Chris Stapleton’s 2015 solo debut, Traveller, is forever enshrined with the custom-designed Ram Traveller Truck.
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The new truck was revealed at an industry event at Nashville’s Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum days ahead of the seven-year anniversary of Stapleton’s career-defining CMA Awards performance with Justin Timberlake. That night in 2015, the now-2022 CMA Male Vocalist of the Year won Album of the Year for Traveller, as well as Male Vocalist and New Artist of the Year.
“It’s wonderful to be together among friends to celebrate special collaborations,” Lisa Purcell, Senior VP, External Affairs at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, said on Monday (Nov. 7). “And in the museum’s case, that’s the long-standing partnership between Chris Stapleton and Ram Trucks, which not only makes tonight’s celebration possible but also provides meaningful support for the exhibit Chris Stapleton Since 1978 presented by Ram Trucks.”
Purcell explained how Traveller was inspired by an 11-day road trip Stapleton took after the death of his father. He wrote the album’s title track during his trek from Arizona to Tennessee with his wife.
“This pivotal moment in Chris’ life and career contributed an important chapter to his artistry that now spans two decades,” Purcell added.
It was this trip that inspired some of the truck’s interior features. In fact, the flannel Stapleton wore on the famed album cover is featured as the headrest design.
“Once we got started, it was so easy to see that Chris’ attention to detail and his creativity spanned way, way past music and into the design of the truck,” Ram CEO Mike Koval said.
The partnership resulted in “the truck of Chris’s dreams. … I truly believe that this truck pays homage to Chris’ amazing career to this point,” Koval added.
After the Traveller Ram Truck reveal, Stapleton joined Koval and Runaway June’s Natalie Stovall for a brief Q&A. Throughout the past several years Stapleton traveled back and forth to Detroit for design meetings and admitted the process was “intimidating” and “surreal.”
“Everything that we talked about in our drawings, going through design meetings, years back and forth, really, I don’t think the execution could have been any better,” Stapleton said. “It’s almost too nice to drive.”
The Ram “Traveller” Truck is the latest in a series of collaborations between Ram and Stapleton. The singer’s rendition of Al Green’s “I’m a Ram” is out today, Nov. 11, and is available below.
In other Stapleton news, on November 9 the singer won CMA Male Vocalist of the Year for the sixth time, setting the record for most wins in the category.
Photo by Andy Barron / Courtesy Ram Trucks
