those things, but any fan that comes to our
10:44show will tell you, I don't look at them a whole lot.
10:46Hmm.
10:48Because I'm up here trying to tie the string between all these guys.
10:56And all that locks in and gets on autopilot.
10:59Then the string shoots out into the crowd and everybody's connected.
11:04And it's this kind of, I talk about it as a circle a lot.
11:07Like we send this thing out and it comes back to us, the energy.
11:12I'm looking for the buzz.
11:13There's some kind of other thing that happens when you're truly in the zone.
11:17Right.
11:18And you know.
11:19And that's the buzz I'm talking about.
11:21It's past some like heady version and it gets into like a viscera.
11:25Yeah.
11:26And you can almost wake up out of it.
11:27You can.
11:28Right.
11:29Yeah.
11:30And you're like, because you can be so far inside it that everything can disappear.
11:34Yep.
11:35Time can disappear.
11:36That's what it is.
11:37Everything disappears.
11:38Time can disappear.
11:39And.
11:40You're totally in the moment.
11:41You're in the moment, but you're also impervious to exterior.
11:44Yeah.
11:45Stimuli.
11:46Or any of it.
11:47Yeah.
11:48You know.
11:49That's what the gold is for me.
11:50Yeah.
11:51In music.
11:52That's all you got.
11:54Ultimately.
11:55Yeah.
11:56To get back to that place of like, if I'm not living in that place, I'm not fully.
12:00I'm not doing my job.
12:01I'm not meeting the mark for the people who bought a ticket.
12:05And I, and I, and I fall short a lot.
12:08Mm hmm.
12:09But every now and then I can do it.
12:15That's great.
12:16That's great.
12:17That's great.
12:30Go.
12:32Go.
12:33Go.
12:34Go.
12:36Go.
12:37Go.
12:38Go.
12:39Let's go.
12:41Pierre.
12:56Go.
12:57Bye.
12:58Go.
12:59like what point did you become you professionally i don't know i'm still trying to do it i haven't
13:09yeah i haven't yet i hope it's never fully realized you know so it is a thing that
13:15that's i'm shooting constantly and then somehow over the course of doing it doing it it'll it'll
13:23be there and you just know you found this thing where's my voice oh there's my voice
13:28can i get used to my voice is that every artist you think it's just like this is who i am
13:33and i'm going with it yeah have you ever played to what's the least amount of people you ever played
13:40to zero zero does the bartender count no yeah he has to be there zero zero how'd you how'd you like
13:49yourself uh a little bit better than i like the guy that booked it
13:55we had the transonic in here what's a transonic well the transonic is that amp right there that
14:06was behind uh led's up on one that short american first tower perfect that's just the craziest thing
14:13you could ever say that that that one that actual one yeah yeah yeah let's use that this is the firebird
14:23that pedi played before he bought a firebird really that he played all the time what year is that
14:2776 that's the boston turn that one you can tell by the eagle
14:30that was so good guys so good
14:34so good
14:36yeah
14:37yeah
14:39yeah
14:41yeah
14:43yeah
14:56yeah
14:56yeah
14:57what keeps you authentic do you have any choice in that you know what keeps you like
15:21do you have to be deliberate in it is it or does it just happen that's cool is whatever happens
15:30authentically you because it probably is like it's not escapable can't help but be it yeah right
15:38it's the same thing i was talking about maybe when you're trying to write a song like somebody
15:43else or something are you meaning what keeps you authentic and what keeps you grounded yeah just
15:49you know that's family and kids and those things are grounding yeah because no matter
15:55what i am to you know however many thousand people in an arena i'm just daddy to five people yeah
16:03and that's one of my favorite spots to be well home and oh and in dad mode oh you know even when it's
16:27hard and it is hard and i'm not good at it right in ways that i want to be you know like i mean i
16:37think i'm a good dad but i just i don't have the answers yeah i remember thinking my experience
16:43for my parents where i there was a moment in my life where i thought that my dad knew everything
16:47you know yeah and had it all figured out yeah and then that goes away and i don't know if i want
16:56that for my children for them to think that i'm this infallible thing yeah but i um i certainly want
17:04to respect who i am right and then also feel heard and i think working on that is probably the thing that
17:13is the most grounding if that's authentic if that's what there's a piece of me that's that
17:19there's a piece of me that's authentic i think it's there yeah you know because that
17:26that's really the bulk of who i am yeah now yeah you know and the music thing's always there
17:34it's always been there and i've done that work it's my work and my hobby and my passion and
17:40all kinds of ways but the thing that is authentically me is is those those five children
17:45that's it yeah it's all in that i learn more about myself because of my family than i could
17:54ever learn anywhere else because it's the most humbling place i can i get more humbled
18:01in my family and yet at the same time it brings me more joy yeah my oldest son always likes to
18:07tack 100 years onto my age and he thinks it's the funniest thing in the world he's like it's
18:12because you're 147 dad it's nice to know that he does that with a wink and with a smile and that's
18:20his that's our thing you know like i love that stuff yeah yeah and that's just me and him
18:24nobody else really does that nobody's attached himself to that no one else in the family really
18:29thinks it's that funny but you guys have that and that's all that matters yeah and he loves to
18:35kick my ass and something those are the things that are the authentic things that keep me authentic
18:41yes and that i want the most yeah of as much as i want the buzz of the music and i still want it
18:49yeah i want it maybe as much as i ever have i love that i have a healthy or unhealthy addiction to it
18:59in some ways i'm searching for the inspiration and all the things but the other stuff is the larger
19:05part and it's become the larger part has become the larger part yeah and that's what i'm thinking
19:10about when i get up in the morning ditto yeah thank you much
19:20is that the end thank you oh oh like a like a circle like a circle pod i pray god now
19:30get all this turns out fun and y'all may have more to talk about can we do it after we eat some chicken
19:37chicken or some shit yeah they're really good
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