Joe Rogan Experience #1049 — Chris Stapleton Transcript

Transcript

0:00 Ready? I listened to your last album. You were doing a lot of that. I mean, I don't want to fanboy out on you, but it's just such a classic, like, male voice, But what you do, I like. So I'm Is it on iTunes and all that jazz? No, yeah. You know? That must have been amazing. Man, Wrigley Field with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. to more people than we knew ever came to live shows.

3:20 Well, I mean everybody has their own thing, but I don't have like a hype guy doing that you need like the kiss guy the hottest band in the world i remember that when And I'm just like, you know. the whole time you're looking at jane simmons going yeah or not looking at him you know one That sounds horrible. is like doing the art and then now you're in the fame Olympics.

5:48 But it still all just comes from music, you know. I don't make music for that reason or to win awards or anything like that. Well, yeah, I hope not, you know. There again, I always, It's not a hard thing to navigate in that realm to me. she's like don't pull it back that curtain too much but you know if you want to pull it back want everybody else to tell you how to do it and what to do and when and where and why,

9:20 So it can become like the artistic equivalent of like a soulless corporate job where you just kind of get sucked into something. Well, I think the story was that, and I don't know if this is true or not, that there was supposed to be like a movie. and then try to discuss particularly somebody I think that was a colossal fuck up that I think is hilarious.

11:06 The only way I can become more successful is if I become someone else and make them successful. your face up there. You should have put a mask on. Just go. Well, I will watch it on YouTube. He had something called Ghost Tunes for a minute, I think. that he wants his albums played from one continuous work let people do whatever they want So how did you get, quote unquote, discovered as a singer?

13:59 And how many years did you do that for? like you get a year and they get an option or two It can be if you have a bunch of songs on the radio. And some people will argue, this is a conversation that Sergio and I will have, the commerce paying for the art, I guess, in that, which I'm a firm believer in. And some people will argue this is a conversation that Surgil and I will have, the commerce paying for the art.

15:51 And I'm just as interested in that as I am in doing my own thing a lot. It can be, you know, whatever comes up that day. And from there, you can kind of grow this thing into whatever it is supposed to be. So you're just kind of walking around unconsciously. Do you sometimes sit down with a blank slate? dates but you know you you find out pretty quickly uh how you can just kind of uh particularly when

18:36 You know, and you have to be not nice a little bit to each other. driving down through the desert on Interstate 40, did you record it? I'm on the phone publishing company i write for you know and they're all you know uh you know accounted for Wow, no kidding. Dude, love that song. We have Brent Cobb and Margo Price and Anderson East and Marty Stewart.

21:11 Well, birds of a feather flock together. I'm not sure. He was with Honey Honey. I'm a serious consumer. creative engines and, you know, just getting the gears turning and pulling these things out. And I like songs that allow you to take ownership of them and make them personal to you. That's the thing that makes a song complete i don't feel like they're even done until somebody listens to it and attaches to it

24:42 Yeah. What I was thinking specifically of was Amy Winehouse. And then she still, you know, was something to it there was like almost a fatalistic acceptance of her own fate or something like a requirement that they are a little bit out there. seem to produce some of the most insane music ever. But I don't know if that's true, but you're saying that very thing. You look back at history of rock and roll and music in general,

27:52 Yeah, it's like there's no safety net in that kind of music. I don't have any of those issues. I mean, there can be healthy addictions. But, yeah, it's – and focus. Like, um, see if you can find that video that I've put up on my Instagram way back when with Well, that is him, but it's also everybody that's before him. But then he can do Hendrix and be crazy and psychedelic too.

31:33 Yeah. I just felt like I'd seen something. You've got to get on Freddie King. I've never heard of Freddie. Okay. i just listen to johnny hooker i have so much john lee hooker on my phone i have no room for How fortunate do you feel? I think I'm the luckiest guy in the world, but I'll let you slide. And you don't really, you work, Yes. It's pure. All right.

35:06 There's so many great musicians in jazz. where I get to go hop into somebody else's space and see if I'm helpful. whether it's in music. That's all I do, pretty much. Me too. Spinning tackle? so much great great literature attached to fly fishing but not to spin tackle and it's true Yeah. And the and the and this and please forgive me fishermen out there if I'm

38:34 And then when I got into trout fishing, I eventually moved on to fly fishing Which is easy. Yeah. I mean, I used to let a lot of them go. thing that happens when you catch a fish you've seen like i've seen with my little kids um i've in this little pool and drag it with the current and get that nasty trout to bite onto it but you So no one goes fly fishing with no hook.

41:25 You're trying to ruin fishing for all catch and release fishermen. Like why? A good percentage. It's the regulations. But they still want that feeling. We used to eat a lot of insects. You can take that little fucker, dry him out, and put him on a wall somewhere. talking to me about the ant problem that they have. And I was like, hold up. This is odd.

44:38 But if she was like, if she had like cats that she was killing with a baseball bat, that human beings used to be insectivores. And so cricket protein is very popular today. And apparently they taste pretty good. And then she was like, it's pretty good. There's the cricket bars. for a cow. You only get six grams of protein for a hundred grams of water or a hundred gallons of

46:48 No, it's all good. It was a little, they were like a, almost like a soy sauce based or some sort of a salt based. Yeah, we found that out because we made a dude eat roaches. Yeah, it's not fun. No, no. Who's also like a real extraordinary chef. I live south of Nashville, Tennessee. Yeah. You know? It could be arson. I don't know. that you would have to think about that. I mean, think about all these human beings, and there's one or two or whatever the number is that are so tortured and so in pain and so fucked up.

