Chris Stapleton

He can sellout venues and he strides into NRG Stadium with eight Grammys, 14 Country Music Association Awards and 10 Academy of Country Music Awards.

In 2015, he released an album of his own, “Traveller,” which allowed Stapleton to braid all those elements — the rock, the country, the soul and the bluegrass — with his seemingly instinctual knack for writing a hit song. In addition to selling albums and selling out venues, Stapleton has become a void into which awards fall, including eight Grammys, 14 Country Music Association Awards and 10 Academy of Country Music Awards. But allowing Stapleton to exist solely in a writer’s room would have silenced another great talent of his.