Chris Stapleton Reveals the Best and Worst Day Jobs He Had Before Fame Changed Everything. ML
It’s hard to believe, but country music wasn’t Chris Stapleton’s first choice for a career. When he moved to Nashville, Stapleton attended Vanderbilt University for a year, studying engineering. He later went to business school for two years, which gave him valuable lessons on the life he didn’t want to have.
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“The main thing I learned from both of those things is that I didn’t want to be an engineer or an economist,” Stapleton tells the LA Times. “Sometimes, when you’re 18, career paths are not clear. You have things you like to do, but everyone I knew made a living in business. My dad was an electrical engineer who worked on coal mines. My brother is an FBI agent.”
Ultimately, Stapleton took a series of jobs while he figured out what he wanted to do with his life. And surprisingly, the job he liked best was driving a truck.
“The best was when I drove an ice truck, filling up ice coolers at gas stations,” the Grammy-winning artist remembers. “It was physical, but you got a workout and drove around in rural areas. So there was a lot of time to contemplate while you were driving around. That job was also great because, when it was done, the day was done. There was no stress about thinking what the path was going to be like tomorrow. It was pretty cut and dry.”
The Worst Job Chris Stapleton Ever Had
As much as he loved driving an ice truck, the Kentucky native hated selling vehicles that much, or maybe more.
“The worst was selling cars,” Stapleton reveals. “I sold cars for about three months and, man, it was long hours. And everybody hates a car salesman! They assume you’re lying to them the instant you open your mouth. So I always try to treat car salesmen a little better than most people do. It’s not an easy job.”
Stapleton hated that job, but he did learn plenty from the time he spent on a car lot.
“But (like college), those jobs were all experience,” says the singer. “I learned something from all of them, either about myself or other people.”
Stapleton writes about a lot of life experiences. But he hasn’t written about those two jobs, at least not yet.
“I don’t think I have a song directly about selling cars or hauling ice,” he shares. “But I’m sure that — somewhere in the mix of that — all those things kind of end up in songs.”
