Many know this already, but before Chris Stapleton was one of the biggest solo talents in country music, he was a writer who penned hit after hit. Furthermore, he was also the frontman for the Grammy-winning bluegrass band, The SteeleDrivers. While with The SteeleDrivers, Stapleton wrote and recorded songs “Blue Side Of The Mountain”, “Where Rainbows Never Die”, and famously, “If It Hadn’t Been For Love”.
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We say famous because “If It Hadn’t Been For Love” was covered by Adele and featured on the United Kingdom deluxe version of her award-winning album, 21. Prior to that, Adele had allegedly heard the song from her bus driver, performed it, and recorded it. However, given that she didn’t have the publishing rights, she couldn’t release it.
This all transpired around 2010. Thus, Adele had yet to become the global sensation we all know her as today. Consequently, when Chris Stapleton learned about the cover of the song, well, he had no earthly clue who she was.
“Who’s Adele?”
During a 2017 interview on The Howard Stern Show, Chris Stapleton revealed how exactly the song came to fruition. As stated previously, Adele had reportedly recorded the song, but did not have the publishing rights. So, she needed to get approval from the folks who had them. It was around this time when Rounder Records’ label founder, Ken Irwin, told Stapleton to tell his publishing house to let Adele cover the song. When he heard this news, Stapleton simply replied, “I was like, ‘Well, that’s great, Ken. Who’s Adele?’ That was literally my email back.”
Chris Stapleton acknowledged that “this was before Adele was Adele,” but that didn’t stop him from letting her release the track. Adele did just that, as she released the track on her UK deluxe version of 21. Other than that album, the song only exists on random bootleg recordings and YouTube videos. Thus, it is the true definition of a hidden gem.
Later in that same interview, Stapleton revealed that he loves Adele “as a singer and as an artist.”
“I always kind of like to write the songs and they get turned loose into the world and who knows what happens with them,” concluded Stapleton.
In addition to Adele, other major musicians to cover and use Chris Stapleton’s work include Kenny Chesney, Luke Bryan, Darius Rucker, Megan Moroney, and many more.
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