Hasn’t 2020 just been amazing?
Between a WWIII scare, natural disasters, a fucking global pandemic, murder hornets (what happened with them?), riots, aliens, the death of Kobe and many others in the country music community… 2020 has been an absolute shit show.
And on top of all of it, we’re currently in the most divisive political climate of my entire lifetime. People everywhere are pissed off, arguing about anything and everything, and even the stupidest of conversations gets overly politicized. Empathy, compassion, patience, understanding, dialog, even truth… hell, that’s all out the window.
And now, even the universally loved Chris Stapleton has the target on his back.
In a recent interview with CBS This Morning (which has since been removed from YouTube), Chris Stapleton chatted with Anthony Mason about life during COVID, biking in the woods, his new song about the Las Vegas shooting, the upcoming album and more. But when Anthony asked Chris for this thoughts on the black lives matter movement, many “fans” couldn’t wait to throw their Stapleton records in the garbage.
Here’s a recap of the conversation.
Anthony asked if the music industry should be doing more right now:
“I think everybody should be doing more. There’s a very broad awakening I guess that’s come about and It’s time for me to listen. And it’s time for other folks to listen.”
Chris then said that his perspective has changed since the start of the protests.
“Oh for sure. You know, I thought we were living in a different country. And that’s 100% real. I feel like the country that I thought that we were living in was a myth. I think we all got a lot of work to do, as individuals and as a society, and if you don’t think that I think you’re not looking.”
Mason concluded that part of the conversation asking Chris: “Do you support Black Lives Matter?”
“Do I think black lives matter? Absolutely. I don’t know how you could think they don’t.”
You can watch the full interview below:
And those comments, which in their totality seem pretty far from inflammatory, set off a firestorm in Chris Stapleton’s mentions.
Used to like you. Now me and everyone I know despises you.
— Bobby Stewart (@bstew5976) September 4, 2020
I absolutely loved your music from the very start and it pains me to delete it all now. You had a moment to stand up for all the good, hard working folks that still believe in our country, police and military, but you caved like a house of cards and pandered to the BLM mob. Sad.
— Warning Shot (@WarningShot4) September 2, 2020
Bummed…I liked your music. America is not a myth and “systematic racism” is a political myth. You need to learn the facts.
— JayB (@JayB47509826) September 2, 2020
Yeah man! Chris fucking cucked out! I can’t believe this!
— The Cuck Slayer (@TheeCuckSlayer) September 2, 2020
Unfortunately hes not the only one, 90 percent of these artist despise the people they entertained. GOD fearing Americans that love country music have been conned
— steven teifke (@STeifke) September 2, 2020
Was a fan. Now I’m Honored to stop listening to any product you put out. Stay woke!
— Mark M Cardwell (@mMcardwell) September 2, 2020
Literally threw his cd’s out of my window while driving today. Hopefully a bird will shit on them.
— wackattack69 (@wackattack69) September 5, 2020
And it goes on and on and on like that…
The comments on Instagram were no different.
And I’m sure he’ll continue to get comments much like Eric Church still does when it comes to guns, but can we all just pause for a second and take a look at what he actually said?
To sum it all up, Chris said that we all need to do more to make this world a better place, he admitted that was ignorant to the racial problems this country is still facing, and he said that the lives of black people matter. And while I never like to get political on here, I’ll just say this… if you don’t turn on the news and see that the world is broken, and that we all need to come together and fix it, we’re even more fucked than ever.
Of course, plenty of other folks showed up in support of Chris including Jason Isbell.
Sturgill Simpson also vouched for the character of Chris after a so-called “fan” said she was replacing all of Chris’ music with his:
“Oh man..gonna be sooo disappointed 😂😂😂
“Chris Stapleton is an absolute diamond of a human being and the true leader Nashville and Country Music deserves.”
…and he proved it once again this morning. From first hand experience I can say with absolute certainty that the only people he’s gonna lose are the exact same people Ive been trying to run off for the past four years..because they literally ruin it for everyone else in attendance.
And to all the “artists” out there shadow pandering to both sides with your fence sitting “King Solomon” bullshit to avoid losing sales….we see you.
(Comments disabled to spare us all from “them”)”
Chris’ upcoming album Starting Over is set to drop on November 13th. Something tells me it’s gonna sell just fine…