Chris Stapleton wowed people around the world with his performance of The National Anthem at Super Bowl LVII, and now his version is available to download. The Kentucky native released his performance of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” just in time for the July 4th holiday.
Stapleton announced the news of the song’s release on social media.
"The Star-Spangled Banner (Live from Super Bowl LVII)" is out now.@NFL • @RocNation • @EQDistro https://t.co/qpyInDMykK pic.twitter.com/2h7AkWwRzs
— Chris Stapleton (@ChrisStapleton) June 30, 2023
Stapleton previously admitted he was nervous about performing the patriotic song for such a monumental event.
“It’s the Super Bowl,” Stapleton said on The Bobby Bones Show. “And it’s the anthem. That’s a hard song, and it’s one that if you mess it up, you are immortalized messing it up forever. And if you do well, you did good there too. But the main goal with the anthem is, don’t mess up the words, and don’t mess up the melody.”
According to Stapleton, the Super Bowl is the first and last time he will ever perform “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
“People would ask me to do the anthem for various other things,” Stapleton revealed. “I’d be like, ‘No, I’ll just wait on the Super Bowl,’ thinking, ‘They’re not going to call me for the Super Bowl.’ But then they call you for the Super Bowl, and you’re like, ‘Well, I said I would do that if they called me for that.’ So I went and did it, and now I’m retired from it.”
Stapleton has had a big 2023 so far. In addition to singing the National Anthem, he also won the ACM Award for Entertainer of the Year, an honor that he never expected to win.
“By any imaginable metric, I don’t deserve this, but thank you,” Stapleton said from stage, after beating out Jason Aldean, Kane Brown, Luke Combs, Miranda Lambert Carrie Underwood and Morgan Wallen to take home the trophy. “There are so many other great people in this category. I stand up, and I play music. That’s what I try to do every night. I write songs, and I make records.”
“I never thought of myself as somebody who’d win this award,” he continued. “I’m so grateful for each and every person who works so hard to make us able to do what we do — my wife Morgane, thank you.”
Stapleton is spending much of his summer crossing the country with George Strait, on Strait’s Stadium Tour, with Little Big Town serving as the opening act.
“I love doing these shows with George about as much as I like doing anything,” Stapleton says. “There’s nothing to compare it to. So many of his songs are in the ethos of what country music is. Playing these shows together is a great experience all the way around.”
Find all of Stapleton’s upcoming shows can be found at ChrisStapleton.com.