Chayce Beckham rose to fame when he won ‘American Idol' in 2021 and was catapulted to international stardom.
Following the success of his slow-burn single '23', Beckham released his debut album ‘Bad For Me‘ in 2024. Leaning into the traditional Country influences that he showcased on ‘American Idol', Beckham has forged an authentic path that really focuses on his artistry.
Last weekend Beckham arrived in the UK to perform on the C2C Main Stage, making his live debut on this side of the pond. I sat down with him before he performed in London to discuss his transition from ‘Idol' to Country artist, talk about the long road to his debut album, and to dig deep about his songwriting…
Chayce, welcome to the UK. This is your first time right?
Yes, first time!
I've been following your career since the ‘American Idol' days and you are easily one of my favourite voices in the Country genre…
Thank you so much, I really appreciate that.
It's been a long journey from winning the show to releasing your debut album ‘Bad For Me'. What has that journey been like?
Actually I was looking at it today and I didn't realise how long it was from the time I had won until I did that. For a while I didn't know if we were going to get to make an album because it almost seemed like albums were a thing of the past. People were just putting out singles after singles. We were putting out singles, small EPs and stuff like that, and then when the label came and asked me to make an album, I was jumping for joy. I've always wanted to make a full album. It was really special for me to get to do it.
I wanted to make something that I would love, even if it wasn't successful or if nothing took off from the record. I wanted to make something that I enjoyed listening to from beginning to end. I feel like that's what I got to do and I'm grateful that I had full creative control over the process and I'm definitely very proud of it.
When you win a show like ‘American Idol' there's immense pressure to be an immediate success. Lots of winners don't manage to translate their win to success. What was that transition like for you?
It took a long time. It was a lot of building blocks and building the foundation. My Dad would always tell me on the phone, ‘you're just laying out the foundation and next year you'll build more and more, but don't be in a rush to, be the next big thing. Make sure you're making music you love and you're doing what you like'. That's what it was for me. I went out and I think a lot of people might think, like you just said, that you come off the show and you have an automatic fan base. I went and played places and only sold 70 tickets. It humbles you really fast. I had to go back to those places and play again to get it to 200 tickets and then go back again and get it up to 500. Now we're getting to where we're filling up the clubs that we're playing and it's been a just a process of playing, touring and, writing songs. Co-writes was something that was completely new to me.
When I got to Nashville a lot of people told me that they wouldn't play '23' on the radio and that it would never work. I felt like I had this hit record and I had to start from scratch, even though I felt like I had a big song on my hands. I made the ‘Doin It Right' EP, released a few singles after that and then '23' was doing so well on digitals that it ended up being something that they couldn't ignore. We took it to radio, and it took about a year, but we got it to number one in the States and a few other places. It was a journey and a process, and it's definitely something that you have to stay at. I feel like if you come off of the show and you expect everything to just be glitz and glamour right away, you're going to figure out that's not how it is. (laughs) There's a lot of riding around in a van with eight people and driving for six or seven hours to get to a show and getting out and brushing your teeth in the parking lot. It was a journey, man and I'm just grateful. It's gotten me all the way over here.
How could anyone listen to '23' and not think that was a hit record? Has that experience taught you to trust your gut?
Yeah, it was definitely not the tone for the radio at that time, maybe. At the end of the day the consumers, the listeners, the people who actually play and buy your music, those are the people who are going to tell you. I think that they said it pretty loud and clear that that was the song that they wanted to hear on the radio. We took it there and we got a lot of support. The whole ‘Idol' thing changed my life and getting that song to a number one spot changed my life a lot as well. Like you said, listening to your gut about what you know, and about the music that you love is super important.
This is always so interesting to me because so many artists are told their music won't work at radio or it's not the sound at the moment, and then they go on to have success. Surely you have to do something different to create change?
I think so. I think a lot of people have done that. Look at Luke Combs. He blazed his own trail in country music and a lot of people told him no. He's, in my opinion, one of the biggest superstars in the world right now as far as music goes. Morgan Wallen made his own lane for his style of country music. Lainey Wilson has made her own lane. Zach Topp made his own lane. There's all these people who are doing what they want to do but still in the heart of country music. I'm sure a lot of people told all those people no, at least once or twice.
