April 8, 2024 • 58 mins
We have had many great guests and some close friends on the podcast but one of the best parts of this podcast is getting to interview people that I have gotten to watch online. I am meeting them for the first time and getting to learn more about their stories. That is the case for this next artist. Hailing from the small border town of Del Rio, TX, this guest is a blend of classic country and the Norteno sounds of northern Mexico. He moved to Nashivlle not too long ago and signed a publishing deal with Warner Chappel. He has already put out two albums, “Faded Memories” and “Here's To You, Here’s To Me” where two singles, “Damn This Heart Of Mine” and “Tennessee Drinkin” were consecutive #1 songs at Texas Regional radio Charts. He has amassed more than 670,000 followers on TikTok, 16 million streams, performed at the Grand Ole Opry, signed a record deal with Warner Music, and spend the last year touring with Parker McCollum, Randy Rogers Band and Wade Bowen. I am super excited for this conversation please welcome - William Beckmann.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
There's one high school when I was growing up, I
mean everybody. That's one of those things like, Hey, did
you break up with your girlfriend? You mind if I
take her out?
Speaker 2 (00:05):
You know?
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Yeah for sure.
Speaker 3 (00:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Hey everyone, welcome back. We have a new episode here
on the six one five House podcast. It's your host,
Chris Rudeger, and We've had a lot of great guests,
some close friends on the podcast. But one of the
best parts about this podcast is that I get to
interview people that I've gotten to watch and know through
social media, but I haven't actually met them in person.
So this is the first time that I'm meeting them
(00:40):
and learning about their stories. That's the case for this
next artist, hailing from a small border town of Del Rio, Texas.
He's blended classic country and North to Know sounds of
northern Mexico. It's a really unique style, like a Country
Americana Latin blend that's super rich. And his voice is
so identifiable. It's got a really unique tone, and I
think that's why when he moved to Nashville, it did
(01:02):
not take long for him to sign a publishing deal
with Warner Chappel and then also sign a label deal
with Warner. He has two albums, Faded Memories and Here's
to You, Here's to Me, and two of the singles
on that second album, Damn This Heart of Mine and
Tennessee Drinking. We're consecutive number ones at Texas regional radio charts.
He's amassed more than six hundred and fifty thousand followers
(01:25):
on TikTok. He has tens of millions of streams. Performed
at the Grand Old Opry, signed a record deal as
I mentioned, and spent the last year touring with Parker McCollum,
Randy Rodgers, and Wade Bowen. I'm super excited for this conversation,
so we're going to get into it, and please welcome
William Beckman in the studio.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Hey, what's going on, Chris? How you doing? I am good, man,
I am good.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
It's so nice to officially meet you because it's one
of those things where I followed you online on social
media for a while. Thank you, and like I felt
like I knew you through the videos, like your personality
just shines through, but it's nice to actually connect in
person and like shake hands officially.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Likewise, thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Yeah, man, you are man. You got some swag. Dude,
you got the style.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
I don't know about that, but I try.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
No, you do, man, I like this like understreat you
got kind of science. It's a good look. And I
saw you know, I've been watching your videos, but I
saw that you were rocking a suit for a couple shows.
It might have been like around the holidays.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Yeah, man, we actually did this. It's our second year
doing this, this Christmas tour that we call Los Posadas,
and it's basically me just singing a bunch of Christmas
songs and throwing in like some Sinatra American standards and
it's it's really cool. It's fun for me. I've always
been a big fan of Crooners and and the rat
Pack and stuff like that, so to get to play
(02:43):
dress up and be Sinatra for like ten days is
really rad. No, that's what that was from. We did.
I had to get like three or four different tuxedos
so that I could swap them out night after night.
But it was great. Man. The fans showed up, and
you know, I love the I love Christmas time and
the month of December, so it was cool.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Yeah. Man, you're going to be known as the best
dressed country artist pretty soon.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
That would be a bad thing. We would not know you.
Did you keep the suits?
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (03:10):
I bought them, and yeah, you know, it's it's looking
like we're gonna do it again for a third time
this this this upcoming holiday season. So it's cool, man,
it's again. It's it's nice for me to kind of
take a step away from my country side of things
and just get to reinvent myself for a little bit.
And my band loves it too because we're getting to
have fun and it's not our standard, typical set so right.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
It's it's probably a chance for them to have a
little creativity with their instrumentation and just branch outside of
maybe the traditional set list. You have one thing that
I wanted to talk about because I hear it from
you have such a distinct and rich tone, but I
can tell that there is clearly inspiration from the as
(03:53):
you mentioned the rat Pack and the Sinatra in the
Presley era. I'm like, I'm curious, what did you grow
up listening to?
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Man, it was a lot of that. It was a
lot of It was a bunch of different things. Honestly,
I was always I tell people that I can distinctly
remember listening to the George Straight fifty number ones. It
was like a double or it might have been a
triple CD, I can't remember. My brother and I had it, yeah,
and I'd like listen to that CD or those CDs religiously.
(04:26):
So George Strait, It's always been a big influence for me.
And of course all that stuff too. When I got
a little bit older, I got really into like the
old Old Country, but also Elvis and some of the
some of the crooners that I that I mentioned, but
also having grown up in Texas, there was a lot
(04:47):
of Texas Country that I was listening to and so
were my friends. So when I was first starting to
learn how to play guitar, those were the songs that
people friends of mine were requesting, So that's what I
would just learn how to play. So a lot of
people that I tour with now Andy Rogers Band and
Bowen and all those guys. So I mean, it's just
a combination of a bunch of different things.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Is it still shock you that some of those guys
that you're listening to growing up, you're now like on
the road and friends with them playing.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Absolutely. There's times there's times where I where it's kind
of funny. If we're like at a bar having a
beer or something, I'm like, man, my sixteen year old
self would be freaking out right now, right, But they've
been my buddies for a while now, so yeah, I'm
just grateful to have, you know, big brothers in the
in the scene and in the business that can help
(05:35):
look after me, and you know, vice versa. It's all
about leaning on people.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
So right, I wanted to I want to touch bass
about your start. You mentioned that you listen to all
those music. When did you officially pick up the guitar
and say, Okay, I'm gonna write some songs.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Man, I was probably like thirteen fourteen something like that.
I took piano lessons first, but I learned how to
play guitar around thirteen or fourteen, and I didn't really
start writing songs until I was maybe sixteen, you know,
but I had I had a little bit of I
had a lot of learning to do because the first
songs that I ever attempted to write were not very good.
(06:14):
Do you remember do you remember the first song you wrote?
It was called the Blazing Blues, Blazing Blues. Yeah, I
don't even remember how it goes, but it was it was.
It was not good.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
I was about to say, there's a guitar over in
the corner, get can we get a verse in a
chorus blazing?
Speaker 1 (06:29):
I couldn't remember even if I tried. Man, this is
one of those things. I just remember the title and
I remember that it was a funny blue like it
wasn't a funny blue song, but it was a blue song.
So it's very repetitive. But but you know, you got
to start somewhere, and that's where I started.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Right, No, that's that's awesome. And then you know, one
of the things we were chatting about when you first came
in is your live show and your ability to tour.
I know that you've been playing at some Texas circuits
and and and beyond and like kind of sinking your
teeth to like the live performance process went. Did you
(07:04):
write songs and record songs first and then tour or
were you kind of already touring prior?
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Like what what? What was your live experience? You know, No,
I definitely had when I started touring in the state
of Texas, I had already released some music. But you know,
before I had any music out, I moved here to Nashville,
and I was doing a lot of the writers' rounds
(07:30):
and stuff like that. You know, Bellcourt Taps. That place
used to be around.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
I know, rest in Peace man Man.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
I used to play that place several times a week,
and that's where I would go and I would write
songs in my bedroom and then I would hop on
some of these writers rounds over at that place and
test them out, you know, and kind of play them
for for the other people and see if they got
a good response or not. There used to be uh
in Printer's Alley too, there's an alley taps. Is that
place still around? I don't, I don't. I haven't even
(07:58):
been mad. I think, you know, I think it is.
I don't know if they're doing as many writers' rounds
as they want to. But I to your point, this
was all pre COVID. This was you know, twenty seventeen,
you know, twenty sixteen, twenty seventeen, something like that.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
It was a great place to meet, right, I mean,
you probably met some of your writer friends or got
feedback on these.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Songs, right, you know, and they'd give it, they'd give
you a couple three beers and that was enough for
me to be like, yeah, I'll come and test out
these songs and have a couple have a couple of beers,
and and I did that.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
You know.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
That's that's that was sort of my first experience playing
a lot of my songs that I had written up
until then. Like I was in a cover band when
I was in high school, so I played. I wasn't
a stranger to the stage by any means. But as
far as like, man, like this is a brand new song,
let's yeh, nothing recorded, nothing, nothing even on I might
(08:47):
have like put really crappy recordings out on like SoundCloud
back then, but I didn't have any records out or anything.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Well, it's definitely a different process than you know, playing
you know, nineteen ninety George Straight, which is great, but
you know you're just sort of karaoking it to an
extent versus like, hey, I put my heart and soul
into the song. Nobody's ever heard it before.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Yeah, here goes.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Nothing Like that's an intimidating process.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
You know, especially in Nashville, you know, where it's like
you're essentially in the biggest town in the world for it,
you know, against the best of the best and so
it can be a little daunting to be like, to
be that vulnerable, especially when I was that when when
I was that young and felt like I didn't really
not that I wasn't good by any means I think
I did. I had a certain amount of confidence in
(09:33):
my ability to write songs. But it you know, there's
always that one person that you're like, damn, I gotta
follow that guy, you know, or her, you know. And yeah,
and man, I saw some incredible artists and songwriters and
heard some insane songs, you know, just on a random
Tuesday night for like nobody but twelve people in the crowd,
(09:54):
you know. And so that was going back to your question.
I did that a lot when I was living here
in in Nashville full time. And and then I I
briefly kind of went back to Texas for a little
bit to try to play some shows and get a
band together, and then that sort of evolved into me
opening up for a couple of different artists down there.
(10:15):
And I still play heavily in Texas. That's I played
almost every venue there is to play. Yeah, So yeah,
it's awesome and I enjoy it, and the fans are
some of the best fans in the whole world.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
What I love about that Texas surgate is their appreciation
for original music because Nashal it's in timing. There's a
lot of songris but people are you know, it's a great,
great collaborative community as well. But there are other cities
you go to and if you try to play an
original song, it's like people are talking, slamming beers, like
it's like did anyone even listen? And I think, like,
(10:49):
it's really you know, it's the part of the process
that I think a lot of people forget is like
as the artist, you're also receptive to feedback and reactions
of the crowd, and like when you're playing something for
the first time that your own and people are chatting
or whatever, it's like, oh man, maybe this isn't it's.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
All vibes, man, the crowd's given off certain vibes. I mean,
you pick up on it. And you know it's funny too,
because I've always been I've always been really comfortable in
theaters and very quiet listening room type environments. I think
a lot of that has to do with a lot
(11:26):
of some of my songs are kind of intimate like that,
and my voice is able to, like I'm able to
really kind of make things delicate, if that makes any sense.
When I started playing, when I got a band together
and started playing like these big, rowdy shows where people
were like screaming, and it was like, the idea is
to hype it up and kind of get it really energetic.
(11:48):
I struggled with that for a long time when I
first started doing it. I kind of had to learn
how to do that. And it's funny to me because
some people are most people that I've ever met, or
kind of the opposite. It's like being in a being
in a theater type situation is really really daunting for them,
and then being like at a festival or something, or
(12:09):
like in a college town where a bunch of young
kids getting drunk and wanting to wanting to want to
hang out, yeah, you know, throw beers up in the
air and stuff. So I had to kind of learn
how to do how to do both. But yeah, whether
whether the crowds and having a great time or whether
nobody's saying a word, that's kind of important for me
(12:30):
to be like, Okay, how are we gonna how are
we going to put them in the palm of your hand.
