American Idol Champ Chayce Beckham ‘Bad for Me’ Debut Tells his Honest Story
Scoring his career-first #1 on country radio this week with Platinum hit single “23,” the 2024 CMT Music Awards nominee and Billboard’s April Rookie of the Month Chayce Beckham released his debut album, Bad For Me via 19 Recordings/Wheelhouse Records/BMG on Friday (April 6).
The new set from the American Idol season 19 winner, features the iTunes All Genre #1 song, “23,” that streams over 7.7 MILLION per week with over 406 MILLION total global on-demand streams and more than 10 MILLION YouTube views.
“Bad For Me is a collection of some of my favorite songs I’ve had the chance to be a part of,” says Chayce in a press statement. “This album doesn’t just tell any story, it tells mine, and it’s all honest and true to my life in every way possible. I poured my heart and soul into this project, and I hope you enjoy it from beginning to end as much as I do.”
“I’ve been working this song for a long time and it’s had a new life at radio,” he told Billboard of “23” in a recent interview. “Just watching it open up to a whole new audience over the past year has been special.”
“Over the last few years, I feel like just kind of put my head down and just kept trucking and put as much hard work into this as I could,” Chayce told Billboard. “I just wanted to create a record that I felt highlighted all the things I love in country music, like fiddles, guitars, mandolins, harmonies and storytelling.”
Listen to all 13 Bad for Me tracks below
Produced by Bart Butler (Jon Pardi, Midland, Warren Zeiders), apart from “23” (Ross Copperman), the former fork-lift driver wrote nine of the 13 tracks (three solo), delivering standouts like “Devil I’ve Been,” the evocative “Everything I Need,” the reflective “If I Had A Week,” as well as “Addicted And Clean” and “Smokin’ Weed and Drinkin’ Whiskey.”
While the three solo-writes, he wrote before he won American Idol, including his career-first #1 single “23,” the poignant fan-favorite “Mama” that he performed on the show and the barroom rocker “Drink You Off My Mind.” Catapulting himself alongside superstars Carrie Underwood and Kelly Clarkson, as the fourth winner of American Idol to hit the Billboard Country Airplay Top 10, prior to “23,” the last Country Airplay #1 solely written by the soloist who also recorded it was Taylor Swift’s “Ours” in 2012.
“When I first got to Nashville, I figured I’d just write everything and had never thought of cutting other people’s songs,” Chayce told Billboard. “But once I got involved in the songwriting community, it was something I wanted to support and be part of.”
Currently headlining his own “Bad For Me” Tour, Chayce will join American Idol judge Luke Bryan on his “Mind Of A Country Boy” Tour this summer and Parker McCollum on his “Burn It Down” Tour this fall. For tickets and all touring updates, visit www.ChayceBeckham.com.
