Name: Joe Rogan Experience #1049 - Chris Stapleton
Uploaded: 2017-12-07T00:38:39.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Joe Rogan Experience #1049 - Chris Stapleton' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2017-12-07. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Joe Rogan Experience #1049 - Chris Stapleton' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2017-12-07. Transcript available.

Joe Rogan Experience #1049 - Chris Stapleton

Ready.
Boom, and we're live.
What's up, man?
How's it going?
Pleasure to meet you.
Pleasure to meet you, yeah, man.
I'm a fucking huge fan of yours.
Well, thank you very much.
I listened to the last album.
I've listened to that fucking thing hundreds of times.
I listen to it all the time when I'm headed to the comedy store.
Puts me in a good mood.
Well, that's good.
That's what music's supposed to do.
I'm just stunned by the fact that for the longest time,
you were basically doing the songwriting thing.
You were doing a lot of that.
You were making your own music,
but you were known more as a songwriter.
Yeah, well, you walk through the doors that are open.
Yeah.
So you do the things that come up,
and somewhere in the middle of all that,
you find out what your thing is.
But God damn, your voice is so good, man.
Thank you.
I mean, I don't want to fanboy out on you,
but it's just such a classic male voice,
singing those kind of songs.
It's like, I'm glad someone's still doing it right.
Oh, well, I don't know.
Thank you.
I'll just say thank you.
I don't want to say I'm doing it right
and somebody else is doing it wrong.
Well, for me, it's not.
I'm doing what I do.
But what you do, I like.
Yeah, thank you.
So I'm just happy there's someone out there
doing what you're doing.
Thank you.
And what is going on with you right now?
You've got a new album that's about to come out.
We've got a new album that came out December 1st,
and yeah, we're proud of it,
and I hope people like it.
Is it on iTunes and all that jazz?
It's on iTunes.
Yeah, you can get it everywhere.
The music is available, as far as I know.
That's what they tell me.
How have the doors opened up for you now?
Does everything feel like, oh.
Yeah, we're sitting here talking on it.
Everything's good.
No, yeah.
I mean, beyond good.
Good would be the understatement of the century
for, you know, just so many things that sound like fake,
you know, like fake life.
Yeah.
You know, things that happen, phone calls you get,
people you meet, people you get to talk to.
Like what?
Shoot, man.
Just any of it.
Just, you know, getting to go play.
This past year, we played three shows
with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
Oh, man.
You know?
That must have been amazing.
It was amazing.
We played Wrigley Field with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
Holy shit.
Yeah.
Wrigley Field.
How many people was that?
I don't know.
It was a bunch, but it felt just as cool
as it sounds like it should, you know?
Wow.
Man, Wrigley Field with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
It doesn't get any cooler than that.
Not to me it doesn't, you know,
but, you know, maybe there's something else.
So how long has success been happening?
Like two years now?
To the degree that it's happening right now,
you know, probably since, you know, 2015.
A couple years of Good Strong.
We're going on three of, you know,
doing playing shows to more people
than we knew ever came to live shows.
So, yeah.
It's been, you know, a strange, life-altering thing.
When you hear, ladies and gentlemen,
please welcome Chris Stapleton.
Yeah!
What is that like?
To freak you out?
Well, we don't usually do money announcements like that.
We just kind of walk out there and play.
That's the move.
Yeah, we don't hype them up too much.
We just kind of walk out there and fire up.
Ah, that might be the way to do it.
Well, I mean, everybody has their own thing,
but I don't have like a hype guy doing that.
You need like the Kiss guy.
The hottest band in the world!
I remember that when I was a kid.
I went to see Kiss Live a bunch of times.
He'd get so fucking pumped up at the beginning
because he would go,
the hottest band in the world!
I've never seen Kiss Live,
but Gene Simmons did show up to a show of ours one time.
Did he really?
It was the weirdest thing ever.
He's standing...
We were in New York somewhere
and he just happened to be in town
or he played the night before
wherever we were playing
and he showed up and just to say hi
and here's Gene Simmons on the side of the stage
before we go play our gig
and I'm just like,
you know...
Really?
Yeah.
It's one of those moments we're talking about.
You ask about people...
That was one of them.
It was like,
hi, Gene Simmons.
Gene Simmons came to see me one time
a few years back
at New Year's Eve
at the improv.
Him and his family
came to see me New Year's Eve
and I was fucking legitimately nervous.
So the whole time
you're looking at Gene Simmons going...
Yeah.
Or not looking at him,
you know,
one way or the other,
you know...
It was so odd.
Yeah.
It was like,
you know who I am?
How the fuck is that possible?
It's strange stuff, man.
So this...
But I love talking to people
that are like a year,
two years into the situation
you're in right now
where you're just kind of
getting settled into it
where it still seems like Fantasyland.
I'm not sure that it would ever
not seem like Fantasyland
because I spent enough years
not in Fantasyland
to realize that it's in Fantasyland.
You could be.
You could be like 71 day
on cocaine,
15 ex-wives.
God, I hope not.
That sounds horrible.
But it seems like it happens
to a lot of folks, right?
Well, maybe.
Yeah.
I'm going to hope not me.
Yeah, I hope not you too.
Yeah.
I mean, you seem like
you could avoid it.
Seems like a horrid existence.
Well, there's a balancing act,
I think,
with any great musician
or any great artist, really,
is like doing the art
and then now you're
in the Fame Olympics.
Like you're in this weird thing
where, you know,
you're going to win Grammys
and you're going to have
platinum albums
if they still have those anymore
and you're going to
be on these talk shows
and people are going to...
It's a different animal now.
Well, yeah.
Yes and no.
No.
For me, I mean,
I still...
Whatever we have
is because we concentrated
on the music
and let the music lead
and so trying to do anything
other than that.
