Chris Stapleton Reveals Upcoming Song Was Written After Las Vegas Mass Shooting

Chris Stapleton is releasing his new album, Starting Over, on Nov. 13, discussing the project in a recent interview with CBS This Morning. While the country star didn’t divulge too many details about his new album, he did share that one of the songs, “Watch You Burn,” was written in the aftermath of the 2017 mass shooting at the Route 91 Harvest festival in Las Vegas.

The song, which Stapleton says was “therapeutic” to write, begins with the lyrics, “Only a coward would pick up a gun, and shoot up a crowd trying to have fun.” To CBS This Morning, Stapleton said, “It’s a powerful number, to me, that conveys the sentiment, ‘Hey let’s cut the evil s— out…’ It’s a plea in some ways.” The Grammy winner recorded much of Starting Over at RCA Studio A in Nashville and is continuing his work with producer Dave Cobb, who has been at the helm of the singer’s most recent projects.

“Recording, to me, is, you’re trying to capture magic, you know, as much as you can… the magic of a moment,” Stapleton said. The 42-year-old also credited his wife, Morgane, for knowing when a song has that special something. “And she’s not wrong,” he noted. “Me and Dave Cobb may be listed as producers on the record, but my wife is generally the producer of my life… I used to say she has excellent taste in everything but men.”

Stapleton released Starting Over‘s title track as its first single last week and admitted that “of course” he worried about putting out music amid a global pandemic. “I think everybody has doubts about everything they’re doing in every moment right now,” he said.

Aside from his own work, Stapleton also discussed the current state of the country and shared that he has seen a “broad awakening.” “I think everybody should be doing more,” he said. “It’s time for me to listen. And it’s time for other folks to listen.” Much of the recent protesting in the United States has been focused on the Black Lives Matter movement, which Stapleton said he supports. “Do I think Black lives matter?” he asked. “Absolutely…I don’t know how you could think they don’t.”

The musician added that he “thought we were living in a different country. And that’s 100% real,” Stapleton said. “I feel like the country that I thought that we were living in was a myth.”

“I think we all have a lot of work to do, you know, as individuals and as a society,” he added. “And if you don’t think that, I think you’re not looking.”