A Staple of Pop Culture

“He has become the rarest of rare 21st-century phenomenons: a monocultural star, at once deeply embedded in country music—niftily slipping through the raindrops of the genre’s many factions, divisions, and culture wars (albeit by not saying much about them)—and a collaborator with everybody from Adele and Pink to Justin Timberlake to Joy Oladokun. Country radio listeners, Americana heads, bros, traditionalists, neo-traditionalists, poptimists, critics, crowds—all claim some part of Stapleton as their own.” GQ: Is Chris Stapleton the One Thing That America Can Agree On? (As long as he doesn’t chime in with an opinion about the Middle East…)