I mean it's gonna be one of two ways. You're
either gonna you know, pyro and smoke and you know,
really try to blow their blow their minds, or just
reel it back and be be that guy that that's
able to you know, have them there in the palm of.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Course, of course that and maybe wear a nice suit
and you'll get their attention, don't you know. Yeah, man,
I so you know I followed your journey. I know
you've put out two albums I believe in the past
couple of years. Yeah, which is a lot of music,
particularly for an artist like you know, coming out of
(13:14):
the gate right like you. I mean, you've been playing
writing a bunch. But that's a lot of music. It's
great music. Like, talk to me a little bit about
the process. I want to talk about the first album
because that when that come out twenty twenty nineteen.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Yeah, well, Faded Memories came out in twenty twenty, I
think twenty twenty, okay, yeah, yeah, and Fait but yeah,
that that record I started at the very kind of Yeah,
it was at the very beginning of the pandemic because
a lot of those songs I had I'd worked up
(13:49):
with my producer, and there wasn't a band in the
studio at all. It was essentially him and I just
kind of layering a bunch of stuff because we couldn't
really get anybody in the studio, you know, and so
it was really just two people making it sound like
there was a full band, and then I just cut
the vocals and stuff, which is fun for me because
I love pulling stuff apart and adding things and taking
(14:11):
my time with it. Sometimes when especially recording here in Nashville,
when you have a whole band, it can it can
go by so fast, and it's like they'll listen to
the song you cut it through or four takes and
then it's just like okay, and then you know onto
the next song, and you don't really have time to
sit down and and really live with with what's being
tracked and stuff. So it was it was an By
(14:31):
the way, I forgot to mention a lot of the
tracking for that first record we did in Springfield, Missouri,
of all places. Why why did you go to Springfield?
Right again? Man, it was just it was just covid
e times and it was it was hard to get
into a studio here and my producer, who lives over there,
has a friend that's got a really really nice studio,
(14:53):
and and yeah, I don't even think we were going
in there with the intention of like starting on the record.
I think we were just gonna do like pre production
st and kind of mess around and try to get
some sounds. And it ended up just being a great
trip and we cut a bunch of cool stuff. But
it was just again him and I I think we did.
We did. We did a song of mine that I
wrote called thirty Miles, and then we did a cover
(15:16):
of Bruce Springsteen's I'm on Fire, which I don't think
was ever really supposed to come out. We did that
song and it came out so cool, almost like a
West To me, it sounded like a Western kind of
kind of it could be like in a Western soundtrack,
and uh, and I decided to put it on there
just because I thought it was so so rad. But yeah,
those two, those two songs in particular, it was just
him and I. There was just two people recording, and
(15:37):
we just layered everything He did. He did the drums
and like the bass, and I did most of the
guitars and piano and stuff.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Yeah, I was gonna say you're a multi intermis to yourself.
How many instruments can you fly?
Speaker 1 (15:48):
The ones that I claim that I can actually get
away with. I can play piano, I can play guitar,
the harmonica and the bass, the drums, I can. I
can get by. But if I would, I would never
see it for your cover band. Yeah, I would never
sit in with another band and be like, yeah, yeah,
I'll play drums on this.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
So let me let me take a pass on this one.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
Right.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
That's one of the things that I have seen you do.
And to your point of that Bruce cover, you have
a really great ability to take songs that are not
maybe country or exactly in the lane of what Willie
Beckman song is and kind of put your own twist.
I think it's a great sign of your artistry. I
think your awareness of where you want to go. I
saw a bunch of that that you've been posting on
(16:32):
TikTok or I bet you'll take like a you know,
like a cover song and mess around with or whatever.
When did you first decide to get on not even TikTok,
but like social media and kind of like, you know,
start like all right, I'm doing this, right, I got songs,
I got a market, I gotta promote. Like when did
that all start?
Speaker 1 (16:50):
Yeah, that was probably I'd have to say. I mean,
I was definitely very active on it, but before before
the pandemic. But once when the pandemic happened, is when
I found myself with a lot of time on my hands,
and and that's when TikTok was kind of king, and
(17:12):
so I didn't have, honestly, anything better to do but
make videos. And it felt good feeling like I was
even though I or most people felt like they had
their hands tied behind their back because they couldn't go
out and tour or really promote promote their music by performing.
It felt like by doing TikTok videos and being able
(17:34):
to engage with the fans that were already following me,
but also making new fans at the same time, it
felt productive and it made me feel good, and I
did it and it didn't It didn't matter to me
whether I was promoting my own music or just making
funny videos of me covering a you know, whatever kind
of song. It was. It was just a cool way
(17:54):
for me to hopefully cast my net a little bit
wider and make some new fans. So that's that was
the whole like the whole idea behind it. But yes,
you have quite a sidekick. Well, I'll have to pull
this clavier for reference. You do a really interesting rendition
of Fastcar, Yes wherever sort of every other line, and
(18:15):
you have a good friend of yours, so Combs recorded
it too.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Yeah, so you were on top of it before Luke.
Do you do you feel like Luke maybe took some
of the thunder from you on Fastcar?
Speaker 1 (18:24):
Not at all. He's got a great he's got a
great version. And you know, I messed up the words
and in my in my video, but that video was
honestly just kind of a fluke. It was me. It
was me. It was supposed to be me genuinely trying
to record a nice rendition of that song because it's
everybody knows that song and it's such a beautifully written song. Uh.
(18:46):
And my buddy, my buddy Andrew was it was with
me and was just being a goofball and kind of messing.
You know, he would just add living stuff, being being
a hype man. Anyway, I thought it was funny and
I put it up there not thinking much of it,
but it got like over twenty million views or something
like that, and I don't even know how many red
(19:06):
posts it got and stuff, but that wild like other
people took the sound and had vira like millions and
millions of views too and had viral videos, so just
kind of spiral. It just kind of spiraled. It was
funny there there for a minute. Yeah, we were we
were all over TikTok and.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
You probably had like a bunch of new followers and
that you must have been blown ups. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
Every once in a while, I'll still have people ask
me to play that song at a show, which is funny.
That's that's great. I try to stay away from it
now because you know, Luke's got a great, great hit
with it and you know, but it was fun what's yeah, man, that's.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
It's crazy to me the power of what one video
can do, not I mean with that song in particular,
like the amount of eyes and ears that were that
became aware of who like William is as an artist
and then like followed you and are like I'm sure
some of those people that came from that video, you know,
have stuck around, they continue to support. It's like the
power of social media is just like I'd blowing absolutely.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
Man. I think what's the craziest thing is how it's
funny how when you don't try to do something or
I guess when you don't try to have a viral
moment is when it happens. And when you try to
follow the trends or whatever is going on that's relevant,
it just never seems to land. Because that was truly
(20:22):
one of the That was one video that I probably
least expected anything to happen. But you know, it's funny
because it's all in it's all in the hands of
the of the of the viewer. You know, if they
wanted to reshare something or if they thought it was funny,
then it clearly works. But I think it's just the
authenticity behind it.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Really. It's when you take a moment that's so real
of you performing this cover and singing great, and then
your you know, knucklehead of a friend is like jumping
in the background. It's just it's very humanizing, and I
think sometimes people get upset with like overproduced or fluffed
up stuff, and like that's one thing I think I've realized.
It's like people are smart, you know, people can kind
(21:02):
of read the you know, the room, the room and like.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Transparency is right man, you know, it's like authenticity and
being genuine I think goes so much further than like,
hey look at me, I've I've got talent and I
can sing and it'say, well, yeah, there's ten thousand other
people on this app that can do the same thing.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
So fast forward after this, you know, TikTok moment after
you put a couple of records, what's crazy just your trajectory. Man,
You get a publishing deal with Warren Chapel, You now
have a record deal, You go and play the Grantle Opry.
I mean, let's talk. Let's start. There's too much, there's
(21:41):
a lot to unpack here, but let's let's start on
the opry front.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
I mean, when you got that call, like give me
the play by play? Yeah, I know that. When I
got the call, it was amazing. Obviously, it's every buddy's
dream to to play the Opry and uh, something I've
thought about since I was a kid. Uh, but yeah,
it was, it was. It was awesome. My parents flew
(22:08):
in from from Del Rio and uh, it seemed like
half of my hometown was was there for it. But
but yeah, it was definitely a dream come true, and
and I sang one of my songs, Bourbon Whiskey, because
that's like a really traditional country song and I wanted
to do that. And then I played a song in
Spanish water bed Ward Bed, which is a famous Mariachi song.
(22:30):
But yeah, just to stand in the circle and to
get to look out there in the in the crowd
and and feel the history, feel the love was definitely
something I will never forget for the rest of my life.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
You say it so casually, You're like in this you know, vetero,
I can't even do it. And marriage song, I mean,
everyone go watch this clip, like no, you you absolutely
crushed this song in like fluent Spanish. I watched the
video and it's like one of those things where like
I thought you were mouthing the words and somebody else
(23:00):
was singing behind the curtrent. I'm like, there's no way
this kid you know no Spanish. But then I realized
that's like a big part of your background and your culture,
Like so like what, you know, what is it? What
was it about that moment or maybe about kind of
like your artistry. It seems like you're bringing in a
lot of like you know, Hispanic influence.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
Yeah, you know, and people ask me that all the time,
and honestly, I'd have a hard time answering that because
that's just where I'm from. You know. It would be
just like any anybody else, Like if you grew up
on the coast of Florida, I'd be like somebody asking you, like,
what's the beach, Like I'm like, I don't. I mean,
it's just it's my home. I mean, that's just kind
of how it is, you know. And and del Rio
for the for those watching that don't know. Del Rio's
(23:40):
right on the Rio Grande in the southern border of Texas,
so it's right on the uh northern border of Mexico.
So if you left the house that I grew up
in and you wanted to be in Mexico, it would
maybe take you three or four minutes, you know, to
cross the border into Acuna, which is the neighboring or yeah,
(24:01):
the bordering town. So yeah, it's just like people coming
back and forth. Everybody speak Spanish, you know. When I
was first learning how to sing, most of the time,
not most of the time, but a lot of the time,
I was doing these little cover band shows and stuff.
I mean, people would just naturally ask for songs in Spanish.
It's just kind of the culture there. So it was
(24:23):
inevitable that I learned how to do that at an
early age, and I didn't think much about it, so
it's just part of I guess me as an artist.
And then going back to the Opry, one thing that
I quickly realized is like, yeah, I had a lot
of people that were there to support me, which is
(24:44):
one of the greatest feelings in the world to have,
you know, your family and everybody coming there. But there
were so many people there at the Opry. They just
happened to have a ticket for the Opry that night.
They have no idea who I am. They have no
idea they might know kind of some of the bigger
artists and stuff. So it was honestly a lot of
exposure and it was a great opportunity for me to
just showcase, like, hey, look, if you don't know who
I am, let me show you a little bit about
where I'm from, what I do right and and that's
(25:05):
what I kind of remember the most from that night,
and that's why I thought it'd be important for me
to sing one of my songs that I wrote that
was arguably the most country thing I've ever written, and
then a song in Spanish. It's like, look, this is
this is a little piece of my hometown. You know
he did.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (25:20):
Man.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
You take you take a traditional country song that's very
mentioned in the pocket of what you're doing, and then
also you know there's a Hispanic song that is also
in the pocket of what you're doing, and you're blowding together,
and like, I mean, people, there was clearly a saw
of standing ovation on. People probably followed you from it,
like it's it's really really cool you're doing. I'm blown away,
Like I know, it's like you're like, oh, it's where
(25:41):
I'm from, Like it's crazy to me, but like you're
a couple of miles away, Like were we ever? Like hey,
like friends, you guys want to pop on over to
Mexico for combat, like take trips to Mexico, Yeah, all
the time.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
I mean that's where I kind of learned how to
drink a beer, honestly. But you know, there's a there's
a lot of history in in Acuna, which is, like
I mentioned, in the town that borders my hometown. You
ever seen the movie Desperado with Antonio Bondars. That movie
shot in uh well, the big shootout scenes. Most of
the movies is shot there in that town. But there's
(26:14):
a famous bar there called the Corona Club, and that's
where a lot of those shootout scenes happen. And I
filmed a music video for one of my songs in
the same bar. The song is danced all night long. Yeah,
and it was cool because we did it like as
a one take, so it's a one shot, like.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
A oh I want to take a cool Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
But that bar is where they filmed that movie in
the nineties. Wow, So that's my hometown.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
That's crazy.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
Yeah. How many people are in your hometown? My hometown's
probably like a little over forty thousand people, okay, forty
five thousand people. Yeah. So it's not like, no, it's
not a tiny town, but it's tiny. It's tiny enough
to where every most everybody knows everybody.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
Sure.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
When I was growing there's one high school when I
was growing up, I mean everybody. It's one of those
things like, hey, did you break up with your girlfriend?