51:12 I watch all these guys on the news up on the roofs trying to save their property or firefighters putting themselves in harm's way or guys flying helicopters dumping water in zero visibility conditions. without them, like I talked to a firefighter once, it freaked me the fuck out. He was saying, pretty hardcore yeah we i mean we changed our route to get over here today just to get it

52:44 Thank you. But when they study the Boston Tea Party, they get to go look at all the stuff in Boston. I think to them, they're young enough that it just seems like, They don't have real – they don't have anything else to compare it to. But some things logistically that doesn't make any sense. So I love to play shows. I know Sturgill had to do that like that for a while.

55:17 Only he convinces himself of anything. So he felt like what – I think all his years of working regular jobs, you know, working on the railroad and doing all the shit that he had to do, when success came, he was like, Jesus Christ, I've got to keep this fire going. But, you know, we're all human beings and we all have limits. I mean, I sing pretty hard, too.

56:24 Three shows is kind of the limit. Do you ever have a greedy McMoney Bags agent that's like I can play every day of the week. Wow. But that's not me. Three shows is kind of the limit. Not going to hurt you, Christopher. Is that like requisite? do you feel that that place has a certain energy to it as well, though? It does have an energy to it, and it has had an energy to it,

58:18 a sudden think it's a good idea to move to nashville yeah well that's what i had heard i'd So that's where you live. Bobcats and turkeys. And then people said, oh, I heard this is a music environment. Okay. Yeah, I don't think that that's really – that's some kind of Mayberry version of what Nashville is. When I was in Boston, when I first started out doing stand-up,

1:01:16 And from my friends like Honey Honey and other people that I know Sorry, Nashville, if you feel like I'm talking about you, but it's there's a thing now where you go downtown and it's it's more like you're going to a giant bachelorette party or something. But it also changes some notions of that romantic thing that you're talking about. Those things still exist, but they have to be like a lot of things that have soul.

1:02:47 I'm forcing you into this. got into this thing. Right. You know, and sometimes people get, it happens, comedians in a big way. It's been surrounded by the wrong people with the wrong influences and they have the wrong focus. Yeah. i play music with and then the girls we're going to sit in the room what are we going to do what I don't know. Oh my God, is he going to get it?

1:06:26 things that have won you can tell that the win is tainted by the political climate that the people The whole idea of the thing is supposed to be the art. Do you want Mike? Yes. why susan boyle was so famous right yes we saw this woman everybody was doubting her she goes You know? right? Yes. Yeah, we used to have Nashville Now and things like that.

1:09:07 I think someone needs to just make it. Something along those lines, some sort of a show, a variety show, No what is that And he does it I love Mike Judge and shot up a demo ad that was next and are telling these stories. and and and knowing how many great characters and storytellers exist in country music and have existed, It's awesome. I like, you know, I like kind of science fiction based things.

1:12:17 Do you have some grand plans? And hopefully the next few years will just be a continuation of that. Do you get young guys coming up to you, young girls coming up to you Yeah, well, I think that's, you know, Be you and be nice, you know. And and then you slowly but surely get to meet people who are successful in different facets of it. Not just talented, but nice.

1:16:01 And that's how you learn how to write songs. I used to think that. Like, really good. But that doesn't mean that whoever you are right now is who you're going to be five years from now This is my thought. was not funny at first, they at least knew that they weren't funny and had to get better at it? if you're not aware of how they're taking you in when you're communicating with them

1:19:09 your realization of how they're perceiving your thoughts and ideas Yeah. Right. Do you, like, how much of the stuff that you actually write becomes a song that you publish? But I'm just trying to see if there's parallels between, because comedy is probably 10 to 1. some of the ones that aren't there just to kind of flush them out. Do you ever come back to your stuff like like sort of almost like come back to it

1:22:40 Interesting. Does everybody do it that way? And they've written some songs that I think are fantastic, and I really do appreciate them. Right. There's a, you know, some guys can't do it without it. You know, like creating a song, it's like it's a blank sheet of paper. Right. I've started adopting that. Did you? I used that probably works in comedy. Yeah. I've started adopting that.

1:25:36 But not too high. well, if you fucking show up late and you get fired, You know? Right. And then for for comedy, it's a lot about getting in front of the crowds. before anybody ever got a chance to see it. Like in life? way to do it right to just live a happy fulfilled life and mind that happy fulfilled life for ideas rather than chase interesting things with a specific intention of turning them into creativity

1:29:20 And this is no lie. And it turned out to be fine. That's pretty badass. Yeah, I think that might be the formula just if you can just do things that you find interesting and just have those as Go be in a bluegrass band and you'll get a pop cut on the biggest pop star in the world. It's interesting to me. Yes, absolutely. playing the guitar is one of those things

1:32:49 you know new space to live in on it and and then it's and it's the coolest thing in the world to you see it in all things and that this this place that you're talking about like these new level places All of a sudden they're funny. There's no, there's never an end to it. You have to be, like like way obsessed with one thing yeah