Singer Tucker Beathard talks touring, baseball and his new album ahead of Raleigh show
In a world where one is supposed to publicly apologize for their privilege, Tucker Beathard’s entry into country music caused more than a few eyerolls. He came with a pedigree — among dad Casey Beathard’s many hits is Kenny Chesney’s “No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problem” — and the financial support that comes from having close family in the professional sports world (granddad Bobby Beathard is a four time Super Bowl winning NFL general manager, and brother C.J. Beathard is a quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers).
Yet with all of those seemingly positive factors on his side, Beathard’s career hasn’t been without its ups and downs. His current tour — which brings him to Raleigh’s City Limits Saloon Saturday night — is only his latest stint on the road. For the past four years, the young singer-songwriter has been paying his dues the old fashioned ways: putting mileage on a tour van, and selling tickets in small clubs around the country.
Talking about the touring life, Beathard told The News & Observer: “It’s always tough, especially I feel like in country music. A lot of the consumers are pretty mainstream and radio driven, so these tours worked to kind of toughen me up. It wasn’t easy going out and trying to play songs in areas where nobody knows me, and a lot of the songs haven’t even been released anywhere yet. You learn a lot by touring like that, though; you learn how to build a set, and you gain a few new fans out of each show you play in an area. I’ve learned a lot by doing this over the past few years.”
We were able to catch up with Beathard during a break in his tour, where we asked him about rebounding from being cut from a record label roster at a young age, and whether he was destined for a career in either sports or music. Here is an edited version of that conversation.
Q: What leads a guy without a ton of recorded material to spend so much time on the road?
A: I kind of embraced the road life around the time I turned 19. I always have some material that I want to work on in front of a crowd, and a bunch of songs that are ready to go, and never really play any cover songs for long. Ever since the beginning of being on the road, I was playing all original stuff. I didn’t have the freedom to record albums and release them as often as I wanted to, I didn’t want to wait on a label before I started getting music out there in front of people.
Q: Your 2016 single “Rock On” was a huge success, hitting No. 2 on the Billboard Country Airplay chart, but the follow-up single “Momma and Jesus” failed to crack even that chart’s top 40. Did having that struggle right after a triumph help keep your ego in check?
A: Honestly? I mean, yeah, but there were a lot of politics involved as well. I didn’t feel like [”Momma and Jesus”] got a fair shake to begin with. It was kind of frustrating. I think there’s a lot to be done outside of radio, but when you already have radio success right off the bat with your first [single] ... maybe I was young and naive, because I thought that once one works, the next would work whether I did what everyone was telling me I had to do or not. It’s not that easy. There’s a lot about the music business that’s tricky, and you can’t really learn it until you’re in it. I learned a lot the hard way, but you know, I think sometimes that’s the best way to learn.
Q: While you’re out there learning on the road, have you noticed any differences in the audiences you have in small and large markets?
A: Every area is different. I mean it. ... You can’t always just play where it’s comfortable, you know, because then you’re limiting yourself. It’s a mix of feeding the places where you do better, and returning to the tough towns to tough it out and expand your audience in that area. Whether it’s a city you need help with, or one where you sellout every time you come through, you have to put on a good show regardless. Everywhere you play is different, and you never really know what it’s going to be like until you hit stage, but that’s kind of the thrill of it.
Q: You self-released “Nobody’s Everything” late last year, after having been announced as having an album ready to be released in 2017. I know your deal with that label — Dot Records — fell through, but then Warner Brothers announced that they would be releasing a new album from you in late 2018, with that one then being pushed back. What’s causing these delays?
A: The album that was being reported on in 2017 ended up having a lot of differing views and butting of heads at my previous label. It was just a frustrating [experience], and it finally got to a point where I finally had to find what was best for me, and that was to buy my way out of that record deal. Once I was out of that deal, I just went into a studio and made the album I wanted to make. We recorded 20 songs or so, and at that point I wasn’t even worried about the business side of all of this. It was about wanting to make this music, and put it out by myself, just so I can give it to the people. That’s what I did with the first half of [the double album], where we put out 10 songs last year in October and November, and while we were doing that Warner Brothers heard the other half of the record. When we put out the first half at the end of last year, we were anticipating putting the second half out early this year. Then Warner Brothers came in and were like, ‘We want to get behind this second half, and we want to sign you.’ It’s a really good opportunity, and I made sure that they were in it for the right reasons. So the second half is going to have a lot more promotion. The pros are that it gets to be promoted the right way, but that also means that it’s pushed back a couple of months further than I wanted.
Q: Your family has such a deep connection with both music and sports, and I know that you played baseball before a shoulder injury ended that dream, and that’s when you got into music full-time. Do you ever have nights when you’re playing in front of a bad crowd, and just wish you were still playing baseball?
A: No, I love playing music, and there’s nothing else I’d rather do full-time. Music is where my heart is. But that being said, yes, sometimes you’re sitting there and just want to go hit some batting practice. I’ll see a video of a high school athlete, and it reminds me of those days, and I feel like I would do anything to be able to play just one more baseball or Friday football game. It’s always a tough thing to reminisce on, but there are definitely no regrets as far as the career path I chose.
Details
Who: Tucker Beathard
When: 9 p.m., Saturday Feb. 23
Where: City Limits Saloon, 901 Tryon Hill Dr., Raleigh
Cost: $20 advance, $25 day of show
Info: HellYeahRaleigh.com or 919-829-3939