Chayce Beckham Drips Real-Life Raw Experiences Into Debut Album [Interview]

Chayce Beckham is unapologetically himself, and it's a quality that is effortlessly mirrored in the lyrics of his music.

Ever since winning Season 19 of American Idol, Beckham only continues to shed deep layers of his life, penning them into song.

After recently scoring his first No.1 song at country radio with “23,” Beckham released his debut album Bad for Me on April 5.

For Beckham, this 13-track album is a personal declaration that although he has risen to fame and taken off with his music career, that doesn’t make him void of flaws.

“I’ve always thought of putting my pain, or my struggles, or happiness, or joy, whenever I do feel it, into music,” he shares with Taste of Country. ‘That way when people hear it, it can help them the same way music has helped me throughout my life.”

Woven throughout the album is the underlying message that our life on Earth is broken, and perfection doesn’t exist. Everyone makes mistakes, but there is beauty in the redemption and restoration on the other side of it all.

Sonically, Beckham packs an outlaw essence, married effortlessly with his barrel-chested vocals. Throughout the 13 songs, a smooth and smoldering fiddle can be heard, lending a Western tone.

Lyrically, the songs ooze a raw honesty. However, it’s not necessarily a rose-colored honesty, but more so the reality of life lived met with heartache.

It’s a theme Beckham is aware of.

“I guess me as a person has a lot to get through before I can start writing happy songs, maybe,” he expresses. “That’s just the stuff that to me feels right to sing, because I’m not lying about it.”

"'If I Had a Week' and 'Mama' are songs I’ve wanted to record for so long, I’m just excited for people to be able to listen to them,” Beckham says. “Then songs like “Smokin’ Weed and Drinkin’ Whiskey” and “Waylon in ’75” that are a little more rowdy and visit a different part of me that, I’m trying to be honest about the things I love or the things that make me feel good.”

“Mama” originally debuted during Beckham’s time on Idol. It's a song that even to this day is painful and a deep cut for him to sing.

“It definitely means more — it was a hard song to cut,” he opens up. “It’s always been a hard song to sing or even talk about. It’s not a song we will sing every night for those reasons. It means more now than even because I don’t get to spend as much time with my family, so it’s just something that takes you home every time.”

Although a hard song to sing, he knows many might need to hear it. With that, he’s lived a lot of life since writing the song, and now it holds a slightly different perspective.

“All the successes and all the things that have happened since I wrote that song are pretty, for me, remarkable,” Beckham says. “I’m really proud of that, I’m really proud that my mom can be proud of me. I’ve done a lot of things that would make anybody really excited, really proud, but that my mom has gotten to be a part of that."

Beckham is currently headlining his own Bad for Me Tour. The next stop for the singer is on May 2 in Columbus, Ohio.

Chayce Beckham, Bad for Me’ Track Listing:
1.“Devil I’ve Been”
2. “Addicted and Clean”
3. “Waylon In ’75”
4. “Bad for Me”
5. “Drink You off My Mind”
6. “Everything I Need”
7. “Whiskey Country”
8. “Glitter”
9. “Smokin’ Weed and Drinkin’ Whiskey”
10. “Something Worth Holding On To”
11. “Mama”
12. “If I Had a Week”
13. “23”