You mind if I take her out? You know?
Speaker 2 (26:59):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (27:00):
For sure?
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Yeah, everyone knows that. I get it. It's the small
town stuff, man. You know. I just think it's great.
You're like, hey, I'm you know you guys want to
pop on over to Mexico. I gotta gotta gig in
Mexico at a night and then back in the stays tomorrow.
It's just great. We're gonna're gonna take a quick break,
gonna be right back here, guys. On the six one
five House Podcast. We're back guys. Country artist William Beckman
(27:22):
in the studio. Thanks for tuning in. I'm having a
lot of fun. We're chatting about his past, his story,
playing the Grand Old Opry, working on new music. But
I want to take a quick second here to play
one of my favorite games. This game is called rank
these five things without knowing what comes next. William, I
gave you the rundown.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
Okay, I'm nervous. I don't know why.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
I can see you're shaking, man, he's shaking in those boots.
But here's how it goes, right, Rank these five things
give you a category, but you don't know what comes next. Okay,
Ranked these five things. Category is Elvis Presley songs.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
On brand right oo good?
Speaker 3 (28:00):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (28:00):
Firstuf, we have jailhouse Rock.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
I'm gonna go with a three You're safe play to start. Yeah,
you're just you're You're just that one's gonna be in
the middle.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
You're seeing what else is on the board?
Speaker 1 (28:13):
Yeah, because there's I could think of so many other
ones that I that I like more than that.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
But yeah, the next stuff we got hound Dog.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
Probably a four. Okay, what about Heartbreak Hotel? I'm gonna
go with five?
Speaker 2 (28:30):
Interesting? What about Can't Help Falling in Love?
Speaker 1 (28:34):
One?
Speaker 2 (28:34):
That's the one for you. Oh you were quick on that. Yeah,
and last is Suspicious Minds.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
Yeah, that's freaking with two. Really, so that was pretty
That was pretty good. Yeah, No, Devin, Can't Help Only Love, man,
that's always been one of my favorite I cover that
song and uh the recording of that song, just the
way it was tracked is insane to me. Uh so, yeah,
I was waiting for that one. I'm glad you mentioned it.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
That's good if they're let me ask you this, not that,
not because Elvis has got too much, too many great songs.
Not that we're kicking any of these songs out, but
if you had an honorable mention, is or one I missed?
Speaker 1 (29:04):
Oh? Man?
Speaker 3 (29:08):
I mean.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
I always loved his uh his version of always on
my mind. If you've ever heard his version of that?
Speaker 2 (29:19):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (29:19):
Uh, but yeah, man, he had so many great he
had so many great records and a song as man,
I'm a big fan. Did I have you watched the Salvis Mavie? Yes?
I didim halfway through the Priscilla movie. Okay, yeah, you
have you seen the Pursilla movie.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
I haven't seen Priscilla, I have seen Elvis. What'd you
think of what's his name, Austin Austin Bower.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
Yeah. I thought he did good, man, I thought he
did good.
Speaker 3 (29:42):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
It's it's one of those roles that's been done a
bunch of times. But I thought he did a good,
a good, a good job with it. And and I
thought it was cool that just given the whole you know,
Elvis had a crazy life and and you know, it
wasn't the pretty side of show business. But if you
think about it, you know, I'm glad they shed a
(30:06):
little light on that. But if you think about it, man,
nobody had been that famous like as a as an entertainer,
like he was the first one to sort of pioneer that,
so nobody knew how to deal with fame like that.
Nobody knew how to deal with the sure you know,
there was never there wasn't a management deal that was
that was that bad. You know, he was a he
like I feel like he had to step in every
pothole that the entertainment business could throw at you, so
(30:27):
that everybody else would be like, Okay, so that's not
what you do kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
It was, in a weird it was the test case
for the rest of the business because of how big
he was. I'm gonna ask you something just off the
top of my head here, because I think Elvis was
so influential and so big, Like I would almost argue
like no one could ever be as impact or just
(30:51):
monumental I guess as an artist. However, like I think
we're seeing it right now with like early signs of
like what Taylor's is doing. And like, am I crazy
to say this, but like I know Elvis is here,
but like, is Taylor Swift like the next Alvis?
Speaker 1 (31:09):
I don't think you're crazy for saying that. I think
she's just she's just as influential as is anybody at
Elvis's caliber. I think obviously it's just a different time,
you know, the way things get passed around, just with
the Internet is a little bit different than things were
back then. But I'm I'm a huge Taylor Swift fan.
(31:32):
And I love that she writes her own songs and
that she seems like a really smart like business woman too,
and and I think she's a great role model. Man,
if anybody's gonna like fall in love, you know, if
you want young young kids, especially young girls, to look
up to somebody, man, why not it be her? Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
I mean every four to twenty four year old girl
is in the palm of her hand. So whatever she's
doing or whatever she's eating in our ceiler real, it's
I mean, it's working. I want to do another round
of ranked these five things. I'm very curious to see
your reaction to this, because you're, like, I can tell
(32:14):
you're very.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
How do I say this?
Speaker 2 (32:17):
I know you're just thoughtful, You're analytical about music.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
So here we go rank these five things. Category is
decades of music. Okay, first up, we have the nineteen seventies.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
Okay, it's gonna have to be uh oh man, that's
that is gonna have to be like number two for me. Okay,
big seventies guy, Yeah, what about the seventies? Got you going.
I mean, I honestly like a lot of the songwriter stuff,
like the Neil Young and like that, those Jim Croche
(32:53):
you know those cats that were big in the seventies.
I like a lot of that. What about the nineteen
Ninetames Taylor or too I'm gonna go with a four
on the nineties. I do like the nineties. There was
a great music. I mean, there's great music that came
out of every decade.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
But uh, you ever had banging to Nirvan Arms?
Speaker 1 (33:10):
Oh yeah, yeah? Who died me? Come on right?
Speaker 2 (33:14):
You know next up we got twenty tens probably five,
you know, because I don't we we lived, you know that,
like we lived through through that and and I guess
I have just a different perspective on.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
It because I'm like, O, yeah, I remember that song
came out. But there's a couple songs that I remember
that came out while we were while I was growing up,
and I'm like, this is this is my you know,
this represents me or whatever. I'll never I didn't have
a lot of those. I don't know if you did.
I mean, there are a couple of Maroon five songs
I remember. I'm like, yes, like that like any I
(33:49):
will be in my fifties and I'll hear that song.
You know, it's gonna take me right back to when
I was, you know, a teenager or whatever.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
But yeah, I I there are a couple of maybe
I could think, uh, you're laugh at me. I don't know.
Katie Perry put out of some songs that like, for
whatever reason, it was just like peak youn here in
middle school dance. I don't know. I just like have
this vivid memory of like this girl I liked, I
wanted to dance with her, and like, you know, Teenage
Dream by Katy Perry comes on and I don't know
(34:18):
what it was, but it just like fired me up
and I was like, this is the moment. I'm gonna
ask and like whatever it happened, So, you know, thanks,
thanks Katy. There was like it's a memory.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
Yeah, there was a couple. Yeah, there was a couple
that I can think of that. I'm like, man, a
lot some of that Mumford and Son stuff. Man like
that that stuff got played a lot, and I'm like, dude, yeah,
those songs will probably stick in my head. You know, Oh,
there's zero in my in my mind for long done.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
Okay, so we had we got the seventies, which you
put it to the nineties, which you put at four,
and then you put twenty ten a five. You got
one to three. Next up we have the nineteen eighties.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
Probably gonna uh, I'm gonna probably put that at three. Interesting,
So I don't know what's what I'm left with to
make number one.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
But what do you want to be number one?
Speaker 1 (35:11):
I would probably have to go with the sixties?
Speaker 2 (35:13):
Interesting, last on the last on the list here was
the early two thousands, which which puts me a number one,
number one, But I didn't I didn't have the sixties
on this scorecard today. The sixties, sixties, I figured, are
your jam?
Speaker 1 (35:29):
Yeah, I like the you know, I like again, I
like all decades of music. But but yeah, early two thousands, man,
let's let's dig that. Let's let's pick that apart.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
Some of that was here, I mean, even some of
the early Maroon five stuff you were talking about was
early two thousands.
Speaker 1 (35:45):
That first record, Yeah, Songs for Jane Dude, that's four.
I was in the fourth grade. That again, hard to
tell me. That's still not the best Maroon five record.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
Crazy.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
Unfortunately, watching this, I like a lot of their records,
but nothing's ever gonna off that first debut album. Man.
Speaker 2 (36:01):
I know, unfortunately Adam Levine has aged quite developed quite interestingly,
but we'll save that for maybe another podcast. There's also
some like good there was some good good country music.
I feel like ye early thousand, I mean I still
think of like you know, I mean Tim McGraw was,
I guess a little back half of nineties two, but
like into the two thousands Rascal Flats era.
Speaker 1 (36:23):
Yeah, and a lot of that early Brad Paisley stuff too.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
Yeah, that chicken pick and stuff too. He's a great player. Huh,
He's great.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
Man. That was a big Dirk Spentley. Gary Allen man,
I tell I tell my team that. Gosh, mins, I
just grew up on a lot of those a lot
of those Gary Allen records, and so that was all
early two thousands as well.
Speaker 2 (36:42):
It was Yeah, is there is there like do you
have like a dream collaboration like somebody that you.
Speaker 1 (36:48):
Man, I get that it it changes all the time,
but uh, I'd love to get into a room and
maybe try to sing a couple of songs with somebody
like like Gary all I'm always a big fan of voices. Man,
I'm always like, I might love somebody's music and stuff,
but I'm always trying to think to myself whether or
(37:08):
not our voices would mesh well together on a record.
Is there anybody? Is there? I mean, like I don't
lead with like, oh, so and so is really hot
right now? Like if I collabed with them, it would
be great from now. Like It's like I like to
take their voice at face value and be like, yeah,
they would, they would, we would sound like I feel
like Lana del Rey and my like I feel like
(37:29):
her voice and my voice might be interesting together on
the same on the same song. Is there anyone?
Speaker 2 (37:36):
Is there anyone?
Speaker 1 (37:36):
Saying? With Casey Musgraves, I lost, Yeah, I was just.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
Gonna ask, is there anybody like like right now and today,
like an up and comer or like a not that
Casey's new, but like a a newsh artist that like,
you know, really fires you out, just like vocally, maybe
it is Casy.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
Yeah, I mean yeah, her and I can't I'm not.
I can't really think of anybody right now. I've got
of course, Landy Wilson's killing it right now, and I
love her voice too. She and I've done a couple
of radio things with her, and she's a fantastic singer
live too. She sounds just like the her records and
so and I'm always I love it when I see that,
Like I'm like when you see somebody really a well
(38:15):
trained vocalist, a well trained singer. I'd love to I'd
love to get to work with her. Some of the guys,
uh that are out there that who's whose voices I
think are or killer. Of course I've toured. I've toured
with Parker McCollum for a couple of years and he's
the same way. He's a great singer and uh, and
(38:36):
it sounds different. You know, there's nobody that he's trying
to sound like. And there's nobody that I can that
can think of that can sound like him. So that's
it's definitely got a unique vocal style, which I think
is read.
