Chris Stapleton’s legendary career as a performer is highly recognized by music fans everywhere, but fewer people are aware of his interesting path to songwriting.
The 45-year old artist recently appeared on CBS’s 60 Minutes back in 2022, discussing his music, family, and life before he was known as one of the most talented singers and songwriters on the planet.
Prior to dropping out of college to pursue songwriting full time, Stapleton attended both Vanderbilt University and the University of Kentucky studying Biomedical Engineering. Yep… You read that correctly. Chris Stapleton: the Biomedical Engineer. He discusses his experience:
“I did go to engineering school for a minute. I was… my major was biomedical engineering.“
Of all the things I could envision Stapleton doing besides songwriting, biomedical engineering wouldn’t have been in my first hundred guesses. Seemingly he understands his college major may come as a surprise to many people. He continued jokingly:
“Pretty much the same thing I’m doing now, you know. I was like, well, my dad’s an engineer. I’ll go be an engineer, you know? And that was… it wasn’t for me.”
With the amount of incredible music Stapleton has had a part in throughout his career, it’s obvious he found what he was destined to do in life. It turns out at that point he wasn’t fully aware of songwriting as a true, paying profession:
“I didn’t even know it was a thing. I just assumed when people sang songs on records, that they made it up.”
Stapleton definitely had a special interest in music at that point in his life, despite not necessarily seeing it as his future industry. Funny enough, he revealed he was an avid listener to rappers like Dr. Dre and Snoop Dog at the time, as well as his fathers country CDs in the car.
It’s interesting to see that the “Starting Over” singer, so masterful in his craft, wasn’t chasing that at a younger age, let alone considering a future in engineering. He continues:
“I met somebody who was a songwriter. And then it was just like, that’s a job? They’re gonna pay you to sit in a room and make things up on guitar? That’s m– that’s the– I need that job. That’s the job I want.”
Learning this clearly led Stapleton’s focus to shift from pursuit of an engineering degree to becoming a songwriter full-time. While a long haired, bushy-bearded Biomedical Engineer is a funny image, Stapleton thankfully chose a path that has led him to an over twenty year long, renowned career.
It’s quite safe to say the now-eight time Grammy Award winning country artist is doing exactly what he was born to do.
Check out this portion of the interview here: