How Chris Stapleton Finally Co-Wrote a Song for His Hero Willie Nelson

In 2017, Chris Stapleton covered Willie Nelson‘s 1982 hit “Last Thing I Needed, First Thing This Morning” on his second studio album, From A Room: Volume 1. Originally released on Nelson’s megahit album, Always On My Mind, which went to No. 2 on the Country chart. That year, Stapleton also teamed up with Dwight Yokam for a rendition of Nelson and Ray Charles’ 1984 duet “Seven Spanish Angels.”

Stapleton covered more of his hero’s songs, including “Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground,” along with “Georgia on My Mind” alongside Nelson’s harmonica player Mickey Raphael, and “Always on My Mind” during the country legend’s 90th birthday concert in 2023.

He also went on to perform with him several times, including Nelson’s 2023 induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Backed by Nelson’s family band, Stapleton performed “Whiskey River,” along with “On the Road Again,” the latter a celebratory rendition joined by Dave Matthews and Sheryl Crow.

“I was getting a little moved and choked up,” recalled Stapleton. “And then Willie leans over to me and goes,  ‘What song are we playing?’” Chris says. “And I go, ‘Whiskey River.’ And he said ‘Alright,’ and that just took me out of, right back to like, this is the coolest thing.”

A year later, both also duetted on Nelson’s 1970 song “Bloody Mary Morning” and “Whiskey River” from 1973 during the 50th anniversary of the Austin City Limits Festival.

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[RELATED: The Regretful Meaning Behind Willie Nelson’s “Nothing I Can Do About It Now”]

“Our Song”

For Nelson’s 2020 album First Rose of Spring, he and producer Buddy Cannon, chose a collection of songs by top songwriters, including the title track written by Randy Houser, Allen Shamblin, Mark Beeson, a cover of Toby Keith’s “Don’t Let the Old Man In,” and two originals co-written by Nelson and Cannon, “Blue Star” and “Love Just Laughed.”

Also featured on the album was Stapleton’s “Our Song,” a reflective ballad on a lifetime of journeys and an everlasting love for the then 86-year-old.

In this time that I’ve been given
To fill my life with livin’
I hope I have done the best that I can do
Yes, regrets, I’ve got a few
But, honey, none of them is you
And I need you like a singer needs a song

I don’t know if Heaven’s real
But that’s how you made me feel
You make it all alright
When everything’s wrong
And this is our song

In these miles that we have traveled
You’ve watched me come unraveled
And you put me back together again
And when darkness would come around
You kept my feet there on the ground
And you held me like a lover and a friend

“I can easily say Willie Nelson is one of my biggest musical influences,” said Stapleton. “It just doesn’t get any better than hearing him sing a song I wrote.”

Photo: Theo Wargo/Getty Images for The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame