Many Chris Stapleton fans are also fans of his wife, Morgane Stapleton, who is a creative collaborator of her husband’s and performs with him on stage. In a new interview with Cowboys & Indians, Stapleton discussed the importance of his wife’s input on his music, revealing that Morgane has the final say in what fans hear on Stapleton’s albums.
“My wife picks the songs,” he said. “Most of the songs are heavily influenced by things that she likes. She has excellent taste in songs.”
Chris Stapleton On The Connection He Shares With His Wife Morgane
Stapleton and Morgane met through music in 2003 while working as songwriters at the same publishing house, and Stapleton recalled his wife joking about the fact that he would ask her to write songs on a Friday night. “Some things are electricity,” he said. “Sometimes you just know those things intuitively about who your love interest is.”
“You can’t explain those things,” he continued, noting that “there’s an electricity to it.”
“I think when people talk about lightning striking this way, it’s not really like a bolt. It’s more like a buzz,” he said. “Those are the things that happen that aren’t really explainable. And then one day you wake up 16 years later, and you’re like, ‘Okay. I still feel kind of buzzed.’”
The couple married in 2007, and at 45, Stapleton has been with Morgane for nearly half of his life and, at 40, she with him for half of hers.
“We don’t necessarily remember it not being that way,” Stapleton said, adding that in addition to literally being a married couple, he and Morgane are also a married couple when it comes to their work. “And like anybody else, we might be getting on each other’s nerves or something,” he noted. “But if we’re away from each other for more than two days — because we do work, live, and raise children together — on the rare occasion we’re apart, we’re sort of like teenagers. We’re like, ‘I miss you,’ and, ‘I miss you too.’ And that’s a really sweet and wonderful thing.”
Advice He Hopes To Pass On To His Five Children
Stapleton and Morgane share five children, whose names they have not shared publicly to protect their privacy. Along with probable musical talent, the couple has passed down one important piece of advice to their kids that anyone can apply to their own life.
“The thing we try to impart on them is that it’s okay to be human. It’s okay to make mistakes, and owning those mistakes is important,” Stapleton said. “Here’s what I hope for my children: that they are the best parts of me and that they can overcome the worst parts of me. I want my children to be themselves, whoever they are. I want that for them more than I want it for me.”
Stapleton Takes His Work Ethics From His Father
The Grammy winner also revealed some life lessons he’s learned from his family members, though he admitted that his father’s work ethic is something he is trying to lessen in himself.
“My work ethic comes from my dad, and I’m not sure that it’s altogether healthy. I’m working on some work-life balance,” he said. “My dad was a coal miner. He worked long hours his whole life, and he died very young. I’m trying not to do that. That may be who I am in a lot of ways, and I think about him every day.”
Stapleton also credited his brother and sister for inspiring him without his even knowing it. “Sometimes you’re so close to whatever there is around you, you don’t even know what you’re learning from it. I have an older brother and a younger sister who both do great work in the world,” he said. “They’re so giving of themselves, and I admire that about them.”
