When it comes to performing the national anthem, Chris Stapleton is the gold standard. Although, you’re probably never going to hear him sing it ever again/
There might be more pressure on the person singing the National Anthem at the Super Bowl than the halftime performer… those are so subjective, and how much you like it probably depends purely on how much you like the artist performing. And in some cases, love or hate for the halftime show falls along political lines, depending on how outspoken the artist is about whatever topic… it’s sad that something like the Super Bowl has become so divisive, but that’s life in 2026.
However, the “Star Spangled Banner” is a completely different thing, and a hard enough song to sing as it is… so when it comes to the biggest sporting event of the year, with millions of eyes on one person singing one of America’s most sacred songs, it’s just so hard to pull off. If you do a good job… well, you were supposed to. And if you screw it up, you go down in history for all the wrong reasons.
In 2023, country star Chris Stapleton delivered one of the most legendary performances of the National Anthem, that brought some of the coaches and players to tears, and many at home were blown away by how impressive it was. I mean, if you’re in conversation with Whitney Houston as the best to ever do it, you’re in pretty incredible company.
Chris has said before that he used to joke about singing the anthem at the Super Bowl, and now that he’s done it, he told Dale Earnhardt Jr. on an episode of his Dirty Mo Media podcast that he’s officially retired from doing it ever again:
“Oh yeah, I practiced that one. I don’t get nervous to play, necessarily… that one, I was like I’m gonna make sure I’m as prepared as I can be for this. I would have people ask me to sing the National Anthem for various things, and I jokingly always said, ‘No, I’ll just do it when it’s time to do it at the Super Bowl,’ you know.
And I just turned it down a lot, and I do say now that I’ve officially retired from it as well. And I have to give credit to, and I’m not saying my version wasn’t wasn’t good, I think it was good, but all the TV editing that they did while I was doing it was just spot on.
Everything that they did to make that moment feel as big and nice as it could, they did it. And they executed flawlessly. So, yes, I prepared for that and yes, I worked on that. Genuinely nerve-racking, and I was live live. There was no pre-record anything.”
Never once in my life have I ever thought Chris Stapleton has pre-recorded anything… he doesn’t need to.
To be fair, I understand why he is wanting to be done with it, and while I think he’d do a stellar job if he did it again even at another big sporting event, why push your luck when you don’t have to at this point, right? He already figuratively dropped the mic with it, so sometimes it’s best to just quit while you’re ahead.
Dale Jr. also asked if he was able to build confidence throughout the song:
“I do have a thing in my personality that the more pressure there is like that, it makes me focus more and I think that I realize that I was doing something good in the moment. I don’t know, I realized I was not messing up.
That was my goal, was to not mess up. Not mess up the words not flub a guitar lick or anything… that was my goal, was to get through it to a degree that, alright, I executed the national anthem without insulting the National Anthem.”
He said his team seemed happy with it, so he was content in knowing he didn’t blow it and could relax and watch the game:
“I think the people that were around me were real happy about it. Yeah, and so I was like, ‘Alright.’ And then I can drop my shoulders a little bit and go ‘Okay, I did the thing, let’s go watch the football game.'”
Little did he know, because Stapleton is always so humble, it would become one of the best of all time, and a performance anyone will have a hard time topping going forward:
The podcast clip:
