Chris Stapleton just dropped his 4th studio album, Starting Over, and like everything else he does, it’s downright phenomenal.
But prior to its release, some fans were calling for a Chris Stapleton boycott.
Back in September, Chris joined CBS This Morning for an interview on everything from COVID and biking in the woods, to his new song about the Las Vegas shooting, the upcoming album and more. But when Anthony Mason asked Chris for this thoughts on the Black Lives Matter movement, people were not happy with Chris’ answer.
Long story short, Anthony asked for Chris’ thoughts on a few questions regarding the protests that were popping up in cities and towns all across the country, ultimately concluding with: “Do you support Black Lives Matter?”
Chris rephrased the question and answered in the affirmative.
“Do I think black lives matter? Absolutely. I don’t know how you could think they don’t.”
It was pretty obvious that Chris didn’t want to conflate the organization Black Lives Matter, with the inarguable idea that the lives of black people matter. So if you paid close attention to what he was saying, and how maneuvered through the question, it shouldn’t have been very controversial at all, but this is 2020 where all bets are off…
Folks were vowing to never listen to his music again, throwing his CDs in the garbage, they were calling to have him removed from the Farm Aid lineup, and more.
And now, in a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times, Chris says that he doesn’t regret what he said, but admits that it does hurt when people spew hate.
“I don’t have any regrets about saying anything that I said. But I’m a human being, it hurts if somebody wants me to go to hell.”
However, Chris doesn’t think any less of his audience in light of the backlash.
“Look, you’re talking about a very small percentage of people that listen to my music. And some of those people aren’t even people, they’re robots. I don’t mean that as a metaphor. They’re actual bots meant to modify our behavior.”
“I think it’s important that we live in reality and not in that social-media space, where the most hateful voices get the loudest megaphone. But I feel sorry for people that think anything I said was offensive. I’m sorry they lack the capacity to approach things as human beings.”
If you haven’t picked up a copy of Starting Over yet, you’re going to want to get on that. I won’t call it the album of the year just yet, but it’s easily in the running.
