If you’re gonna go ahead and try to cover Chris Stapleton, you better bring your “A” game.
Fortunately for Adele… all she has is “A” game.
Chris has written hits for some of country music’s finest including George Strait, Kenny Chesney, Josh Turner and more, but he also written songs for artists outside of country music. Artists like Justin Timberlake, Mike Campbell of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and of course, the great Adele.
Originally recorded with his band The SteelDrivers for their debut album in 2008, it was eventually cut as a bonus track for Adele’s award-winning 21 record.
During a live performance at Royal Albert Hall back in 2011, she referred to Chris Stapleton as having a voice like “caramel,” prefaced by a story about the great Dolly Parton and, you know… wanting to murder he ex-boyfriends.
“I f***ing love Dolly Parton and I read the most amazing interview today… she has the best lines ever. But I gonna do a cover now by a band called the SteelDrivers… fell in love with ’em, his voice is just incredible, it’s like caramel, it’s lovely.
I love this song, the sentiment is about killing his wife. I would certainly kill some of my ex-boyfriends for f***ing sure.”
Adele is a gem.
And how about a little solo acoustic performance from Chris himself.
Chris Stapleton & Adele Team Up For Bonus Version Of “Easy On Me”
I mean, we already knew…
As soon as we saw “Adele featuring Chris Stapleton” on the tracklist, we already knew it was gonna be fire. But Adele and Chris didn’t have to go this hard.
The Chris Stapleton version of Adele’s smash single “Easy On Me” is a Target exclusive, meaning that you have to buy the deluxe edition of her 30 album from Target to get your hands on it.
However… we managed to find it in the deepest caverns of the internet.
As two of the best vocalists in the game right now, this collaboration is just a match made in Heaven. I think some folks were expecting Chris to take the lead on a whole verse, and I won’t argue that it would’ve been great to hear, but Chris and Adele compliment each other SO well, sometimes less is more.
I don’t know if CMT is still doing that whole CMT Crossroads thing, but if Chris and Adele aren’t on the shortlist, you might as well shut the whole thing down.
Hand ’em a blank check and call it a day.