When and where was Chris Stapleton's statement released or reported?

1. What the statement said and where it appeared

The phrase reported in several outlets — “We’ve known each other for a long time. We’ve written songs together for a long time. She’s one of the first people who ever cut a song of mine…” — is presented by Parade and local country outlets as coming from Stapleton in a statement about his collaboration with Miranda Lambert around the 2025 CMA Awards ^{[1] [2]}. Dayton’s New Country and Coyote Country publish the same or closely similar wording in pieces covering the CMA Awards performance and the song “A Song To Sing” ^{[3] [2]}.

2. When the reporting took place

The reporting of that statement clusters around the November 19–20, 2025 CMA Awards coverage. Parade’s story timestamps its CMA Awards piece Nov. 19, 2025 (reporting the quote in the lead-up to “Country Music’s Biggest Night”), and local CMA-Awards writeups that include the quote are dated in the same Nov. 19–20, 2025 window ^{[1] [2] [3]}. Those articles place the quote in the immediate context of the CMA performance and the artists’ recent collaboration.

3. Which outlets carried or repeated the line

Parade ran an article that explicitly says Stapleton “recently opened up about his collaboration … In a statement, he said, ‘We’ve known each other for a long time’” ^[1]. Coyote Country (102.7 Coyote Country) and Dayton’s New Country repeat the same language, framing it as a statement from Stapleton about his long creative relationship with Lambert ^{[2] [3]}. Rolling Stone, Yahoo, and other listed sources focus on related tour and awards coverage but do not show that exact quote in the provided snippets ^{[6] [7]}.

4. Is the quote from an official Chris Stapleton release?

The available snippet of Chris Stapleton’s official news page and home page include press items about tours, singles, and other partnerships (including a JR Motorsports item) but the provided extracts do not show this Miranda Lambert quote reproduced on chrisstapleton.com (available sources do not mention the quote on the official site in the supplied snippets) ^{[4] [5]}. Parade and local outlets attribute the wording to a Stapleton “statement,” but the supplied material doesn’t include a direct link to an original press release or the social post where he may have issued it ^{[1] [2]}.

5. Context and competing interpretations

Journalistic pieces use the quote to frame a narrative of long-standing artistic ties between Stapleton and Lambert ahead of a prominent CMA performance and a retro-styled duet (“A Song To Sing”) released over the summer ^{[3] [1]}. Those same articles emphasize that the duet debuted at the 2025 CMA Awards and that the collaboration reflects both writers’ shared history; none of the provided sources dispute the content of the statement ^{[3] [1]}. Alternative viewpoints (for example, disagreement about authorship, timing, or intent) are not present in the supplied reporting (available sources do not mention any rebuttal or contrary account).

6. What’s not established by the provided sources

The supplied snippets do not show the original platform (official press release, social media post, or manager’s statement) that first published Stapleton’s words — outlets paraphrase or quote “In a statement, he said…” but do not cite a primary release in the excerpts we have (available sources do not identify the primary source link for the statement) ^{[1] [2]}. Nor do the provided items show the complete text of any official press release from Stapleton’s site reproducing that quote ^{[4] [5]}.

7. How to verify further (next steps)

To pinpoint the original release date and source, check the full Parade, Coyote Country, and Dayton’s New Country articles for source attribution or links to the primary statement, and search Chris Stapleton’s official news page, his public social accounts, or the record label’s press releases dated around Nov. 18–20, 2025 for the primary text ^{[1] [2] [3]}. The provided materials confirm the quote was widely reported during CMA coverage but do not show the original posting or press release in the available excerpts ^{[1] [2] [3]}.