Now ‘Bad For Me' is out there and people have had it for a few months. How are you feeling? Is the album doing what you wanted it to do for you?
Yeah, I don't get on socials and stuff enough to promote my music (laughs) so I don't expect anything crazy. I'm not expecting a viral sensation. I just wanna make something good that'll stand through time. I feel like it definitely went the direction that I wanted my music to go. I have full creative control over the album so it was a lot more satisfying for me to make it and even more satisfying for me to listen back to it. I'm really proud of it and it's been going good. I think the whole tour was super successful. We played a lot of shows last year on the ‘Bad For Me' Tour and did a lot this year. I thought it was over, but it seems like they keep on adding dates to it (laughs). I thought we were finished, and our last show was up in Eastern Canada. We did eight shows up there… that were insane. Just getting to go out and hear everybody sing all the words to those records is really special.
One of my favourites on the record is “Waylon In '75”. What's the story behind that one?
Thank you so much. A lot of people like that one (laughs). It caught my eye when I was looking through a folder of pitches that I got for the record. I wrote nine songs on there and the rest got pitched to me from other songwriters. I was going through a pitch folder looking at all these songs and the title caught my eye. I looked at the writers on it and the writers are incredible. It's got Brett James on there who wrote, ‘ Jesus Take The Wheel' and several other big hits and Parker McCollum's on there as a writer. It immediately caught my attention. I was like, ‘Ooh, what does this one sound like?' I hit play and I was like, ‘man, I love this'. I called my A&R and I was like, ‘Hey, did you put this in here?' And she was like, ‘yeah, I really think you should cut that song' . I wanted to think about it and then a few days later, I called her and I was like, ‘I'm cutting this song' (laughs) .
It was just a song that stuck out to me. It really went with the vibe of the stuff that I write and I felt sometimes other people can say what you're trying to say a little bit better, maybe. I was happy that I got a hold of it before anybody else did. I got to see Parker at the ACMs a few months later and, he thanked me for cutting the song. Then we ended up going on tour with him so it worked out good.
He's another artist that's just forging his own lane…
Exactly! He's got his own style, his own way of singing and playing and stuff. You gotta love all that kind of stuff and all that individuality right now.
You love the classic Country stars such as Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Hank Williams. In what way would you say those influences have shaped your music?
Oh, I mean, man (laughs) I think a lot of the times I put on a Waylon record and I'm like, ‘why can't we just do this anymore? How did we get so far away from this?' (laughs) I've tried to put little bits of that stuff into my music and especially more so now I think than ever before with having a lot more control over my music. I've been able to put those kinds of things in there. One of my favorite singers ever is George Jones. If you listen to George Jones' songs, man, the honesty in those songs are insane. I'm not sure how many of his songs he wrote or how many of his he didn't, but he sang the songs that were true to him. I try to put that into my music, more I think so, than any influence of sound. It's more about the storytelling for me and the processes of going through things.
As we said before this is your first time playing in the UK and you're performing on the Main Stage at The O2. That must be crazy?
Yeah. It's wild. Glasgow was awesome last night. We're really looking forward to this one. This is like a bucket list venue. I think a lot of people dream of coming out here and playing, so getting to do this tour for the first time and come out and play shows in places I've never been and have fans there, it's awesome. It's one of the coolest things.
Talk about setting the bar high for when you come back…
(laughs) When I come back I'll playing all the small clubs.
Is that something you'd want to do? Do you want to come back and do your own tour?
Oh, absolutely. Yeah and I' d like to think that's why I'm here, to plant that seed and to get to keep on coming back year after year. Canada was the first place that we ever toured that wasn't the States and we went up there and we were blown away by the crowds of Canada. They've supported me so much. My record went number one there before it did in the United States, which almost never happens. That became a place that we have to go because we have to go see those fans, they're expecting us. Hopefully that's what we [00:19:00] can do here, build a great fan base and get to keep coming back out and playing songs for people who want to hear them.
