Chris Stapleton, Justin Timberlake Reunite at 2017 Pilgrimage Festival [Watch]
It was deja vu all over again for fans who took in Justin Timberlake's set at the 2017 Pilgrimage Festival in Franklin, Tenn., on Saturday (Sept. 23), when Chris Stapleton showed up to join Timberlake onstage.
Stapleton and his wife, Morgane, took the stage with Timberlake partway through his headlining set at the Pilgrimage Music and Cultural Festival, where they joined him for an incendiary performance of "Tennesee Whiskey." It was a spectacular reprise of Timberlake and Stapleton's explosive performance at the CMA Awards in 2015, which made Stapleton into a mainstream country star virtually overnight. That was the same night Stapleton pulled off one of the most unexpected sweeps in CMAs history with his debut album, Traveller.
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They changed the arrangement slightly for this new rendition of "Tennessee Whiskey," emphasizing Timberlake's harmonies a bit more, but still retained the fiery vocal tradeoff that made their prior performance go viral. Click the video at the top of the story to hear Timberlake and Stapleton sing "Tennessee Whiskey" at the 2017 Pilgrimage Festival.
The Tennessean reports that the Stapletons also collaborated on "Fire Away" and "Sometimes I Cry" before leaving Timberlake to the rest of his set.
"I think we should just make a deal," Timberlake said onstage. "Every time either one of us plays Tennessee, the other one's there," which caused Stapleton grin and reply, "Okay."
Timberlake is also one of the organizers of the Pilgrimage Festival. He bought a country estate in Franklin -- a wealthy rural suburb of Nashville that is home to a number of country stars -- two years ago.
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