Chris Stapleton is a titan in modern country music, known as much for his compelling songwriting as his unparalleled voice. Throughout his career, Stapleton has worked with several gifted songwriting collaborators, one of which being Mike Henderson. The two joined forces when Henderson invited Stapleton to be the lead singer of the bluegrass group he co-founded, The SteelDrivers, in 2008.
Videos by American Songwriter
This launched a fruitful partnership wherein they wrote several of Stapleton’s hits and won multiple awards together. “This man showed me how to write songs,” Stapleton said in his acceptance speech at the 2021 CMA Awards, citing Henderson as one of his “heroes” and the man, “Who I’ve written probably more songs with than anybody in Nashville, Tennessee.”
Henderson passed away in September 2023 at the age of 69, leaving behind a legacy of timeless songs. Check out three of the tracks he and Stapleton wrote together below.
1. “Broken Halos”
Stapleton and Henderson found magic when they wrote “Broken Halos” together years prior to its official release in 2017. It was Henderson who pitched the title, inspired by a quote in Keith Richards’ biography, Life. “There was a line that he was talking about friends that he had lost over time that had gone on before their time, for various reasons, and he referred to them as broken halos, and so he thought that was worth a song,” Stapleton explained on The Howard Stern Show.
“Broken Halos” was released as a single from Stapleton’s From A Room: Volume 1 and was his first No. 1 hit as a solo artist. The song was decorated with numerous accolades, including Best Country Song at the 2018 Grammy Awards and Song of the Year and Single of the Year at the 2018 CMA Awards.
[RELATED: Meaning Behind Chris Stapleton’s Somber Hit, “Broken Halos”]
2. “Starting Over”
Henderson and Stapleton struck gold again when they penned “Starting Over,” the title track and lead single of Stapleton’s 2020 album. The song reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart and won Single of the Year and Song of the Year at the 2021 CMA Awards, while the album won Best Country Album at the 2022 Grammy Awards.
“When I first got to town, I’d never written a song in my life,” Henderson shared onstage at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville while accepting Song of the Year at the CMAs. “I was lucky I had guys like Gary Nicholson, Wally Wilson, Kevin Welch and John Hadley took me under their wings, showed me how to do it. So guys, my part of this belongs to you too.”
3. “Second One to Know”
Stapleton got to flex his fusion of blues and rock into country with “Second One to Know,” a deep cut on From A Room: Volume 1, the follow-up to his groundbreaking debut album, Traveller. It’s yet another example of the undeniable chemistry between the singer and Henderson as co-writers. “I didn’t include any songs I’d written with him on Traveller, so it was really important to me … to cut songs from some of the guys who helped me learn how to write songs — and Mike is one of those guys,” Stapleton shared with Rolling Stone.
Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images
