Chris Stapleton Recalls His Big 2015 CMA Awards Night

Chris Stapleton backstage at the 49th CMA Awards
(Photo credit: YouTube)

The 51st CMA Awards take place tonight in Nashville and Chris Stapleton recalls the night two years ago when things changed dramatically for him at the CMA Awards.

Chris remembers the night in 2015 when he went from being a country music songwriter-singer to a superstar in the industry. “Everybody can point to the CMAs of 2015 for me,” he recalls, “That night was a magical night for us, you know. Everything kind of came to this head where everybody and their brother, for whatever reason, voted for us to win some of those awards.”

It wasn’t just the awards won, but it was also an amazing collaborative performance that he did on the show with pop-superstar Justin Timberlake. “We played that thing with Justin,” Chris reminisces, “and he was kind enough to come do that and everything.”

Chris can’t explain why it happened for him, “You know, it was stars lining up, you know, a switch-flipping moment for us.”

Chris is again nominated this year in the Entertainer of the Year, Male Vocalist of the Year and Album of the Year categories at the 51st CMA Awards.

Check out Chris backstage at the 49th CMA Awards on his big night two years ago along with his monumental performance with Justin Timberlake that night in the videos at the bottom of the page.

Which artist will have a break-out night this time around? What will be the magical moment tonight? Make sure to watch the 51st CMA Awards when it airs live from Nashville tonight at 8/7 Central on ABC. If you can’t watch it on TV, you can listen to the simulcast on B104 (104.1 FM) starting at 7 PM central time (8 PM eastern time) or listen live at right here at wbwn.com.

By: Buck Stevens