Chris Stapleton Shares How His Daughter Changed His Songwriting Process
on Nov 22, 2023
Every songwriter has a unique process they use to write their tunes, and Chris Stapleton’s process recently changed thanks to his daughter.
Stapleton recently wrote a song called “What Am I Gonna Do” with fellow country singer Miranda Lambert. He planned to include the new song on his new album Higher, but he was having trouble remembering the whole song. The legend had to give Miranda Lambert a call to see if she could remember the song or still had a copy of it. After some digging, the “Tin Man” singer found a copy of it and that’s how it ended up on the record.
“That’s how it wound up on the record was she was kind enough to dig a little bit,” Stapleton shared.
Stapleton never wrote down or recorded songs as he wrote them.
Chris had a songwriting philosophy: He assumed that if they were good enough, he would remember them. No telling how many songs he has lost over the years due to not documenting them!
Stapleton’s daughter, Ada, recently entered the songwriting scene. Sometimes it takes someone close to us to change our minds, and Stapleton’s daughter did just that. The “Tennessee Whiskey” singer shared in a recent interview that he doesn’t live by his old songwriting motto anymore.
“My daughter was like ‘No, no, that’s not true. If you have something that you think is cool in a moment, just put it down.’” His daughter suggested using his phone to record melodies for the songs or write down the words.
“It’s okay to forget things and then come back to them and go, ‘Oh, that was cool’ and work on them some more,” Ada told her father. And we couldn’t agree more.
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“Higher” was recorded by Chris Stapleton more than 22 years after it was written.
The title track from Stapleton’s most recent album, Higher, may have been lost if it weren’t for documenting it somehow. The song sat in Stapleton’s collection of unrecorded songs for over 22 years until his wife convinced him to record it.
“The title track, ‘Higher’ is… what year is it? 22 years old, 23 years old?” Stapleton disclosed. “That song was on the first demo session I ever did when I moved to [Nashville] as a songwriter. I wrote that song by myself and it’s been hanging around ever since.”
Chris may have never recorded the song if it wasn’t for his wife. “I think I was probably afraid of it for a long time. My wife would always push for that song. She was like, ‘You should try that’ and I would be like, ‘I don’t know if I have it right now. I don’t know if I have it anymore,’” Chris said, referring to the impressive vocal range the song requires.
We can’t wait to hear the new songs Chris will release following this change to his songwriting process!
