Chris Stapleton: New Song ‘White Horse’ Was Written 10 Years Ago

Chris Stapleton recently announced details of his next album, Higher, which will be out on November 10. Chris also released the first single from the project, a song called "White Horse," which he co-wrote with Dan Wilson.

The song was written a decade ago when Dan and Chris were asked to write a song for a movie. However, it didn't make the final cut of the film.

Stapleton told us, "We were out in Los Angeles, it was about, I think, probably late 2012, early 2013. And there was a movie called 'The Lone Ranger' that was coming out. I walked in the room to write with Dan at his house. He said, 'Hey they're looking for songs for this Lone Ranger movie.' I said, 'Cool. Let's write something. What do you know about it?' He goes, 'Well, we don't really know anything.'"

Stapleton continued, "I was like, 'Well, let's just make a song that might sound like that.' And so, that's kind of where that came from. And we got to talking about how it would be cool to have a kind of rock-driven-western-themed song. That's kind of where the song came from, and we kind of built it around a guitar riff, really."

The chorus of the song sings, "Oh Oh Oh / If you want a cowboy on a white horse / Riding off into the sunset / If that's the kinda love you wanna wait for / Hold on tight girl I ain't there yet / No I ain't there yet / No I ain't there yet / White Horse."

Produced by Dave Cobb, Morgane Stapleton, and Chris Stapleton, Higher was recorded at Nashville's RCA Studio A. Alongside Chris Stapleton (vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, slide electric guitar), the album features Cobb (acoustic guitar, eclectic guitar), J.T. Cure (bass), Paul Franklin (pedal steel), Derek Mixon (drums), Morgane (background vocals, synthesizer, tambourine) and Lee Pardini (organ, piano).