Chris Stapleton Is Not in a Hurry to Record Next Album

Chris Stapleton is one of the reigning hitmakers in country music, with his freshman Traveller album selling more than two million copies, and his recent From a Room: Volume 1 earning Stapleton a GRAMMY Award for Best Country Album.

After releasing From a Room: Volume 2 last December, the 39-year-old admits he doesn’t know what his next album will be, or when it will be released.

“I like the creative process, and I like to do things just because I like to do them,” Stapleton says. “I’ve got a couple of songs in some movies and some different collaborations with some people that are on the horizon. But as far as a project for me, I don’t know what that next thing is. It’ll probably be a minute, because two records in a year is a lot and sometimes you don’t know stuff like that until you do it, like, ‘Yeah, I’m gonna put out two records in a year.’

“It’s been great,” continues Stapleton, “and it was a good plan, and I’m real happy with the way things are turning out. But we’ll probably not be recording anything real soon. It may be a minute. We’ll tour off these two records. They’ve got a lot of life in ’em as far as touring goes, so I’m sure whatever the next right thing is to do will present itself, and then I’ll look at it dead in the eye and go, ‘Alright, let’s go.’”

The singer-songwriter has always lived by the belief that records should take time, and never be rushed.

“You can live and die by one single, but if you have albums people want to listen to, you have a much more effective way to have an audience because they can invest in more than one song,” Stapleton explains. “I feel like we go out and when we play shows it’s like we have 14 hits, because that’s what was on the record, instead of having one hit and 13 songs no one knew. I really like taking the time and thinking about the album and creating something I would want to listen to so hopefully someone else will want to listen to it, too.”

Stapleton will kick off the 2018 leg of his All-American Road Show with Marty Stuart and Brent Cobb later this year, and will also join the Eagles for a show in June in Arlington, Texas. Dates are available on his website.

Stapleton is nominated for eight ACM Awards, including for Male Vocalist of the Year, Album of the Year, for From a Room, Volume 1 and the night’s highest honor, Entertainer of the Year. The 2018 ACM Awards will air live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena on Sunday, April 15 at 8:00 PM ET on CBS.