How Chris Stapleton’s groundbreaking performance of “Tennessee Whiskey” with Justin Timberlake changed country music for the better

Justin Timberlake has been in the news quite a bit lately, again for less than stellar reasons, but that doesn’t change the fact that he was undoubtedly part of the moment that Chris Stapleton from a great, behind-the-scenes songwriter to an absolute superstar of country music.

The “SexyBack” singer was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol in Sag Harbor, New York, on Monday evening. He claims he only “a martini” but the police officer on the scene (who did not recognize Timberlake because he was “too young”) told the story quite differently:

“His eyes were bloodshot and glassy, ​​his breath smelled strongly of alcohol, he could not divide his attention, his speech was slow, he was unsteady on his feet, and he performed poorly on all standardized sobriety tests.”

He was taken to East Hampton Police Headquarters before appearing in court and being released.

The biggest question on most of our minds was how the hell Justin Timberlake is still able to drive, especially after attending an event. But as with most celebrity run-ins with the law, this will most likely be settled out of court and everything will go back to normal.

And while NO ONE should get behind the wheel drunk… I don’t care how famous you are, how close to the track you are, or how many “just one drink” you’ve had, seeing JT on the news reminded me of when Stapleton and Timberlake teamed up to turn things around and overcome the plague of bro-country that dominated the mainstream for years.

CMA Awards 2015

At the 2015 CMA Awards, the country music world was still in the midst of the bro-country era, which was dominated by today’s defunct Florida Georgia Line Duo, but just when it seemed like all was lost, a knight in shining armor appeared to begin the process of slowly changing the genre for the better.

At that time, Chris Stapleton was well known in the country music community. He had written a lot of songs for Kenny Chesney, Miranda Lambert, George Strait and Tim McGraw and had written one of Luke Bryan’s best songs in “Have a beer”Dierks Bentley had even called him “probably the best singer in the world” in 2010, but his work was still relatively unknown to the general public.

He had a cult following as the lead singer of The Steeldrivers and the Jompson Brothers, but he was virtually unknown to mainstream audiences.

That was until he released one of the best solo debut albums of all time in May 2015.

Traveller generated a lot of initial buzz (country album at No. 2 out of the gate), but its singles didn’t make much money and by September it had disappeared from the Billboard 200. It looked like it would forever be relegated to the hidden gems that the old-timers talk about until he made an appearance at the awards show that changed the course of his career forever.

Chris was nominated for Album of the Year, New Artist of the Year and Male Vocalist of the Year, and although he won all three awards, it was a duet with pop star Justin Timberlake that people remember best.

The two, along with Chris’ wife Morganne, teamed up to perform “Tennessee Whiskey.” Co-written by Dean Dillon and Linda Hargrove, the song was originally released by David Allan Coe in 1981 and reissued by George Jones the same year, but never had the firepower it does with Stapleton at the helm.

After her performance Traveller Sales increased 6,000%, turning him from the favorite artist of your favorite artists into the favorite of millions of fans around the world.

The album was certified 6x platinum by the RIAA and has consistently remained one of the best-selling albums in the 8 years since its release. It currently ranks 14th on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart and peaks at number 13 on the 2023 Billboard Top Country Albums chart.

His sound paved the way for artists who bucked the trend of snap tracks and overproduced songs and found real success, including Zach Bryan, Tyler Childers, Cody Jinks, Hailey Whitters, Sierra Ferrell and many more.

While it can be argued that there were other moments that sparked a shift towards a better environment in mainstream country, this was undoubtedly one of the biggest, if not the biggest.