Speaker 2 (38:50):
Speaking of well, uh Parker and well other other artists
that have big Texas following. I was looking online. I
so you did this like docu series and you had
it's pretty cool. You had like Wade Boone was on there,
a couple of other guys that like.
Speaker 1 (39:04):
Pat Pat Green.
Speaker 2 (39:05):
Pat Green was on there, yeah, like it was a
cool little clip to watch. Can you talk to me
a little bit about that documentary and sort of like
what it means to you.
Speaker 1 (39:12):
Yeah, So basically the as we were talking about earlier
in my hometown in Acuna, which is on the other
side of the of the Rio Grande, they used they
used to do these concerts in like the late nineties
and early two thousands where it was basically kind of
like a spring break block party thing if you if
(39:36):
you sounds like my gym, No, it was awesome and
a lot of the Texas Cats would go down there,
so Pat Green and Robert ar'keene, the Randy Rogers band,
I mean, you name it, the all across Canadian ragweed
and and everybody would go to Mexico for like a
weekend and there was like a big block party and
they would just kind of go crazy for a couple
(40:01):
days and it was a It was a big thing
back then. But then that sort of died and uh,
they didn't do it for a long time, and so
that documentary was like sort of my attempt to kind
of bring that back, and we did. It was really cool.
There was a thousand people that showed up to this.
We didn't shut down the street or anything. But we
(40:21):
did it there at the Corona Club, which is the
bar that I'm telling you about, and they have a
huge outdoor back patio and and uh and yeah, it
was really difficult to pull it all off because crossing
equipment down across the border is really difficult and getting
it back and then the sound production, I mean everything
logistically was just really difficult. I didn't even think of
(40:44):
bomb yeah, yeah, exactly, yeah exactly. And so but we
did it, and I think it was really cool for
a lot of the a lot of the kids to
have gotten to experience that. But even but even like
their parents, like friends of my parents that were there,
that remembered twenty years ago when they used to do that,
(41:06):
and for them to get to sort of relive that,
it seemed like that's cool.
Speaker 2 (41:09):
It's like almost say, it's a cross generational thing, right,
the parents kind of relive glory days. I also get
to show their kids a little bit maybe a taste
of what it was like exactly growing up. That's really cool, man.
I love I love that documentary. And for anyone watching
it hasn't checked seen it, it's on your.
Speaker 1 (41:23):
Yeah, It's on my website as well. Yeah, ro to
Road to Acunya.
Speaker 2 (41:26):
I love it. I want to talk a little bit.
I asked this question to pretty much, well most of
the artists on this podcast, but I'm very curious to
get your answer. But how do you define success for you,
for the industry? How do you define success?
Speaker 1 (41:45):
How do I define success? It's all to me personally,
it's all an internal thing. It's all it's only something
that that you can define. And I always go back
to this certain sense it's a fulfillment that I'm always
trying to chase. And if you feel like you're achieving
(42:07):
your purpose here, I think that's kind of the truest
measure of success because to me, it's not about the
money or the accolades. Those things are great, don't get
me wrong. And it definitely is sort of reassuring. That's like, Okay,
I'm doing a good job and people are noticing and
recognizing that. But you know, if you don't feel, if
(42:31):
you don't feel that sense of fulfillment, like you're happy
doing this and you can have the gold records on
the wall, and you can have all the money in
the world, and and it might it doesn't really mean anything,
so to me, it just means it's it's and they
come in different ways. Man. It's like little kids coming
out to your shows or something or asking you to
(42:53):
sign a hat or something like that. Like that's crazy
to me because and it happens where it could be
a seven or eight year old kid. I'm like, man,
I remember doing that whenever I'd go to That was
how I looked at some of the guys I mentioned,
like Gary Allen or whoever it was, you know, not
not to compare myself to somebody like him, but to
(43:14):
this kid like that, to me gives me the biggest
sense of fulfillment in the world, the biggest joy in
the world, you know, to see somebody like that, or
to see somebody singing my songs, or to read a
message that somebody said, Hey, you know this song helped
me get through this. I just wanted you to know,
like this is one of my favorite songs of all time.
Thank you. That is what success is to me, And
(43:35):
it comes in waves and it comes in different ways.
But yeah, man, I always try to really focus on
taking those little moments and kind of patting myself on
the back because that's The whole reason I got into
this was to be able to change the world, one
little world at a time, you know what I mean.
(43:56):
So that's how I define success is feeling like feeling
fulfilled and feeling like you're on the right track and
that you're making a positive impact on people.
Speaker 2 (44:09):
Yeah, that's I like that answer lines, and I think
that's it comes through with what you're doing, comes through
with your man. I gotta get to a live show here,
stude Lee.
Speaker 1 (44:20):
Man, You're welcome anytime.
Speaker 2 (44:21):
What's crazy. I'm like, I even watch it.
Speaker 1 (44:24):
You gotta if we do fast card, you gotta. You
gotta hype me up though, you gotta be bad.
Speaker 2 (44:29):
Speaking of which, I saw you wear sunglasses quite a
bit in some of your videos and one there's a
couple of videos, but one in particular, you go for
a double sunglasses. Look, I'm curious, do you wear two
sunglasses just for like extra UV protection?
Speaker 1 (44:46):
Like what I do have sensitive I do? I will
admit that I do have sensitive eyes. But that was
just a funny video that we did where we were
picking on my merged guy. But you know again, I'm
I'm I'm a big you know, the more you get
to know me, the more you'll understand my sense of humor.
But I just love funny content and putting stuff out
(45:06):
there to kind of let people into the that side
of what not only I do, but my band and
stuff and being on the road can be kind of
grueling sometimes, so it is nice to lighten it up
a little bit with some funny content. Uh oh, I
love it. TikTok's like a TikTok is heavily kind of yeah,
it's humor. Yeah. So it's like, I think that's what
(45:26):
that one TikTok had that made it so viral. It
is like here you have me singing, trying to genuinely sing,
like oh, you actually got a decent voice or whatever,
and then my buddy's being a goofball in the background,
and then you just merge like it's actually good and
it's funny, and it's a perfect recipe for something to
to go viral like that. And so we're always trying
to make funny videos and just trying to lighten lighten
(45:48):
the mood up a little bit. So yeah, I thought
I thought it'd be funny if we had two pairs
of sunglasses on a note knew and you just take
one off. You still have a pair on.
Speaker 2 (45:57):
Oh, dude, that's awesome. I just didn't know. I just
didn't know if you know, you wearing two songs.
Speaker 1 (46:01):
But if I was, I hope that somebody would have
like an honest, sit down conversation with me if I
if I genuinely walked around with two pairs of song
glasses on at the same time.
Speaker 2 (46:10):
Yeah, No, I was just curious if maybe you had
some like insider info about, you know, the benefits of
two shades versus very maybe you got you got that
that medical Uh, I don't know insider info. Well, Hey,
we got just a few minutes left, so we're gonna
take a quick break, guys, and we'll come right back
and talk a little bit about new music and some
new stuff.
Speaker 3 (46:28):
Thanks.
Speaker 2 (46:29):
What's up, guys, We're back William Beckman in the studio.
He is releasing new music. Put out two albums, but
releasing new music on the road. Such a great hang, dude.
I am really enjoying chatting with you, and I'm also
very excited for this next segment one because you have
no idea what's coming in too, because it's one of
(46:49):
my favorite segments with our friends over at Ariot. They're
a great Western apparel company, and they have tasked us
with the opportunity to ask rapid fire questions to our
guests on the podcast. So the way this works is
we got sixty seconds on the clock. I'm not these
are just kind of simple yes or no questions. They
(47:10):
get a little bit weirder as we go along, and
we're going to wind up the clock to sixty seconds
and see how you do.
Speaker 1 (47:17):
Okay, So it's just a yes or no pretty much.
Speaker 2 (47:19):
I mean there might be like there's simplistic questions in
this South, So we're going to see how you do.
Don't be nervous, Okay, whatever comes to mind. Man, it's
all good baby. So here we go rapid fire questions.
Let's get it. What's the best type of muffin blueberry?
Do you like the word dapper?
Speaker 1 (47:39):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (47:40):
If you were given an all expenses paid trip to Cleveland,
would you take it?
Speaker 1 (47:44):
Of course?
Speaker 2 (47:45):
Ask for permission or beg for forgiveness?
Speaker 1 (47:49):
Ask for permission?
Speaker 2 (47:51):
If you would you eat a day old takito from
seven to eleven? Would you rather go bald or grow
fifty percent more hair everywhere else?
Speaker 1 (48:02):
From fifty everywhere else? I feel like I'm gonna regret that.
Speaker 2 (48:07):
But yeah, is a handlebar mustache the best type of mustache?
No using the Almo voice? Tell me how you like
your coffee.
Speaker 1 (48:15):
I can't.
Speaker 2 (48:18):
Last one pickles yes or no? Yes, I can agree
with you there, And I still want to hear your
Elma voice.
Speaker 1 (48:24):
I wish I could. I don't even know to practice bad.
Speaker 2 (48:27):
Oh and uh you told me this earlier. But dream collaboration,
dream collaboration.
Speaker 1 (48:33):
We're gonna go with Casey mus Graves for for this one,
just for the sake of picking one.
Speaker 2 (48:37):
There we go, rapid fire questions. You did really well,
you made it, you made it far.
Speaker 1 (48:43):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (48:44):
A lot of people like choke up too long? Yeah
it's got too and you were just you were cruising.
Speaker 1 (48:49):
Man, it was the only one I'm a little bit
concerned about. Is the is the balding or I feel
like I would just have hair everywhere else except on
my head, which is probably not as good. But look
is just being flat out balled.
Speaker 2 (49:02):
Yeah it would be well, you just have to wear
a lot of suits to cover it up.
Speaker 1 (49:06):
But would be like you got like a pretty like
slick do going on? Thank you? Do you use a
lot of like hair gel, not jel. But there is
like some palmade that I used that if I if
I ever forget to pack it and it's like show day,
it's not good.
Speaker 2 (49:22):
Yeah you said it with like it had a little
like a little like palm made, like you gave it
a little flair.
Speaker 1 (49:27):
Well, it gets a little, it gets all over the place,
and it's not the funnest to work with. But you know,
you do it for the sake of the show and
for the sake of the podcast.
Speaker 2 (49:34):
Yeah, you do it. You do it for the people.
Look at that, right, that's awesome. So, I mean, I
know you put out. We actually haven't one hundred percent
talked about this. I want to talk about your most
recent album, and then I want to talk a little
bit about new music. But what was because okay, so
the most recent album, there's a couple of songs on there.
I'm trying to make sure I get this right, but
(49:55):
Tennessee Drinking, which I do now, and then the other
one was called Damn this Heart of Mine, right, yes,
and the whole albums Here's to You, Here's Me, Here's
to You, Here's Me.
Speaker 3 (50:02):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (50:02):
Okay, So talk to me a little bit about the
process of making that album. Specifically, I want to hear
about Tennessee Drinking just because I love that song.
Speaker 1 (50:10):
Thank you man. So yeah, this is like the first
compared to the one before, which was mostly written just
by myself. I had a lot of collaborators on this
on this particular project, and so Tennessee Drinking is one
that I wrote with Randy Montana and Jeremy Spilman, both
of which are very accomplished songwriters, so to get to
(50:33):
work with them was a real treat. And those two
guys definitely know how to write a good song, so
I was lucky just to get to work with them.
And damn, this Heart of Mine is a song that
I wrote one afternoon with a friend of mine who's
a songwriter here in Nashville as well. His name is
Nick Walsh, and we've written quite a few songs together
on this record. But it was really kind of nice
(50:55):
to get to lean on other people and try to
collaborate with other songs writers, because, like I mentioned, the
first record was mostly just me and my songs that
I had written by myself. So yeah, this record, this
last one, was really cool to have other people involved
and help me make the best creative decisions when it
(51:16):
came to the actual writing of the songs.
Speaker 2 (51:18):
Do you do you like writing by yourself or writing
with other people more?