You might have already noticed but Country music fans here are different. They listen and they love the deep cuts…
Awesome!
That must be rewarding for you as an artist?
Yeah, it is nice to sit through a show and not hear someone scream “play '23′” the whole set. It's always the last song on our set so I guess I set myself up for it. Just seeing the attention you get from the audiences, and for all the other artists as well that I've seen out here and watching them just have a ball and getting standing ovations and just really enjoying their performances, makes it just all so much fun. It makes you excited to get on stage and sing your songs and hopefully everybody likes it tonight.
How is the rest of your year looking? What will you be doing after C2C?
I'll go home for about a day and then I'm back on the road (laughs). So one day to adjust and get the jet lag off me. I'm happy that we're doing it from here, because I think it's only 5 hours from here for us to Tennessee. Where we started in Germany, it was 12 so I'm happy that we're coming back from Ireland. It'll be, I hope, an easy adjustment. But, yeah, go on tour and I'm trying to put studio dates in my schedule. It's really hard right now with the tour dates. I want to go back and make more music. I've been writing the last six months so I have a lot of music I want to go and record and put out to the world.
Some artists are very creative on the road and some prefer to only create in the studio. Which kind of artist are you?
The road is one of my favourite places to write. Usually towards the end of the year, when we're all on a bus and things settle down and we're not on airplanes going everywhere, I usually bring my favorite songwriters out on the road. We write in the morning and at night, whenever a song hits us. I'll go do stuff and they'll sit in there and work on a song. It's probably the easiest place for me. I hate going into an office and meeting someone like, ‘hey, how are you? Let's write a song'. It's how I wrote a lot of my music but it quickly became a way that I didn't want to write music. I started inviting other writers over to my house. If I'm at home, sitting in my recliner or if I'm on the road hanging out with my boys, it's usually my favourite place to start picking out a song.
Does going into an office make it feel more like a job?
Well, it is a job. That's what's crazy. It's different specifically for songwriters. Artist- songwriters might not like that but if someone told you, you're not going to be an artist and you're going to be a songwriter and your job is to show up at 11 and you can leave around 2, and they're going to pay you this much money, I think anybody would be like, that's the best job in the world. I can sit and play guitar and write down my ideas and get paid for it but, for me, after a while, it became more routine and I felt like I was forcing creativity instead of letting it just naturally happen. Where you get song ideas from is from just living your life, right? You have to let things happen to you to get inspiration. If you're putting yourself in the same situation every day, you start running out of ideas pretty quick. I'm big on taking breaks and just letting stuff happen. I think I might get four or five great ideas a year but if I'm just in the writing room every day, that's not going to last me very long so, I try to spread it out.
I find it fascinating because to me scheduling creativity feels like it would stifle it…
Some people do really good at it. Some people write the best songs ever in that process and some people have a very specific way of writing songs. I think I'm very unorthodox in the way I write songs. I don't need it to go a certain way, and I don't have an end vision always. I'm always open to go in a different place. I've learned that for me, it's easier for me to wait. In the morning I have my coffee and my smoke and relax, and then go back in the bus. If I have an idea, then let's write it, but if I don't, I'm not gonna sit there all day trying to get one out.
There's a famous Hank Williams Jr. quote where he talks about, ‘ we're gonna go to the studio at 11 o'clock and write a song?' He's like, ‘that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. I'll write Songs while I'm fishing or when I'm hunting in a tree stand and stuff like that. That's where I get a song idea and that's where I'll write it. I think it just depends on the person.
And then you have Dolly Parton who wrote two of her biggest hits on the same day, which is crazy…
Yeah. Guys like Willie Nelson too, who've written hit records for not just himself, but for a lot of other people. I don't know where they get these ideas. I think you just have to live somewhat of a regular life sometimes and not be writing and in the studio and on tour, cause then nothing's going to hit you.
Chayce Beckham's debut album ‘Bad For Me' is available now. Watch the performance video for ‘Devil I've Been' below:
