Chris Stapleton

Their influence on rock is undeniable.

And Chris Stapleton opening the show, that's an interesting choice.

He brings a modern twist to the classic sound.

It's a nice bridge between generations.

We'll see how many touchdowns he's predicting Nebraska beats North Dakota by.

Also, I want to remind you that there is a bunch of stuff, opportunities to win stuff, I should say, on our website at 1620thezone.com. Stuff like Chris Stapleton, Rise Against, Godsmack, Motionless and White, Burt Kreischer, all there at 1620thezone.com.

Check that out.

Check this out if you would like to go to any of those shows coming soon.

So the Steel Drivers, they have had a soulful southern sound since they started out.

The architect of the band, the late Mike Henderson, who, along with original band member Chris Stapleton, wrote a ton of early Steel Drivers songs.

They have sounded like themselves since the beginning.

They've done it all.

Or monthly, whatever.

And it was a way to showcase all these songs he and Chris had been writing for four years or more.

Chris Stapleton was not a known quantity at this time.

And it wasn't a guy that you guys had met.

Thank you.

I know it's always exciting when you put new music out, and you had a tremendous tour recently with Chris Stapleton.

But let's talk a little bit about the new music, because in your industry, it's like in what we do.

A football coach is only as good as last Saturday's result.

But the, the highlight of those weekends for me was, uh, after the shows were over at these little music festivals the party moved to the campground and that was like the one time as a nine year old that I was just allowed to stay up as late as I wanted and I'd stay up playing music with my other with my other homeschool bluegrass friends realistically all night long crawling in the RV about four o'clock in the morning or something and so it was yeah it wasn't the high school days even that was you know I wasn't doing a whole lot of parties and just sitting around playing for folks it was i was out playing shows on weekends and uh you know playing these bluegrass festivals and stuff so i was playing for folks but i i don't i don't ever remember sitting around too many fires uh picking for my high school buddies or or many ladies uh the the homeschool bluegrass kid if you can believe it was not the hottest commodity to the women uh in eastern washington at that time

Well, let me tell you, Zach, you don't need me to tell you now, but you missed a great opportunity, which I'm sure you're making up for.

But let me get to touring, because I know you just finished a big time tour with Chris Stapleton, who we all know is gigantic.

When you get out there and do those massive shows, I know you're prepared for it, but it's still a long way from doing a bluegrass festival in the middle of eastern Washington.

They were great, just slow.

Now, Chris Stapleton loves him some slow songs.

Drives radio crazy because if you give Chris a choice between a dirge and a ditty, Homeslice is taking the dirge every time.

But Chris also has one of the most iconic and brilliant voices to ever be in this format.

Ella Langley's rocking the charts.

And I love Chris Stapleton.

And in the world of pop, Ed Sheeran is just he's just fantastic.

Just a brilliant songwriter.

We do a lot of alternative 90s stuff, like a mix between, I'd say like, you got your Gin Blossoms type stuff, like early 90s, and then a lot of country music.

Our lead singer is a very good singer, and he can sing, you know, we'll play Chris Stapleton songs, and he can sing those no problem.

Oh wow, that's amazing.

You know, it's a wide-ranging thing.

And he has written a lot of hit songs with just dozens of them by himself.

He did a song with Chris Stapleton, songs with Justin Bieber, DJ Khaled, Elton John, Taylor Swift.

So Ed Sheeran's probably going to be fine.

I don't think this affects the kind of soccer moms that bought an Ed Sheeran concert ticket.