Early in the evening, Chris Stapleton picked up both Single and Song of the Year for “Starting Over” at this year’s CMA Awards. Chris co-wrote the song with his frequent collaborator, Mike Henderson. The country superstar, who had two of the biggest and coolest performances of the night for “Cold” and then his collaboration with Jennifer Hudson, then picked  up Album of the Year for Starting Over and Male Vocalist of the Year.

Chris says it feels great to be appreciated as a songwriter and for having a radio hit, but he’s truly excited about winning Song of the Year with Mike Henderson. “It feels incredible for a number of reasons. First of all, to be recognized as a songwriter and to be recognized in a, I guess, in a commercial sense from the Single of the Year standpoint. Those are two things that are pretty hard to get because there’s a lot of great songs and there’s a lot of great singles out there,” he says. “But the other part of that that is most special to me is that I wanted to with my dear friend and co-writer and hero, Mike Henderson, and I’ve been in bands with Mike, you know he’s taught me a lot of things on the guitar and a lot about songwriting. So, to win that award with Mike, who I’ve probably written more songs with than anybody I’ve ever written with, that probably means the most is to win with Mike.”

He also enjoyed picking up Album and Male Vocalist of the Year. “It’s special every time you win something, and I do like, I feel like when you win that (Male Voclaist) award, people are appreciating your talent as a singer. And I do partially pride myself on being a pretty good one, so it’s nice to be recognized for that.”

Chris is currently making his way up the country charts with “You Should Probably Leave.”

[[audio-player-1]]

[[audio-player-2]]