Country Star Chris Stapleton’s $380 Gibson Guitar Turns Into Million-Dollar Inspiration

In a recent interview with actor Josh Brolin for Billboard, country music star Chris Stapleton offered a rare, in-depth look at his musical roots and the personal items that have shaped his career. At the heart of the conversation was his well-worn 1950s Gibson LG-2 acoustic guitar — a battered instrument Stapleton purchased for $380 from Chambers, a now-closed music store in Nashville.

Stapleton, who moved to Nashville in 1996 to study Biomedical Engineering at Vanderbilt before pivoting to songwriting, credits the guitar with shaping nearly every song he's written. "I would say 90% of the things I've ever written in my life have been written on this guitar," he explained.

The guitar's battered condition tells a story of resilience and creativity. "There is nothing about it that is precious to anybody else. It's got a million crack repairs. There was even mud in it when I first bought it, I think," he said. Yet for Stapleton, its imperfections only add to its value. "If I had to walk out of here with one thing, it would be this," he added. "All the other stuff — I would be sad about it — but whatever I've done, whatever I've made, whatever I've turned into has pretty much been built on this thing."

Beyond the LG-2, the interview provided a tour of Stapleton's gear warehouse, which was originally rented for socially distanced band rehearsals during the COVID-19 pandemic. Now a personal museum, it houses iconic items like a 1976 Gibson Firebird that belonged to Tom Petty, a 1969 Rickenbacker used by Jimmy Page, and an amp once owned by John Lennon.

Despite his success, including 11 GRAMMY Awards and being named ACM's Artist-Songwriter of the Decade in 2019, Stapleton remains grounded in his early musical influences, from his father's diverse taste in music to his uncle's local band. For fans seeking a piece of that legacy, the Epiphone Chris Stapleton signature Frontier guitar retails for $4,499.