American Idol alum Chayce Beckham reflects on the year after her historic win
Reigning American Idol winner Chayce Beckham has come a long way. The Season 19 champion went from … [+]
David McClister
Prevailing american idol Winner Chayce Beckham has come a long way. Season 19 champion went from forklift driver to first person to winning american idol with an original song. While the autobiographical, self-written “23Topping numerous viral charts and amassing over 75 million on-demand streams, Beckham further branched out into the country genre in April with the six-track personal EP do things right via 19 Recordings in partnership with BBR Music Group/Wheelhouse Records.
Beckham’s 2022 continues to gain momentum as he has tour dates booked with Luke Combs and Jimmie Allen. Her debut single, “Can’t Do Without Me” featuring bandmate Lindsay Ell, also topped 40 on the country charts.
Tonight a new Idol will be crowned the winner in the Season 20 Singing Contest Finale. A year after Beckham was voted the winner, the singer-songwriter looks back on the many business lessons he experienced first-hand to advance his career in country music. “I learned that nothing is given to you after you win a TV show,” he tells me. “You always have to go out there and work hard. You come out on top, but you also come out at the bottom of the ranks of everyone else who is really doing this for a career.
In the year since winning, Beckham admits he has learned many lessons the hard way when it comes to business management. Previously, he accepted any show that came his way. However, Beckham soon learned firsthand of all the expenses involved with a planned out-of-town gig. Between paying his business manager, lawyer, manager, booking agents, record company, band and crew, and coordinating travel for everyone else, Beckham would see very little of the money he had agreed on.
“I understood how much it cost to run a show, how much it cost to have all these guys on the road, how much it cost to pay everyone who worked for me,” he says. “You have to have an entrepreneur at this level. … You have to have people helping you do this stuff, watching your money and making sure you’re not overspending. The most important thing I would say is to have a business leader. Get management right away Idol, it’s one of the best things I’ve done.
Beckham signed with KP Entertainment for management and says it was important to surround himself with people who believed in him because those are the people who will take risks when it comes to his career. His stepfather, the former manager of Beckham who signed him for american idol, is always involved in everything he does.
“I want him to know about my bank account, I want him to know what’s going on, what’s being spent where, how much money we’re withdrawing and when we’re making decisions,” Beckham says. “I take his advice very seriously. I appreciate him because he never misled me.
“I think even if it’s your mom or your dad or it’s your brother or someone who believes in you, work with those people and hold on to them and be loyal to them and they’ll be loyal to you. I think you will eventually succeed if you keep trying.
The singer says the best advice he’s ever received is to start thinking about his career as a business before hitting the road. As the person who steers the ship, he says it’s very important to know how much he gets paid at each show as well as how much it’s going to cost him and his team to travel.
“It took me a long time to figure it all out and I’m still learning as I go,” he says, “but if you want to have a career in music, I suggest you learn it before you go. to throw.”
Beckham adds that he also had to have difficult conversations with his team. Although these conversations often don’t come naturally to the singer, he says they are necessary because he is in charge of his career. Beckham sees him as the boss of a company and says it’s important to be clear about what he wants in his career.
The singer openly admits that the music business is new to him. Before his time on american idol, Beckham often lived paycheck to paycheck as a forklift driver. He admits to being financially irresponsible and says it’s those times when he’s broke and hungry that makes him take his business seriously today.
“It pushes me to succeed,” he says. “Looking back at how financially illiterate I was before this…I have so much more to learn. I’m just starting. I don’t understand everything that’s going on because some things were so foreign to me when I was a forklift driver. I know how to drive a forklift and how to dig holes, but I’m not very savvy with the business side. When you have the opportunity to run a business and do what you love in life, you take it seriously. »
Beckham says he learned a lot in the year since his Idol win and is grateful to the country community for welcoming him into the writing room so he could share more of his story with listeners.
“When people talk about country music, I want them to talk about my music,” he says. “I want to solidify my career this way, and I feel like everyone in Nashville has done nothing but embrace me and help me up to achieve that goal. I have a great team of people; great label, great management and great band and team on the road. I am blessed to have all these things.