Just like you might not have known who Chris Stapleton was before his breakout album “Traveller” took over the radio in 2015, the country singer had no idea who Adele was when she covered one of his hit songs.
At the time, Stapleton was the lead singer for the bluegrass group The SteelDrivers. Adele was famous (though not as famous as she is now) and was covering the band’s song “If It Hadn’t Been For Love” while touring for her album “19.”
“The head of Rounder Records, the label that we were on at the time, sent me an email and he said, ‘Hey man, Adele is covering ‘If It Hadn’t Been For Love,’ you should try to get your publishing company to try and get it on the record,” Stapleton told The Huffington Post during a recent phone interview.
“I was like, ‘That’s great, Who’s Adele?’” Stapleton said, laughing. “What a treat, what a great singer and artist to have cover one of your songs.”
According to an interview with The SteelDrivers’ Mike Henderson, the U.K. songstress allegedly first heard the song by chance when she was taking a smoke break on her tour bus.
“She and the driver got to talking ... He asked, ‘Do you like bluegrass?’ And she goes, ‘Well, I don’t know, I haven’t really heard a lot of it,’” Henderson said in a 2015 interview with Nashville Scene. “And he played The SteelDrivers record for her, and she fell in love with that song, and had her band learn it, and they started doing it.”
Adele was so enamored with the song, she ended up putting it on the U.K. release of her second studio album, “21.” No word as to whether or not we’ll hear a duo from the two superstars on Stapleton’s next album.
The country singer is currently on tour, but don’t expect new music from him anytime soon. Stapleton told HuffPost that he doesn’t really write on the road. He also remained mum on future collaborations with his pal Justin Timberlake, who’s reportedly making a country album.
Stapleton recently found time in his busy schedule to go play for the troops in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, over the 4th of July weekend. The singer presented $1 million check to Folds of Honor, a foundation that provides military scholarships, on behalf of Budweiser.
“It was a good time with the troops,” Stapleton said. “What a great thing we get to do.”
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