Three years after becoming the only artist to win American Idol singing his own songs, 19 Recordings/Wheelhouse Records/BMG country artist Chayce Beckham is living proof of his belief that “You can’t tell someone how to write a song.” Currently nominated at this year’s CMT Music Awards for Breakthrough Male Video of the Year for his #1, PLATINUM hit single “23,” the fiery singer-songwriter laid out a course only he could follow, and today remains even more dedicated to his unique creative compass. A California native schooled on tough times and a mix of country, rock, hip hop and beyond, Beckham started a habit of heart-on-his-sleeve songwriting after some hard times when he felt he had nothing left – and when combined with his warm vocal rasp on “23,” that drive helped him charm the nation on Idol‘s 19th season in 2021. With more than 406 million streams and counting, the bluesy and brutally honest anthem debuted at #1 on both iTunes’ Country and All Genre singles charts, and now leads Beckham’s first album, Bad for Me – available now – as the emerging star finds his stride. Co-writing nine of 13 songs (three solo), the project shows Beckham opening his soul like most would never dare and embracing a timeless country-rock sound defined by fiddles, steel guitar, and plenty of against-the-grain attitude. With dusky shades of heroes like Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, and Kris Kristofferson, the set aims to reinforce next-big-thing predictions from CMT, Amazon Music, MusicRowand more, while Beckham hits the road with Luke Bryan this summer, Parker McCollum this fall and his own headlining 2024 “Bad for Me” Tour.