Speaker 1 (51:24):
They're two completely different experiences. I think it's nice to
have a healthy balance between the two. That's something that
I'm just now starting to try to get back into,
is writing by myself. Some people think this is weird,
but I've done this for a long time. But I've
always been like a big Bob Dylan fan. And there's
a couple other songwriters that I can think of that,
(51:45):
Like there's old photographs of them using like an old
mechanical typewriter, like with the hammers and stuff. And I've
got like maybe four or five different typewriters, and I
find it like when I write by myself, I find
it a really cool way to write and just to
kind of even if if it's just lines or poetry
or whatever, like, I enjoy that part of it. And
so I used to do that a lot, and that's
(52:06):
how I wrote a lot of songs. But in recent
years I've been touring and been so busy that it's
hard to find the time to do that anymore. But
I'd like to get back into it because it was
I came up with, you know, I wrote songs like
Bourbon Whiskey and in the Dark off of the first
record like that, you know, and those songs kind of
came to me in fifteen twenty minutes. And you got
(52:26):
to be there to capture lightning in a bottle like
that when it hits.
Speaker 2 (52:29):
But like you wrote the whole song in fifteen minutes.
Speaker 1 (52:32):
Yeah, Like I would sit down at a typewriter and
kind of like hammer out these ideas that would end
up turning into these songs. And now the songwriting process
when I'm co writing, especially here in town, is you know,
meeting with people and doing the meet up at eleven
and right till three or four, which is great. I've
written some great songs that way as well. But it's
(52:53):
just a completely different See, it's such a different process.
If I brought my typewriter on music row, I'm pretty sure.
Speaker 2 (52:59):
I'd get some weird looks and I wasn't going to
see you You should typewriter to not computer.
Speaker 1 (53:04):
Yeah, I'd have to bring it in like a I
would have to bring it in like a wagon. Those
things are too heavy to all around.
Speaker 2 (53:11):
That's like classic why like, like, it's a legitimate typewriter.
Speaker 1 (53:15):
Yeah, so they're mechanical, they're not electric typewriters, because there's
two kinds, you know, the ones like in the seventies
and eighties that you could plug in and stuff. Though
these ones are the ones with the hammers so like,
and most of them are that I have or like
vintage ones from like the forties and got one from
the fifties. But again, it's just a cool way to
get ideas out there. And one thing I personally like
(53:37):
about it compared to writing like on a laptop, is
it doesn't allow you to backspace. You know, you can
cross things out or just keep going. But yeah, but
I find myself sometimes writing and if if I write
something and then I kind of change my mind, rather
than deleting it, I'd kind of just keep going. And
oftentimes you find yourself going back and be like, oh,
(53:58):
that that wasn't that bad app role that or maybe
maybe maybe it doesn't belong right there where you initially
put it, but it it could belong later in the song,
or it could it could be its own idea separate
from this song completely. But when you delete something on
a on like a word document or something. You'll never
see it again, and you don't really know if it
(54:18):
was a right judgment call, you know what I mean.
Some some things take a little bit of not respect. Interesting.
Speaker 2 (54:24):
It's kind of like you have to commit to the idea,
and I think, like, you know, some ideas are something.
Let's say, there are some bad ideas, but there are
also some ideas that are bad and deleted that could
be good ideas if they continue.
Speaker 1 (54:35):
The same thing. When you're writing things by hand, I
think it's a I think anything creative, any any form
of creative writing. If you're writing, if you're writing it
long hand, it's better to scratch something out then to
cross something out than to scribble it out. Like you
always want to be able to be like, what was
it that I say that I uh, so you can
revisit that I scratched out because I don't I don't
(54:57):
know if that was the right call.
Speaker 2 (54:59):
Interesting. Yeah, you probably still get some looks for a typewriter.
Speaker 1 (55:03):
On a music Oh yeah, no, I don't.
Speaker 2 (55:05):
I don't.
Speaker 1 (55:05):
Brit Brand. I like.
Speaker 2 (55:06):
I like the philosophy behind it.
Speaker 1 (55:08):
It's good and it's funny because I only really bought
one and I would tell that same story that and
then I've gotten like I've been gifted three or four
other ones from other people, you know, so I've got
like five of them now, yeah, which is crazy.
Speaker 2 (55:21):
It's very cool though. I like that. I'm I'm not
in the typewriter game, but maybe I should.
Speaker 1 (55:26):
You should. It's fun tell you what.
Speaker 2 (55:27):
I'm more good aesthetic to more just evinced now than
I was five minutes ago.
Speaker 1 (55:31):
Yeah, I mean, and if you don't even have to
use it, you just put it on it. It looks
cool decore, you know.
Speaker 2 (55:35):
Yeah, So how do you balance with all this new
stuff and you're writing, recording all this stuff, But then
you're also, like you said, like can get a little
grueling on the road and play shows. You write music,
got to get give me on damn Instagram and TikTok
every day. It seems like, you know, how do you like,
how do you balance it? Do you do anything outside
of music?
Speaker 1 (55:55):
You know, like there are I do where I come from,
Like my I've got an older brother and my dad.
You know, they like to fish and they like to
hunt and do outdoorsy things. And although it's been a
minute since I've really had an opportunity to go do that.
That's something that I do look forward to doing whenever
I'm not working, but also just taking time for myself,
(56:16):
you know, resting. There's nothing wrong with being a catch
potato for on a day off and watching something on Netflix.
That's another thing. I don't really watch a lot of
TV or anything. I watched some stuff on like flights
and stuff, but I don't get to watch series or
anything that because then I get upset because I get
really like I get really into something and then I
never have time to really finish it. So it's just
(56:38):
like I'm like I saw the first three episodes and
then I never followed back up with dude, it's the worst. Man.
Speaker 2 (56:44):
Everyone's talking about the show Suits, which made like a
big comeback this last year, and I got super into
it and then like whatever, last month, the year got
like super hectic for me and I just like dropped out.
Speaker 1 (56:55):
I haven't watched it.
Speaker 2 (56:56):
Since, and it's like it's like killing me because it's
like I left at the most like a climactic part
of the show. So like, maybe you're doing it well.
Maybe you're doing a good job by not even diving
into the TV show.
Speaker 1 (57:07):
Yeah, Like I'm like, I'm a big movie guy. You know,
I can knock that. You know, a movie you knock
out in two hours and then it's done with. But yeah,
if it's like a series, especially when it's when it's
not when the series is still ongoing. Like, man, I
just don't have the time to like sit down and
really what's your favorite movie? Probably The Godfather? The series
(57:28):
of The Godfather. I'm like classic with that, but the
first one is by far my favorite movie.
Speaker 2 (57:33):
I can't crack you, man, You're just classic everything. You
got the suits, you got the country. But you know,
Godfather's got to be one of the best movies of
all time, right, it is up there. I'm poking fun
of you.
Speaker 1 (57:45):
It's top ten, right, It's oh, it's in rank these
five things.
Speaker 2 (57:48):
It deserves, you know, the one or two spots certainly. Well, dude,
it's been like, it's been great chat with you, man.
I feel like we could we could keep talking all day.
But anything else that you want to let people know
just before we're a wrap up, that's it.
Speaker 1 (58:01):
You know. I got new music that I'm working really
hard on at the moment, writing a bunch of songs,
and we've announced quite a few shows, some Texas shows.
We've got some out of state as well too, so
be on the lookout for that. But yeah, just follow
follow me on Instagram and and uh and all that stuff.
And I'd love to see some some new faces at
some of these shows. I love it, dude. Well, I'm
(58:24):
certainly a fan.
Speaker 2 (58:25):
I think everyone else, uh you know that maybe is
watching this will become a fan or if they're not
already William Beckman, go check him out. Guys. Stuff's online.
It's on his on his website and his YouTube and
and TikTok and all that jazz and dude like, so
pumped for you, so pump for your sounds very unique,
your style is very hip. You don't think it's hip.
(58:47):
I think it's hip. Appreciate it and thanks for jumping
on this.
Speaker 1 (58:50):
Thank you man, Thank you for having me. It's been
a pleasure.
Speaker 2 (58:52):
Of course. We'll see all next week for a new episode.
There's one high school when I was growing up, I
mean everybody. That's one of those things like, Hey, did
you break up with your girlfriend? You mind if I
take her out?
Speaker 2 (00:05):
You know?
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Yeah for sure.
Speaker 3 (00:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Hey everyone, welcome back. We have a new episode here
on the six one five House podcast. It's your host,
Chris Rudeger, and We've had a lot of great guests,
some close friends on the podcast. But one of the
best parts about this podcast is that I get to
interview people that I've gotten to watch and know through
social media, but I haven't actually met them in person.
So this is the first time that I'm meeting them
(00:40):
and learning about their stories. That's the case for this
next artist, hailing from a small border town of Del Rio, Texas.
He's blended classic country and North to Know sounds of
northern Mexico. It's a really unique style, like a Country
Americana Latin blend that's super rich. And his voice is
so identifiable. It's got a really unique tone, and I
think that's why when he moved to Nashville, it did
(01:02):
not take long for him to sign a publishing deal
with Warner Chappel and then also sign a label deal
with Warner. He has two albums, Faded Memories and Here's
to You, Here's to Me, and two of the singles
on that second album, Damn This Heart of Mine and
Tennessee Drinking. We're consecutive number ones at Texas regional radio charts.
He's amassed more than six hundred and fifty thousand followers
(01:25):
on TikTok. He has tens of millions of streams. Performed
at the Grand Old Opry, signed a record deal as
I mentioned, and spent the last year touring with Parker McCollum,
Randy Rodgers, and Wade Bowen. I'm super excited for this conversation,
so we're going to get into it, and please welcome
William Beckman in the studio.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Hey, what's going on, Chris? How you doing? I am good, man,
I am good.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
It's so nice to officially meet you because it's one
of those things where I followed you online on social
media for a while. Thank you, and like I felt
like I knew you through the videos, like your personality
just shines through, but it's nice to actually connect in
person and like shake hands officially.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Likewise, thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Yeah, man, you are man. You got some swag. Dude,
you got the style.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
I don't know about that, but I try.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
No, you do, man, I like this like understreat you
got kind of science. It's a good look. And I
saw you know, I've been watching your videos, but I
saw that you were rocking a suit for a couple shows.
It might have been like around the holidays.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Yeah, man, we actually did this. It's our second year
doing this, this Christmas tour that we call Los Posadas,
and it's basically me just singing a bunch of Christmas
songs and throwing in like some Sinatra American standards and
it's it's really cool. It's fun for me. I've always
been a big fan of Crooners and and the rat
Pack and stuff like that, so to get to play
(02:43):
dress up and be Sinatra for like ten days is
really rad. No, that's what that was from. We did.
I had to get like three or four different tuxedos
so that I could swap them out night after night.
But it was great. Man. The fans showed up, and
you know, I love the I love Christmas time and
the month of December, so it was cool.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Yeah. Man, you're going to be known as the best
dressed country artist pretty soon.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
That would be a bad thing. We would not know you.
Did you keep the suits?
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (03:10):
I bought them, and yeah, you know, it's it's looking
like we're gonna do it again for a third time
this this this upcoming holiday season. So it's cool, man,
it's again. It's it's nice for me to kind of
take a step away from my country side of things
and just get to reinvent myself for a little bit.
And my band loves it too because we're getting to
have fun and it's not our standard, typical set so right.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
It's it's probably a chance for them to have a
little creativity with their instrumentation and just branch outside of
maybe the traditional set list. You have one thing that
I wanted to talk about because I hear it from
you have such a distinct and rich tone, but I
can tell that there is clearly inspiration from the as
(03:53):
you mentioned the rat Pack and the Sinatra in the
Presley era. I'm like, I'm curious, what did you grow
up listening to?
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Man, it was a lot of that. It was a
lot of It was a bunch of different things. Honestly,
I was always I tell people that I can distinctly
remember listening to the George Straight fifty number ones. It
was like a double or it might have been a
triple CD, I can't remember. My brother and I had it, yeah,
and I'd like listen to that CD or those CDs religiously.
