Thomas Rhett’s “Crash and Burn” became his fourth career No. 1 single despite widespread warnings from people close to him — including his own father — that the song would damage his career.
Released in April 2015 as the lead single from Rhett’s sophomore album Tangled Up, “Crash and Burn” stood apart from mainstream country radio with its pop, soul, and R&B textures. What many listeners didn’t know at the time was that one of its co-writers was Chris Stapleton — then still a celebrated Nashville songwriter rather than the household name he would become just weeks later when his debut solo album, Traveller, arrived in May 2015.
An Unlikely Collaboration Born in Secret
Stapleton explained to Taste of Country in 2015 that the song grew out of an informal, almost clandestine creative partnership with his friend Jesse Frasure, a DJ, producer, and publisher he described as a “musical odd couple” match with himself. The two had been quietly getting together at night to build pop-leaning tracks with no particular commercial agenda. “Crash and Burn” was one of the first things to emerge from those sessions. Stapleton described the blend as Frasure’s “modern Motown thing” meeting his own “little bit of hillbilly,” yielding something neither could have made alone.
The song pairs an energetic, uptempo groove with a raw heartbreak lyric: “Do you hear that / It’s where I’m at / It’s the sound of teardrops fallin’ down, down / Slammin’ door and a lesson learned / I let another love crash and burn.” Stapleton noted that the tracks he and Frasure made together struck people as an odd fit for him personally, which is partly how several ended up with other artists. Rhett heard it and simply asked if he could record it. “I said, ‘Yeah, man, if you wanna cut it, do it,'” Stapleton recalled.
Rhett Ignored the Doubters — and Won
Speaking to Taste of Country Nights in 2025, Rhett revealed that the resistance to releasing the song was significant. Among the skeptics was his father, ’90s country star and prominent Nashville songwriter Rhett Akins. “I think ‘Crash and Burn’ might have been the first one that my dad was like, ‘I just think that’s not a good idea,'” Rhett said, adding that many people he trusted called it “a terrible idea.” He released it anyway, and the gamble paid off at radio. “That song did something really big for me,” he reflected. “I think it kind of separated me from a lot of folks.”
For Stapleton, watching a song born from late-night experimentation become a career-defining moment for someone he’d known since Rhett was “barely an adult” made the outcome especially meaningful — a reminder of how much a single creative risk, taken without agenda, can ultimately matter.
