Chris Stapleton is on his way to become country music's next household name. Following his surprising victory at last year's CMA Awards, during which he took home all prizes he was nominated for, the bearded singer has topped the U.S. charts, performed his music at major events and won a lot of other accolades, including multiple trophies from last February's Grammys and last week's Academy of Country Music Awards.

Those ACMs included New Male Vocalist and Male Vocalist of the Year. He also bagged Album of the Year for "Traveller", his debut set which was released in May 2015 but eventually hit No. 1 on Billboard 200 after his CMA wins, and Song of the Year for "Nobody to Blame", one of the album's cuts that has so far peaked at No. 70 on Billboard Hot 100.

For his current success, Stapleton really has to thank Justin Timberlake whom he teamed up with for a duet at the 2015 CMA Awards. Because of his eight-minute joint performance with the former boybander that night, a lot of viewers found out about him and his life started to change dramatically.

"We'd spent a couple days rehearsing what we were going to do and felt really confident that we were going to have a good time," Stapleton said of how he and Timberlake prepared their duet, which received rave reviews from fans.

"You know, it's kind of a dangerous thing, in my mind, to collaborate with somebody [Justin Timberlake] so far out of country music, but not dangerous in that he's great [laughs]. And he's a great musician and a great guy and we're friends, and that made it comfortable as can be," he added.

© AceShowbiz.com