(04:26):
So George Strait, It's always been a big influence for me.
And of course all that stuff too. When I got
a little bit older, I got really into like the
old Old Country, but also Elvis and some of the
some of the crooners that I that I mentioned, but
also having grown up in Texas, there was a lot
(04:47):
of Texas Country that I was listening to and so
were my friends. So when I was first starting to
learn how to play guitar, those were the songs that
people friends of mine were requesting, So that's what I
would just learn how to play. So a lot of
people that I tour with now Andy Rogers Band and
Bowen and all those guys. So I mean, it's just
a combination of a bunch of different things.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Is it still shock you that some of those guys
that you're listening to growing up, you're now like on
the road and friends with them playing.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Absolutely. There's times there's times where I where it's kind
of funny. If we're like at a bar having a
beer or something, I'm like, man, my sixteen year old
self would be freaking out right now, right, But they've
been my buddies for a while now, so yeah, I'm
just grateful to have, you know, big brothers in the
in the scene and in the business that can help
(05:35):
look after me, and you know, vice versa. It's all
about leaning on people.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
So right, I wanted to I want to touch bass
about your start. You mentioned that you listen to all
those music. When did you officially pick up the guitar
and say, Okay, I'm gonna write some songs.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Man, I was probably like thirteen fourteen something like that.
I took piano lessons first, but I learned how to
play guitar around thirteen or fourteen, and I didn't really
start writing songs until I was maybe sixteen, you know,
but I had I had a little bit of I
had a lot of learning to do because the first
songs that I ever attempted to write were not very good.
(06:14):
Do you remember do you remember the first song you wrote?
It was called the Blazing Blues, Blazing Blues. Yeah, I
don't even remember how it goes, but it was it was.
It was not good.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
I was about to say, there's a guitar over in
the corner, get can we get a verse in a
chorus blazing?
Speaker 1 (06:29):
I couldn't remember even if I tried. Man, this is
one of those things. I just remember the title and
I remember that it was a funny blue like it
wasn't a funny blue song, but it was a blue song.
So it's very repetitive. But but you know, you got
to start somewhere, and that's where I started.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Right, No, that's that's awesome. And then you know, one
of the things we were chatting about when you first came
in is your live show and your ability to tour.
I know that you've been playing at some Texas circuits
and and and beyond and like kind of sinking your
teeth to like the live performance process went. Did you
(07:04):
write songs and record songs first and then tour or
were you kind of already touring prior?
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Like what what? What was your live experience? You know, No,
I definitely had when I started touring in the state
of Texas, I had already released some music. But you know,
before I had any music out, I moved here to Nashville,
and I was doing a lot of the writers' rounds
(07:30):
and stuff like that. You know, Bellcourt Taps. That place
used to be around.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
I know, rest in Peace man Man.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
I used to play that place several times a week,
and that's where I would go and I would write
songs in my bedroom and then I would hop on
some of these writers rounds over at that place and
test them out, you know, and kind of play them
for for the other people and see if they got
a good response or not. There used to be uh
in Printer's Alley too, there's an alley taps. Is that
place still around? I don't, I don't. I haven't even
(07:58):
been mad. I think, you know, I think it is.
I don't know if they're doing as many writers' rounds
as they want to. But I to your point, this
was all pre COVID. This was you know, twenty seventeen,
you know, twenty sixteen, twenty seventeen, something like that.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
It was a great place to meet, right, I mean,
you probably met some of your writer friends or got
feedback on these.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Songs, right, you know, and they'd give it, they'd give
you a couple three beers and that was enough for
me to be like, yeah, I'll come and test out
these songs and have a couple have a couple of beers,
and and I did that.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
You know.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
That's that's that was sort of my first experience playing
a lot of my songs that I had written up
until then. Like I was in a cover band when
I was in high school, so I played. I wasn't
a stranger to the stage by any means. But as
far as like, man, like this is a brand new song,
let's yeh, nothing recorded, nothing, nothing even on I might
(08:47):
have like put really crappy recordings out on like SoundCloud
back then, but I didn't have any records out or anything.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Well, it's definitely a different process than you know, playing
you know, nineteen ninety George Straight, which is great, but
you know you're just sort of karaoking it to an
extent versus like, hey, I put my heart and soul
into the song. Nobody's ever heard it before.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Yeah, here goes.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Nothing Like that's an intimidating process.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
You know, especially in Nashville, you know, where it's like
you're essentially in the biggest town in the world for it,
you know, against the best of the best and so
it can be a little daunting to be like, to
be that vulnerable, especially when I was that when when
I was that young and felt like I didn't really
not that I wasn't good by any means I think
I did. I had a certain amount of confidence in
(09:33):
my ability to write songs. But it you know, there's
always that one person that you're like, damn, I gotta
follow that guy, you know, or her, you know. And yeah,
and man, I saw some incredible artists and songwriters and
heard some insane songs, you know, just on a random
Tuesday night for like nobody but twelve people in the crowd,
(09:54):
you know. And so that was going back to your question.
I did that a lot when I was living here
in in Nashville full time. And and then I I
briefly kind of went back to Texas for a little
bit to try to play some shows and get a
band together, and then that sort of evolved into me
opening up for a couple of different artists down there.
(10:15):
And I still play heavily in Texas. That's I played
almost every venue there is to play. Yeah, So yeah,
it's awesome and I enjoy it, and the fans are
some of the best fans in the whole world.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
What I love about that Texas surgate is their appreciation
for original music because Nashal it's in timing. There's a
lot of songris but people are you know, it's a great,
great collaborative community as well. But there are other cities
you go to and if you try to play an
original song, it's like people are talking, slamming beers, like
it's like did anyone even listen? And I think, like,
(10:49):
it's really you know, it's the part of the process
that I think a lot of people forget is like
as the artist, you're also receptive to feedback and reactions
of the crowd, and like when you're playing something for
the first time that your own and people are chatting
or whatever, it's like, oh man, maybe this isn't it's.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
All vibes, man, the crowd's given off certain vibes. I mean,
you pick up on it. And you know it's funny too,
because I've always been I've always been really comfortable in
theaters and very quiet listening room type environments. I think
a lot of that has to do with a lot
(11:26):
of some of my songs are kind of intimate like that,
and my voice is able to, like I'm able to
really kind of make things delicate, if that makes any sense.
When I started playing, when I got a band together
and started playing like these big, rowdy shows where people
were like screaming, and it was like, the idea is
to hype it up and kind of get it really energetic.
(11:48):
I struggled with that for a long time when I
first started doing it. I kind of had to learn
how to do that. And it's funny to me because
some people are most people that I've ever met, or
kind of the opposite. It's like being in a being
in a theater type situation is really really daunting for them,
and then being like at a festival or something, or
(12:09):
like in a college town where a bunch of young
kids getting drunk and wanting to wanting to want to
hang out, yeah, you know, throw beers up in the
air and stuff. So I had to kind of learn
how to do how to do both. But yeah, whether
whether the crowds and having a great time or whether
nobody's saying a word, that's kind of important for me
(12:30):
to be like, Okay, how are we gonna how are
we going to put them in the palm of your hand.
I mean it's gonna be one of two ways. You're
either gonna you know, pyro and smoke and you know,
really try to blow their blow their minds, or just
reel it back and be be that guy that that's
able to you know, have them there in the palm of.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Course, of course that and maybe wear a nice suit
and you'll get their attention, don't you know. Yeah, man,
I so you know I followed your journey. I know
you've put out two albums I believe in the past
couple of years. Yeah, which is a lot of music,
particularly for an artist like you know, coming out of
(13:14):
the gate right like you. I mean, you've been playing
writing a bunch. But that's a lot of music. It's
great music. Like, talk to me a little bit about
the process. I want to talk about the first album
because that when that come out twenty twenty nineteen.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Yeah, well, Faded Memories came out in twenty twenty, I
think twenty twenty, okay, yeah, yeah, and Fait but yeah,
that that record I started at the very kind of Yeah,
it was at the very beginning of the pandemic because
a lot of those songs I had I'd worked up
(13:49):
with my producer, and there wasn't a band in the
studio at all. It was essentially him and I just
kind of layering a bunch of stuff because we couldn't
really get anybody in the studio, you know, and so
it was really just two people making it sound like
there was a full band, and then I just cut
the vocals and stuff, which is fun for me because
I love pulling stuff apart and adding things and taking
(14:11):
my time with it. Sometimes when especially recording here in Nashville,
when you have a whole band, it can it can
go by so fast, and it's like they'll listen to
the song you cut it through or four takes and
then it's just like okay, and then you know onto
the next song, and you don't really have time to
sit down and and really live with with what's being
tracked and stuff. So it was it was an By
(14:31):
the way, I forgot to mention a lot of the
tracking for that first record we did in Springfield, Missouri,
of all places. Why why did you go to Springfield?
Right again? Man, it was just it was just covid
e times and it was it was hard to get
into a studio here and my producer, who lives over there,
has a friend that's got a really really nice studio,
(14:53):
and and yeah, I don't even think we were going
in there with the intention of like starting on the record.
I think we were just gonna do like pre production
st and kind of mess around and try to get
some sounds. And it ended up just being a great
trip and we cut a bunch of cool stuff. But
it was just again him and I I think we did.
We did. We did a song of mine that I
wrote called thirty Miles, and then we did a cover
(15:16):
of Bruce Springsteen's I'm on Fire, which I don't think
was ever really supposed to come out. We did that
song and it came out so cool, almost like a
West To me, it sounded like a Western kind of
kind of it could be like in a Western soundtrack,
and uh, and I decided to put it on there
just because I thought it was so so rad. But yeah,
those two, those two songs in particular, it was just
him and I. There was just two people recording, and
(15:37):
we just layered everything He did. He did the drums
and like the bass, and I did most of the
guitars and piano and stuff.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Yeah, I was gonna say you're a multi intermis to yourself.
How many instruments can you fly?
Speaker 1 (15:48):
The ones that I claim that I can actually get
away with. I can play piano, I can play guitar,
the harmonica and the bass, the drums, I can. I
can get by. But if I would, I would never
see it for your cover band. Yeah, I would never
sit in with another band and be like, yeah, yeah,
I'll play drums on this.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
So let me let me take a pass on this one.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
Right.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
That's one of the things that I have seen you do.
And to your point of that Bruce cover, you have
a really great ability to take songs that are not
maybe country or exactly in the lane of what Willie
Beckman song is and kind of put your own twist.
I think it's a great sign of your artistry. I
think your awareness of where you want to go. I
saw a bunch of that that you've been posting on
(16:32):
TikTok or I bet you'll take like a you know,
like a cover song and mess around with or whatever.
When did you first decide to get on not even TikTok,
but like social media and kind of like, you know,
start like all right, I'm doing this, right, I got songs,
I got a market, I gotta promote. Like when did
that all start?
Speaker 1 (16:50):
Yeah, that was probably I'd have to say. I mean,
I was definitely very active on it, but before before
the pandemic. But once when the pandemic happened, is when
I found myself with a lot of time on my hands,
and and that's when TikTok was kind of king, and
(17:12):
so I didn't have, honestly, anything better to do but
make videos. And it felt good feeling like I was
even though I or most people felt like they had
their hands tied behind their back because they couldn't go
out and tour or really promote promote their music by performing.
It felt like by doing TikTok videos and being able
(17:34):
to engage with the fans that were already following me,
but also making new fans at the same time, it
felt productive and it made me feel good, and I
did it and it didn't It didn't matter to me
whether I was promoting my own music or just making
funny videos of me covering a you know, whatever kind
of song. It was. It was just a cool way
(17:54):
for me to hopefully cast my net a little bit
wider and make some new fans. So that's that was
the whole like the whole idea behind it. But yes,
you have quite a sidekick. Well, I'll have to pull
this clavier for reference. You do a really interesting rendition
of Fastcar, Yes wherever sort of every other line, and
(18:15):
you have a good friend of yours, so Combs recorded
it too.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Yeah, so you were on top of it before Luke.
