Throwback Thursday: Remember When Chris Stapleton Was That Hairy Guy in a Hat in the Fog Who Was Singing Backup for Luke Bryan?

Chris Stapleton. It’s a name every country fan now knows. In the last year, he’s won multiple Grammys, CMAs and ACMs. His debut solo album, Traveller, reached No. 1 on the all-genre Billboard 200 after his breakout night at the CMA Awards in November 2015.

Not only does every country fan now know Chris’ name, but many fans—and country stars—are claiming to have “known about Chris for years,” a gag that Luke Bryan and Dierks Bentley got some laughs out of at this year’s ACM Awards.

Although Chris had fronted the bluegrass troupe The SteelDrivers from 2007–2010 and written a handful of No. 1 hits, including Kenny Chesney’s “Love’s Gonna Make It Alright” and Darius Rucker’s “Come Back Song,” he was relatively unknown to the casual-country-music-loving world in 2013—the year Luke Bryan recorded “Drink a Beer,” a song that Chris co-penned.

Luke released “Drink a Beer” in November 2013 and dropped the music video in December, which featured footage from Luke’s performance at the 2013 CMA Awards, where he paid homage to his late brother and sister.

In the foggy background of the video, there’s a hairy guy in a cowboy hat who is singing backup: that man is Chris Stapleton.

Enjoy Chris’ performance—and Luke’s—in our Throwback Thursday video.

At a No. 1 party in 2014 celebrating the success of “Drink a Beer” and three other singles, Luke declared Chris Stapleton “The Best Singer On Earth.”

Blogs

WEDNESDAY, JULY 23, 2025

75-year-old Stevie Wonder isn’t going anywhere.  He says, quote, “For as long as you breathe, for as long as your heart beats, there’s more for you to do . . . as long as you let your mind work, you don’t have to retire.” Riley Green played the York State Fair in Pennsylvania on Sunday…

TUESDAY, JULY 22, 2025

Morgan Wallen is on tour and just completed two shows at Glendale Stadium in Arizona.  But he chose an odd way to hype up his night two crowd . . . He talked smack about his night one crowd. Here’s what he said to his night two crowd, “I didn’t know if I was ever…