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Chris Stapleton is officially the ACM Entertainer of the Year, and the honor means that the “You Should Probably Leave” hitmaker has marked an incredibly rare achievement.
The victory makes Stapleton, who emotionally thanked his wife and kids during his acceptance speech at the 58th annual ACM Awards on Thursday night (May 11), a Triple Crown Award-winning artist, according to the Academy of Country Music. The coveted award goes to an artist who receives an Entertainer of the Year win, along with earning awards in their respective New Artist and Artist (male, female or duo or group) categories.
Only eight other artists have won the Triple Crown Award.
Most recently, Miranda Lambert became a Triple Crown winner, accepting the award at the 15th annual ACM Honors and adding to her dozens of ACM trophies throughout er powerhouse career. Others to have received the Triple Crown Award include Jason Aldean, Brooks & Dunn, Kenny Chesney, Mickey Gilley, Merle Haggard, Barbara Mandrell, and Carrie Underwood.
“Well, I am in shock. Truly. Thank you. By any imaginable metric, I don’t deserve this, but thank you,” Stapleton said in his acceptance speech as the crowd cheered. “There’s so many other great people in this category, and I get up there, and I stand up and I play music. That’s what I try to do every night. And I write songs and I make records. I’ve never thought of myself as somebody who would win this award, and so, I’m so grateful to each and every person who worked so hard at making us able to do what we do. My wife, Morgane, thank you. …I wanna say, my kids sitting at home, they give up a lot of my time, and a lot of my wife’s time, so we could go do this. This is for them.”