Do you do you feel like Luke maybe took some
of the thunder from you on Fastcar?
Speaker 1 (18:24):
Not at all. He's got a great he's got a
great version. And you know, I messed up the words
and in my in my video, but that video was
honestly just kind of a fluke. It was me. It
was me. It was supposed to be me genuinely trying
to record a nice rendition of that song because it's
everybody knows that song and it's such a beautifully written song. Uh.
(18:46):
And my buddy, my buddy Andrew was it was with
me and was just being a goofball and kind of messing.
You know, he would just add living stuff, being being
a hype man. Anyway, I thought it was funny and
I put it up there not thinking much of it,
but it got like over twenty million views or something
like that, and I don't even know how many red
(19:06):
posts it got and stuff, but that wild like other
people took the sound and had vira like millions and
millions of views too and had viral videos, so just
kind of spiral. It just kind of spiraled. It was
funny there there for a minute. Yeah, we were we
were all over TikTok and.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
You probably had like a bunch of new followers and
that you must have been blown ups. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
Every once in a while, I'll still have people ask
me to play that song at a show, which is funny.
That's that's great. I try to stay away from it
now because you know, Luke's got a great, great hit
with it and you know, but it was fun what's yeah, man, that's.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
It's crazy to me the power of what one video
can do, not I mean with that song in particular,
like the amount of eyes and ears that were that
became aware of who like William is as an artist
and then like followed you and are like I'm sure
some of those people that came from that video, you know,
have stuck around, they continue to support. It's like the
power of social media is just like I'd blowing absolutely.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
Man. I think what's the craziest thing is how it's
funny how when you don't try to do something or
I guess when you don't try to have a viral
moment is when it happens. And when you try to
follow the trends or whatever is going on that's relevant,
it just never seems to land. Because that was truly
(20:22):
one of the That was one video that I probably
least expected anything to happen. But you know, it's funny
because it's all in it's all in the hands of
the of the of the viewer. You know, if they
wanted to reshare something or if they thought it was funny,
then it clearly works. But I think it's just the
authenticity behind it.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Really. It's when you take a moment that's so real
of you performing this cover and singing great, and then
your you know, knucklehead of a friend is like jumping
in the background. It's just it's very humanizing, and I
think sometimes people get upset with like overproduced or fluffed
up stuff, and like that's one thing I think I've realized.
It's like people are smart, you know, people can kind
(21:02):
of read the you know, the room, the room and like.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Transparency is right man, you know, it's like authenticity and
being genuine I think goes so much further than like,
hey look at me, I've I've got talent and I
can sing and it'say, well, yeah, there's ten thousand other
people on this app that can do the same thing.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
So fast forward after this, you know, TikTok moment after
you put a couple of records, what's crazy just your trajectory. Man,
You get a publishing deal with Warren Chapel, You now
have a record deal, You go and play the Grantle Opry.
I mean, let's talk. Let's start. There's too much, there's
(21:41):
a lot to unpack here, but let's let's start on
the opry front.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
I mean, when you got that call, like give me
the play by play? Yeah, I know that. When I
got the call, it was amazing. Obviously, it's every buddy's
dream to to play the Opry and uh, something I've
thought about since I was a kid. Uh, but yeah,
it was, it was. It was awesome. My parents flew
(22:08):
in from from Del Rio and uh, it seemed like
half of my hometown was was there for it. But
but yeah, it was definitely a dream come true, and
and I sang one of my songs, Bourbon Whiskey, because
that's like a really traditional country song and I wanted
to do that. And then I played a song in
Spanish water bed Ward Bed, which is a famous Mariachi song.
(22:30):
But yeah, just to stand in the circle and to
get to look out there in the in the crowd
and and feel the history, feel the love was definitely
something I will never forget for the rest of my life.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
You say it so casually, You're like in this you know, vetero,
I can't even do it. And marriage song, I mean,
everyone go watch this clip, like no, you you absolutely
crushed this song in like fluent Spanish. I watched the
video and it's like one of those things where like
I thought you were mouthing the words and somebody else
(23:00):
was singing behind the curtrent. I'm like, there's no way
this kid you know no Spanish. But then I realized
that's like a big part of your background and your culture,
Like so like what, you know, what is it? What
was it about that moment or maybe about kind of
like your artistry. It seems like you're bringing in a
lot of like you know, Hispanic influence.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
Yeah, you know, and people ask me that all the time,
and honestly, I'd have a hard time answering that because
that's just where I'm from. You know. It would be
just like any anybody else, Like if you grew up
on the coast of Florida, I'd be like somebody asking you, like,
what's the beach, Like I'm like, I don't. I mean,
it's just it's my home. I mean, that's just kind
of how it is, you know. And and del Rio
for the for those watching that don't know. Del Rio's
(23:40):
right on the Rio Grande in the southern border of Texas,
so it's right on the uh northern border of Mexico.
So if you left the house that I grew up
in and you wanted to be in Mexico, it would
maybe take you three or four minutes, you know, to
cross the border into Acuna, which is the neighboring or yeah,
(24:01):
the bordering town. So yeah, it's just like people coming
back and forth. Everybody speak Spanish, you know. When I
was first learning how to sing, most of the time,
not most of the time, but a lot of the time,
I was doing these little cover band shows and stuff.
I mean, people would just naturally ask for songs in Spanish.
It's just kind of the culture there. So it was
(24:23):
inevitable that I learned how to do that at an
early age, and I didn't think much about it, so
it's just part of I guess me as an artist.
And then going back to the Opry, one thing that
I quickly realized is like, yeah, I had a lot
of people that were there to support me, which is
(24:44):
one of the greatest feelings in the world to have,
you know, your family and everybody coming there. But there
were so many people there at the Opry. They just
happened to have a ticket for the Opry that night.
They have no idea who I am. They have no
idea they might know kind of some of the bigger
artists and stuff. So it was honestly a lot of
exposure and it was a great opportunity for me to
just showcase, like, hey, look, if you don't know who
I am, let me show you a little bit about
where I'm from, what I do right and and that's
(25:05):
what I kind of remember the most from that night,
and that's why I thought it'd be important for me
to sing one of my songs that I wrote that
was arguably the most country thing I've ever written, and
then a song in Spanish. It's like, look, this is
this is a little piece of my hometown. You know
he did.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (25:20):
Man.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
You take you take a traditional country song that's very
mentioned in the pocket of what you're doing, and then
also you know there's a Hispanic song that is also
in the pocket of what you're doing, and you're blowding together,
and like, I mean, people, there was clearly a saw
of standing ovation on. People probably followed you from it,
like it's it's really really cool you're doing. I'm blown away,
Like I know, it's like you're like, oh, it's where
(25:41):
I'm from, Like it's crazy to me, but like you're
a couple of miles away, Like were we ever? Like hey,
like friends, you guys want to pop on over to
Mexico for combat, like take trips to Mexico, Yeah, all
the time.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
I mean that's where I kind of learned how to
drink a beer, honestly. But you know, there's a there's
a lot of history in in Acuna, which is, like
I mentioned, in the town that borders my hometown. You
ever seen the movie Desperado with Antonio Bondars. That movie
shot in uh well, the big shootout scenes. Most of
the movies is shot there in that town. But there's
(26:14):
a famous bar there called the Corona Club, and that's
where a lot of those shootout scenes happen. And I
filmed a music video for one of my songs in
the same bar. The song is danced all night long. Yeah,
and it was cool because we did it like as
a one take, so it's a one shot, like.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
A oh I want to take a cool Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
But that bar is where they filmed that movie in
the nineties. Wow, So that's my hometown.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
That's crazy.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
Yeah. How many people are in your hometown? My hometown's
probably like a little over forty thousand people, okay, forty
five thousand people. Yeah. So it's not like, no, it's
not a tiny town, but it's tiny. It's tiny enough
to where every most everybody knows everybody.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
Sure.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
When I was growing there's one high school when I
was growing up, I mean everybody. It's one of those
things like, hey, did you break up with your girlfriend?
You mind if I take her out? You know?
Speaker 2 (26:59):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (27:00):
For sure?
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Yeah, everyone knows that. I get it. It's the small
town stuff, man. You know. I just think it's great.
You're like, hey, I'm you know you guys want to
pop on over to Mexico. I gotta gotta gig in
Mexico at a night and then back in the stays tomorrow.
It's just great. We're gonna're gonna take a quick break,
gonna be right back here, guys. On the six one
five House Podcast. We're back guys. Country artist William Beckman
(27:22):
in the studio. Thanks for tuning in. I'm having a
lot of fun. We're chatting about his past, his story,
playing the Grand Old Opry, working on new music. But
I want to take a quick second here to play
one of my favorite games. This game is called rank
these five things without knowing what comes next. William, I
gave you the rundown.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
Okay, I'm nervous. I don't know why.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
I can see you're shaking, man, he's shaking in those boots.
But here's how it goes, right, Rank these five things
give you a category, but you don't know what comes next. Okay,
Ranked these five things. Category is Elvis Presley songs.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
On brand right oo good?
Speaker 3 (28:00):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (28:00):
Firstuf, we have jailhouse Rock.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
I'm gonna go with a three You're safe play to start. Yeah,
you're just you're You're just that one's gonna be in
the middle.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
You're seeing what else is on the board?
Speaker 1 (28:13):
Yeah, because there's I could think of so many other
ones that I that I like more than that.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
But yeah, the next stuff we got hound Dog.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
Probably a four. Okay, what about Heartbreak Hotel? I'm gonna
go with five?
Speaker 2 (28:30):
Interesting? What about Can't Help Falling in Love?
Speaker 1 (28:34):
One?
Speaker 2 (28:34):
That's the one for you. Oh you were quick on that. Yeah,
and last is Suspicious Minds.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
Yeah, that's freaking with two. Really, so that was pretty
That was pretty good. Yeah, No, Devin, Can't Help Only Love, man,
that's always been one of my favorite I cover that
song and uh the recording of that song, just the
way it was tracked is insane to me. Uh so, yeah,
I was waiting for that one. I'm glad you mentioned it.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
That's good if they're let me ask you this, not that,
not because Elvis has got too much, too many great songs.
Not that we're kicking any of these songs out, but
if you had an honorable mention, is or one I missed?
Speaker 1 (29:04):
Oh? Man?
Speaker 3 (29:08):
I mean.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
I always loved his uh his version of always on
my mind. If you've ever heard his version of that?
Speaker 2 (29:19):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (29:19):
Uh, but yeah, man, he had so many great he
had so many great records and a song as man,
I'm a big fan. Did I have you watched the Salvis Mavie? Yes?
I didim halfway through the Priscilla movie. Okay, yeah, you
have you seen the Pursilla movie.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
I haven't seen Priscilla, I have seen Elvis. What'd you
think of what's his name, Austin Austin Bower.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
Yeah. I thought he did good, man, I thought he
did good.
Speaker 3 (29:42):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
It's it's one of those roles that's been done a
bunch of times. But I thought he did a good,
a good, a good job with it. And and I
thought it was cool that just given the whole you know,
Elvis had a crazy life and and you know, it
wasn't the pretty side of show business. But if you
think about it, you know, I'm glad they shed a
(30:06):
little light on that. But if you think about it, man,
nobody had been that famous like as a as an entertainer,
like he was the first one to sort of pioneer that,
so nobody knew how to deal with fame like that.
Nobody knew how to deal with the sure you know,
there was never there wasn't a management deal that was
that was that bad. You know, he was a he
like I feel like he had to step in every
pothole that the entertainment business could throw at you, so
(30:27):
that everybody else would be like, Okay, so that's not
what you do kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
It was, in a weird it was the test case
for the rest of the business because of how big
he was. I'm gonna ask you something just off the
top of my head here, because I think Elvis was
so influential and so big, Like I would almost argue
like no one could ever be as impact or just
(30:51):
monumental I guess as an artist. However, like I think
we're seeing it right now with like early signs of
like what Taylor's is doing. And like, am I crazy
to say this, but like I know Elvis is here,
but like, is Taylor Swift like the next Alvis?
