Chris Stapleton Doesn’t Like Putting Labels on Music: ‘You Should Evaluate Music Like You Do People’
He sat down with Steve Earle on his “Hardcore Troubadour Radio” show to chat about “From A Room: Volume 1.”
Chris Stapleton has become one of the best-selling artists in recent years since the release of his debut solo album, “Traveller,” in 2015. Expectations were high for the sophomore follow-up, and “From A Room: Volume 1” does not disappoint.
The GRAMMY Award winner sat down with Steve Earle on his “Hardcore Troubadour Radio” show in Outlaw Country to chat about the new record, working in the historic RCA Studio A room in Nashville, and their mutual guitar collecting habits. He also treated listeners to a performance of three solo acoustic songs, including a cover of Willie Nelson’s 1982 hit “The Last Thing I Needed The First Thing This Morning.”
During the interview, Earle asked Stapleton — who has reached a wide crossover audience with his unvarnished brand of Outlaw Country music — if he cared about genre labels.
“I always just want to call it music, you know,” Stapleton responded. “If you like it, great; if you don’t, go listen to something that you do like. I don’t know; I don’t want to put a label on it that makes somebody think that they automatically don’t like it. Or that they automatically like it. I think you should evaluate music like you do people, kind of based on your individual experience with that music and how you respond to each other. I don’t know. I don’t like labels on music. You’re right. I really don’t.”
