Chris Stapleton Sheds Light On Relationship With Alcohol After His Drinking Comments

Chris Stapleton is opening up about his relationship with alcohol. 

The country singer, who is currently promoting a whiskey partnership, said in a Saturday article by Rolling Stone  that hes not a teetotaler, after a previous interview with GQ caused confusion among fans.

I think the word sober got used in an interview, and its probably a disservice to sober people to call me sober certainly as were sitting here talking about drinking, he clarified as he promoted a new beverage with Buffalo Trace Distillery.

I dont drink as much as I used to, the singer told Rolling Stone. Im a 45-year-old man who has a lot more responsibilities and a lot less time for leisure than I used to have. But I do enjoy it. The first room you walk in at my house, theres probably 200 bottles of bourbon there.

In its interview last year, GQ  had described Stapleton as all but sober for several years. 

I didnt have to go to rehab, but from a 45-year-old-man health perspective, a doctors gonna look at me and go, Hey, man, probably cut out the drinking, and Id be like, Okay, cool, Stapleton said at the time.

I like to tell people that I got into a drinking contest with myself in my 20s, and I lost, said the Tennessee Whiskey star. He then spoke about his connection to drinking as it related to his job as a songwriter and musician.

When youre younger, you feel like you have to do certain things in order to occupy some of these spaces, to make yourself feel like youre legit. You want to feel things. You want to be able to write about things authentically, he told GQ.

If somebody working a different kind of job drank themselves to death in the name of being better at that job, it wouldnt make sense to anybody. We wouldnt say, Oh, he must have been the greatest electrician who ever lived.

Need help with substance use disorder or mental health issues? In the U.S., call 800-662-HELP (4357) for the SAMHSA National Helpline .