Arkansas

Album: Starting Over (2020)

Songfacts®:

  • On this driving southern stomp, Chris Stapleton recounts a road trip he took through the Ozarks mountains.

    Took a Nine Eleven 'bout a hundred and seven down a back road
    Where the white river runs and the southern sun makes the kudzu grow
    And what I found in the Ozark mountains I ain't ever seen
    It sure does feel like you're sittin' on the top of the world to me
  • Stapleton began playing "Arkansas" during some of his late 2019 live shows. He explained that the song was born when his wife, Morgane, gave him an Irish-green Porsche 911 for his birthday. Stapleton drove the car, accompanied by his bass player, from Oklahoma City back home to his Tennessee ranch.
  • Stapleton wrote the jangly Southern rocker with Mike Campbell from Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers. The pair first met when Stapleton opened for the band at Chicago's Wrigley Field in 2017. They stayed in touch and the Nashville star traveled to Los Angeles to write with Campbell.
  • Campbell also plays guitar on the track, while his Heartbreakers bandmate Benmont Tench contributes piano.
  • Chris Stapleton opened the 2020 NASCAR Awards TV special on November 18, 2020 with a debut performance of "Arkansas."

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