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Watch: Chris Stapleton Once Threatened To Go Home After Glowing Football Was Thrown On Stage
Chris Stapleton has always been a no-nonsense performer.
No-nonsense serves a two fold purpose there. The country music superstar doesn’t ever do anything flashy or over-the-top during his performances. You likely won’t ever see pyrotechnics or backup dancers at the Chris Stapleton concert. That’s not his style. He’d rather let his music and stellar guitar playing do the talking.
Stapleton also holds the audience to a high standard. That was on full display all the way back in 2018 when he was the Saturday night headliner at the now defunct Forecastle Festival in Louisville, Kentucky. Not to make this story about me… but I was there in attendance at the festival that used to take place at Waterfront Park in Downtown Louisville, and I remember Stapleton’s set quite well.
Anyone that’s ever been to a concert knows that there’s often a lot of theatrics included in short, condensed festival sets. Many artists are attempting to win festival goers over, and sometimes that means that bands and/or artists pull out all of the stops during their time on stage. I remember the following night, alternative rock band Arcade Fire was the headliner, and they had all kinds of bells and whistles to draw fans in (it worked on me, I’ve been a much more involved fan of theirs ever since).
However, when Chris Stapleton stood on the main festival stage back in 2018, he participated in zero extracurricular activities. I guess you earn the right to that when you become the go-to headliner for basically any music festival that’s ever happened. The “Broken Halos” singer chose to stay planted in once place, strumming the hell out of his guitar and providing a remarkably simple-yet-effective set that had festival goers in awe of his musical command. It was like getting to see Picasso paint a masterpiece in real time.
That being said, the moment that I remember the most vividly from the night was when some unruly festival attendees (imagine that, right?) almost ruined the fun for everybody. Now it’s not out of the norm for some objects to be thrown around at concerts – think beach balls, hacky sacks, and whatever else that can be chucked. But during Stapleton’s headlining performance, one person threw a glow-in-the-dark football up on stage.
This happened seven years ago now… but I remember it like it was yesterday.
As soon as the glowing pigskin came crashing down on the stage, Stapleton almost immediately stopped the song dead in its tracks and communicated that objects flying in the direction of himself and his band would be a very firm no-go. If my memory serves me right, I remember seeing the football being passed around in the very front of the crowd next to the stage for much of the beginning of his set. I may have even thought at one point, “What if that thing ends up hitting Chris Stapleton?”
Fortunately, if the football thrown was attempting to hit Stapleton, it was done so with the accuracy of an errant Jameis Winston pass. But where the ball landed on stage didn’t matter to the country music star. He ceased strumming and singing and immediately gave this message to the Forecastle Festival (RIP) crowd:
“Hold up guys. If you want to throw sh*t at us, we’re gonna go home. Alright? Now quit throwing sh*t.”
All I remember after that is being overwhelmingly anxious that some idiot would throw another object up on stage. Thankfully, the dummies didn’t persist, and Stapleton finished his set.
I certainly don’t blame Chris Stapleton for reacting this way, but in the defense of music fans that go to concerts, things gets thrown up on stage all the time. Some artists don’t mind it, and even use it as a way to engage with fans. Those like Chris Stapleton prefer to keep things civil… which is a real shame, because I would have loved to see him pick up that glow-in-the-dark football and spike it into the ground after he made his anti-throwing remarks.
By the way, I’ve been looking for a clip of this happening for years. I finally stumbled upon it this morning, and want to shoutout the person that finally posted it. Now there’s finally proof that Chris Stapleton isn’t a fan of things being chucked up on stage at concerts… and my story about it happening is backed by actual, tangible proof.
Of course, throwing things at performers has somehow become even more common these days, and we’ve seen a number of artists directly speak out about it… Zach Bryan, Kelsea Ballerini, Braxton Keith, just to name a few. It should go without saying but… don’t be that guy.The post Watch: Chris Stapleton Once Threatened To Go Home After Glowing Football Was Thrown On Stage first appeared on Whiskey Riff.
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