Chris Stapleton Earns His 2nd No. 1 With ‘Starting Over’

Chris Stapleton has officially earned his second No. 1 country song, topping the charts with his latest single, “Starting Over.” The song was written by Stapleton with Mike Henderson and topped the Mediabase country chart this week. It follows 2017’s “Broken Halos,” also written by Stapleton and Henderson, which became Stapleton’s first No. 1 as an artist.

“Starting Over” is the title track from the 42-year-old’s November album, and Stapleton recently told Katie Neal on Audacy Country’s Superstar Power Hour that though the song was climbing the charts, he hasn’t been able to see it resonate with fans since he hasn’t been able to play live shows due to the pandemic. “I haven’t gotten to watch [the reaction] really,” he says. “Because where you get to watch it, and feel it, is when you get to go play live or you get to talk to people,” he explained. “It’s not something that we’ve really gotten to do.”

“I look forward to that,” he added. “Finding out what it has meant to people or if it has meant something to people, hopefully, it does.” Stapleton recently postponed the start of his 2021 All-American Road Show, which was originally planned for 2020, pushing the first three dates from April 2021 to April 2022. The tour is now scheduled to begin on June 5 in San Bernardino, California.

“Starting Over” is nominated for Song of the Year at the ACM Awards this Sunday, and the album of the same name is nominated for Album of the Year. Stapleton is also nominated for Male Artist of the Year and Entertainer of the Year. The Kentucky native and his collaborators originally started working on Starting Over in 2018, taking a trip to Muscle Shoals, Alabama, where the power promptly went out.

Stapleton explained to Neal that he felt like there was a reason the lights weren’t coming back on. “It felt like this fight down there to try to get through it,” he recalled. “Signs of the universe telling us, ‘hey, you’re not supposed to be finishing this record,’ or ‘you’re not gonna finish this record now!’”

Ultimately, the singer and his collaborators put the project on the back burner and hit the road, eventually returning to the album. “I think it worked out,” Stapleton said. “The record, I think, is probably better for it.” The break gave him a chance to work on more songs and take a fresh look at others. “All of the things kind of fell into place a year later.”