You know,
I'll have fun
with some of the stuff.
You know,
if somebody wants me
to do a bit on a show
or something,
I'm fine with that.
That's cool.
But it still all
just comes from music,
you know,
and it's all...
The focus is always
going to be the music
and anything other than that,
you know,
there's never,
in my mind,
any focus on trying
to stay famous.
Does that make sense?
Yes,
and I knew you were
going to think like that.
Yeah.
I'm very happy
you said it that way.
I don't make music
for that reason
or to win awards
or anything like that.
I make it because
I like it
and hope that it's good.
Well,
it's very clear
in your music itself
that that's what you're doing.
Very clear.
It's very clear
that that's pure,
that it's just
this is what you do
and you're concentrating
on that
and it's not,
there's nothing disingenuous
about it.
There's nothing
pumped up or fake or...
Well,
yeah,
I hope not,
you know.
I know,
right?
That's the...
Yeah.
But,
I mean,
it's got to be
a weird world.
I mean,
the world of the music
business is a very,
very strange world.
I've talked to a lot
of musicians
and,
you know,
navigating the world
of commerce
and music
and...
There again,
you know,
I always,
if you just simplify it down
to let the music lead
and let that
kind of be
always the focus,
it's,
for me,
that makes it real
easy to not make
what I think
were decisions
you would regret
or feel like
weren't you.
So,
as long as that's
the focus,
that's okay.
You know,
all that other stuff
just kind of becomes,
you know,
external noise
that,
you know,
will all,
it doesn't matter.
You know,
it's not a,
it's not a,
it's not a hard thing
to navigate
in that realm
to me.
To you?
To me,
no.
But you must see
it being a difficult
thing for some folks
that you know,
right?
Sometimes,
you know,
some people,
but some people,
you know,
care very much
about,
hmm,
this is a,
this is a,
you're the first person
to ever get me
in dangerous waters
like I'm talking
about people.
Oh,
we don't have to
name names,
I'm sorry.
No,
well,
and I don't want
to sound judgmental
in what I'm saying.
My wife calls this
pulling back the curtain
too much.
She's like,
don't pull back
that curtain too much.
But,
you know,
if you want to pull
it back,
I know that you're like,
you're the guy that likes
to pull back the curtain.
I think it's good
to look back there
sometimes.
see what the fuck
the monsters are up to.
Well,
yeah,
I mean,
I think,
I think if you,
if you roll up
into the music business
or,
you know,
this is my experience.
If you roll up
into wanting to make records
and wanting to be
in the music business
and wanting to make
a living playing music,
having absolutely
no opinion
of what you want to do
or who you are
or how you do it
and you want
everybody else
to tell you
how to do it
and what to do
and when
and where
and why,
then yeah,
it can be
a confusing thing
because there will be
a lot of external opinions
that aren't yours
that will create
someone that is not you
that you will have to play
for the rest of your life.
So,
was that a lot of information
in that moment?
No, that's right.
So,
you know,
but as long as you're doing things
that are you
and do come,
you know,
from you
and from who you are
and what you like to do,
that's never a wrong decision
and sometimes that doesn't add up
to,
most of the times
it doesn't add up
to some kind of commercial success
but,
you know,
at least you can look at yourself
in the mirror on it
and not hate whatever it is
you have to go out
and play every night.
Right.
Right.
Like,
so it can become
like the artistic equivalent
of like a soulless corporate job
where you just kind of get
sucked into something
you wind up doing it
for a living
maybe it makes you money
but you never really
get to be yourself
because you're sort of
programmed into this thing
that they've sort of
manufactured.
Yes.
Yeah,
well,
or you ignore
some other passion
or talent
that you have
under the guise
of it seeming risky
or irresponsible
and try to go do this thing
that seems like
in your mind
is the normal thing to do.
Like when Garth Brooks
put on that wig
and pretended to be
that other dude.
Remember that part?
Do you remember that thing?
I do remember that thing.
I love that.
I love when someone goes like,
whoa, whoa,
way off the reservation.
Well,
I think the story was that
and I don't know
if this is true or not
that there was supposed
to be like a movie.
Yeah,
they did a documentary.
They did a behind the music
about this fake guy.
But I think the idea was
that we're supposed
to be a movie.
There it is.
Chris Gaines.
And then like this was supposed
to be like the soundtrack.
But I think the mistake,
if there was a mistake
and I'm not going to try
to discuss Garth Brooks.
You're such a nice guy, Chris.
Career in the realm
of making mistakes.
Well,
you know,
who am I to judge anybody
on what they do?
Particularly somebody
who is as successful
as he is.
I love I Got Friends
in Low Places.
Yeah, me too.
I love a lot of Garth Brooks music.
I'm not a Garth Brooks hater.
I think that was
a colossal fuck up
that I think is hilarious.
And if Garth was here,
I'd pull that up.
And I would tell him
I loved him.
And I would say,
come on, dude,
what the fuck
were you smoking back then?
Like, who talked you
into this?
Well, you know,
I will say,
I think at the time
that he did that,
he had to be into
what in the world
else can I do?
The only way
I can become
more successful
is if I become
someone else
and make them successful.
Yeah.
Like, he was so successful
and still is
in that space
that he can't be
any bigger than he is.
Like Stephen King
when he used to write
as Richard Bachman.
Do you remember that?
No, I don't.
I'm not aware of this.
Yeah, he wrote a bunch
of books under a pseudonym
because he was so gigantic
that he decided
to write some books
under a different name
so that people
would sort of appreciate
the work for what it was
instead of as a Stephen King book,
I think.
Right.
Or just maybe even
as an exercise.
Right.
Well, I think very much
that's what it is.
Yeah.
You know, I would look at it
very much the same way.
Of course, it's kind of hard
whe