Chayce Beckham Already Knew He Was Going to Win ‘American Idol’
Chayce Beckham is in the process of moving to Nashville after winning American Idol in May — a win that didn't come as a huge shock in the moment, the Season 19 winner dishes on the Bobby Bones Show.
"I’ve never said this to anyone before," Beckham admits now, a few weeks after winning.
“Here’s something about the moment that they called my name," he says. "A lot of people have asked me, they’re like, 'Well, you didn’t seem surprised,' but this is actually what happened: That card is huge and Ryan was right next to me. I saw my name on the card. Ryan is standing there and he’s like, ‘And the winner is ...'"
“My name was massive across this giant gold card. I saw it like, maybe 10 seconds before he called my name," Beckham, a native of Apple Valley, Calif., admits.
The singer-songwriter explains that he used the time to prepare to sing his original, "23," which he also performed during his stop by the Bobby Bones Show studio.
"23" — the only original song to immediately chart from an American Idol winner — remained atop the iTunes charts for several days. Beckham tells host Bobby Bones he's actually surprised by the way fans are connecting to the personal song.
"It was a song for me, that it was talking about me dealing with a lot of my personal issues in life and kind of just telling a piece of my life. Not my whole life story, but just kind of a piece of it. It was just cool to watch how many people connect on that song on just different levels," he says. "For me, it was talking about trying to ease up on drinking and get my life together."
“I see videos of people and they’re partying and drinking and they’re singing ’23’ and they’re having a good time and I’m like, ‘Hey dude, if that’s what it is to you, then that’s what it is to you," the winner furthers. "That’s cool. Who am I to you to tell you that you have to listen to the song in a different way?"
"But then there’s also tons of people who are like, ‘man that song really gets me, you know what I mean?’ I love that it’s acceptable in that many different areas.”
Before performing the song live on the radio show, Beckham admitted he doesn’t usually sing in the morning, to which the deejay introduced the performance and remarked, "Welcome to the first of 10,000."
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