Speaker 1 (31:09):
I don't think you're crazy for saying that. I think
she's just she's just as influential as is anybody at
Elvis's caliber. I think obviously it's just a different time,
you know, the way things get passed around, just with
the Internet is a little bit different than things were
back then. But I'm I'm a huge Taylor Swift fan.
(31:32):
And I love that she writes her own songs and
that she seems like a really smart like business woman too,
and and I think she's a great role model. Man,
if anybody's gonna like fall in love, you know, if
you want young young kids, especially young girls, to look
up to somebody, man, why not it be her? Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
I mean every four to twenty four year old girl
is in the palm of her hand. So whatever she's
doing or whatever she's eating in our ceiler real, it's
I mean, it's working. I want to do another round
of ranked these five things. I'm very curious to see
your reaction to this, because you're, like, I can tell
(32:14):
you're very.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
How do I say this?
Speaker 2 (32:17):
I know you're just thoughtful, You're analytical about music.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
So here we go rank these five things. Category is
decades of music. Okay, first up, we have the nineteen seventies.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
Okay, it's gonna have to be uh oh man, that's
that is gonna have to be like number two for me. Okay,
big seventies guy, Yeah, what about the seventies? Got you going.
I mean, I honestly like a lot of the songwriter stuff,
like the Neil Young and like that, those Jim Croche
(32:53):
you know those cats that were big in the seventies.
I like a lot of that. What about the nineteen
Ninetames Taylor or too I'm gonna go with a four
on the nineties. I do like the nineties. There was
a great music. I mean, there's great music that came
out of every decade.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
But uh, you ever had banging to Nirvan Arms?
Speaker 1 (33:10):
Oh yeah, yeah? Who died me? Come on right?
Speaker 2 (33:14):
You know next up we got twenty tens probably five,
you know, because I don't we we lived, you know that,
like we lived through through that and and I guess
I have just a different perspective on.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
It because I'm like, O, yeah, I remember that song
came out. But there's a couple songs that I remember
that came out while we were while I was growing up,
and I'm like, this is this is my you know,
this represents me or whatever. I'll never I didn't have
a lot of those. I don't know if you did.
I mean, there are a couple of Maroon five songs
I remember. I'm like, yes, like that like any I
(33:49):
will be in my fifties and I'll hear that song.
You know, it's gonna take me right back to when
I was, you know, a teenager or whatever.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
But yeah, I I there are a couple of maybe
I could think, uh, you're laugh at me. I don't know.
Katie Perry put out of some songs that like, for
whatever reason, it was just like peak youn here in
middle school dance. I don't know. I just like have
this vivid memory of like this girl I liked, I
wanted to dance with her, and like, you know, Teenage
Dream by Katy Perry comes on and I don't know
(34:18):
what it was, but it just like fired me up
and I was like, this is the moment. I'm gonna
ask and like whatever it happened, So, you know, thanks,
thanks Katy. There was like it's a memory.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
Yeah, there was a couple. Yeah, there was a couple
that I can think of that. I'm like, man, a
lot some of that Mumford and Son stuff. Man like
that that stuff got played a lot, and I'm like, dude, yeah,
those songs will probably stick in my head. You know, Oh,
there's zero in my in my mind for long done.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
Okay, so we had we got the seventies, which you
put it to the nineties, which you put at four,
and then you put twenty ten a five. You got
one to three. Next up we have the nineteen eighties.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
Probably gonna uh, I'm gonna probably put that at three. Interesting,
So I don't know what's what I'm left with to
make number one.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
But what do you want to be number one?
Speaker 1 (35:11):
I would probably have to go with the sixties?
Speaker 2 (35:13):
Interesting, last on the last on the list here was
the early two thousands, which which puts me a number one,
number one, But I didn't I didn't have the sixties
on this scorecard today. The sixties, sixties, I figured, are
your jam?
Speaker 1 (35:29):
Yeah, I like the you know, I like again, I
like all decades of music. But but yeah, early two thousands, man,
let's let's dig that. Let's let's pick that apart.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
Some of that was here, I mean, even some of
the early Maroon five stuff you were talking about was
early two thousands.
Speaker 1 (35:45):
That first record, Yeah, Songs for Jane Dude, that's four.
I was in the fourth grade. That again, hard to
tell me. That's still not the best Maroon five record.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
Crazy.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
Unfortunately, watching this, I like a lot of their records,
but nothing's ever gonna off that first debut album. Man.
Speaker 2 (36:01):
I know, unfortunately Adam Levine has aged quite developed quite interestingly,
but we'll save that for maybe another podcast. There's also
some like good there was some good good country music.
I feel like ye early thousand, I mean I still
think of like you know, I mean Tim McGraw was,
I guess a little back half of nineties two, but
like into the two thousands Rascal Flats era.
Speaker 1 (36:23):
Yeah, and a lot of that early Brad Paisley stuff too.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
Yeah, that chicken pick and stuff too. He's a great player. Huh,
He's great.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
Man. That was a big Dirk Spentley. Gary Allen man,
I tell I tell my team that. Gosh, mins, I
just grew up on a lot of those a lot
of those Gary Allen records, and so that was all
early two thousands as well.
Speaker 2 (36:42):
It was Yeah, is there is there like do you
have like a dream collaboration like somebody that you.
Speaker 1 (36:48):
Man, I get that it it changes all the time,
but uh, I'd love to get into a room and
maybe try to sing a couple of songs with somebody
like like Gary all I'm always a big fan of voices. Man,
I'm always like, I might love somebody's music and stuff,
but I'm always trying to think to myself whether or
(37:08):
not our voices would mesh well together on a record.
Is there anybody? Is there? I mean, like I don't
lead with like, oh, so and so is really hot
right now? Like if I collabed with them, it would
be great from now. Like It's like I like to
take their voice at face value and be like, yeah,
they would, they would, we would sound like I feel
like Lana del Rey and my like I feel like
(37:29):
her voice and my voice might be interesting together on
the same on the same song. Is there anyone?
Speaker 2 (37:36):
Is there anyone?
Speaker 1 (37:36):
Saying? With Casey Musgraves, I lost, Yeah, I was just.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
Gonna ask, is there anybody like like right now and today,
like an up and comer or like a not that
Casey's new, but like a a newsh artist that like,
you know, really fires you out, just like vocally, maybe
it is Casy.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
Yeah, I mean yeah, her and I can't I'm not.
I can't really think of anybody right now. I've got
of course, Landy Wilson's killing it right now, and I
love her voice too. She and I've done a couple
of radio things with her, and she's a fantastic singer
live too. She sounds just like the her records and
so and I'm always I love it when I see that,
Like I'm like when you see somebody really a well
(38:15):
trained vocalist, a well trained singer. I'd love to I'd
love to get to work with her. Some of the guys,
uh that are out there that who's whose voices I
think are or killer. Of course I've toured. I've toured
with Parker McCollum for a couple of years and he's
the same way. He's a great singer and uh, and
(38:36):
it sounds different. You know, there's nobody that he's trying
to sound like. And there's nobody that I can that
can think of that can sound like him. So that's
it's definitely got a unique vocal style, which I think
is read.
Speaker 2 (38:50):
Speaking of well, uh Parker and well other other artists
that have big Texas following. I was looking online. I
so you did this like docu series and you had
it's pretty cool. You had like Wade Boone was on there,
a couple of other guys that like.
Speaker 1 (39:04):
Pat Pat Green.
Speaker 2 (39:05):
Pat Green was on there, yeah, like it was a
cool little clip to watch. Can you talk to me
a little bit about that documentary and sort of like
what it means to you.
Speaker 1 (39:12):
Yeah, So basically the as we were talking about earlier
in my hometown in Acuna, which is on the other
side of the of the Rio Grande, they used they
used to do these concerts in like the late nineties
and early two thousands where it was basically kind of
like a spring break block party thing if you if
(39:36):
you sounds like my gym, No, it was awesome and
a lot of the Texas Cats would go down there,
so Pat Green and Robert ar'keene, the Randy Rogers band,
I mean, you name it, the all across Canadian ragweed
and and everybody would go to Mexico for like a
weekend and there was like a big block party and
they would just kind of go crazy for a couple
(40:01):
days and it was a It was a big thing
back then. But then that sort of died and uh,
they didn't do it for a long time, and so
that documentary was like sort of my attempt to kind
of bring that back, and we did. It was really cool.
There was a thousand people that showed up to this.
We didn't shut down the street or anything. But we
(40:21):
did it there at the Corona Club, which is the
bar that I'm telling you about, and they have a
huge outdoor back patio and and uh and yeah, it
was really difficult to pull it all off because crossing
equipment down across the border is really difficult and getting
it back and then the sound production, I mean everything
logistically was just really difficult. I didn't even think of
(40:44):
bomb yeah, yeah, exactly, yeah exactly. And so but we
did it, and I think it was really cool for
a lot of the a lot of the kids to
have gotten to experience that. But even but even like
their parents, like friends of my parents that were there,
that remembered twenty years ago when they used to do that,
(41:06):
and for them to get to sort of relive that,
it seemed like that's cool.
Speaker 2 (41:09):
It's like almost say, it's a cross generational thing, right,
the parents kind of relive glory days. I also get
to show their kids a little bit maybe a taste
of what it was like exactly growing up. That's really cool, man.
I love I love that documentary. And for anyone watching
it hasn't checked seen it, it's on your.
Speaker 1 (41:23):
Yeah, It's on my website as well. Yeah, ro to
Road to Acunya.
Speaker 2 (41:26):
I love it. I want to talk a little bit.
I asked this question to pretty much, well most of
the artists on this podcast, but I'm very curious to
get your answer. But how do you define success for you,
for the industry? How do you define success?
Speaker 1 (41:45):
How do I define success? It's all to me personally,
it's all an internal thing. It's all it's only something
that that you can define. And I always go back
to this certain sense it's a fulfillment that I'm always
trying to chase. And if you feel like you're achieving
(42:07):
your purpose here, I think that's kind of the truest
measure of success because to me, it's not about the
money or the accolades. Those things are great, don't get
me wrong. And it definitely is sort of reassuring. That's like, Okay,
I'm doing a good job and people are noticing and
recognizing that. But you know, if you don't feel, if
(42:31):
you don't feel that sense of fulfillment, like you're happy
doing this and you can have the gold records on
the wall, and you can have all the money in
the world, and and it might it doesn't really mean anything,
so to me, it just means it's it's and they
come in different ways. Man. It's like little kids coming
out to your shows or something or asking you to
(42:53):
sign a hat or something like that. Like that's crazy
to me because and it happens where it could be
a seven or eight year old kid. I'm like, man,
I remember doing that whenever I'd go to That was
how I looked at some of the guys I mentioned,
like Gary Allen or whoever it was, you know, not
not to compare myself to somebody like him, but to
(43:14):
this kid like that, to me gives me the biggest
sense of fulfillment in the world, the biggest joy in
the world, you know, to see somebody like that, or
to see somebody singing my songs, or to read a
message that somebody said, Hey, you know this song helped
me get through this. I just wanted you to know,
like this is one of my favorite songs of all time.
Thank you. That is what success is to me, And
(43:35):
it comes in waves and it comes in different ways.
But yeah, man, I always try to really focus on
taking those little moments and kind of patting myself on
the back because that's The whole reason I got into
this was to be able to change the world, one
little world at a time, you know what I mean.
(43:56):
So that's how I define success is feeling like feeling
fulfilled and feeling like you're on the right track and
that you're making a positive impact on people.
Speaker 2 (44:09):
Yeah, that's I like that answer lines, and I think
that's it comes through with what you're doing, comes through
with your man. I gotta get to a live show here,
stude Lee.
Speaker 1 (44:20):
Man, You're welcome anytime.
Speaker 2 (44:21):
What's crazy. I'm like, I even watch it.
Speaker 1 (44:24):
You gotta if we do fast card, you gotta. You
gotta hype me up though, you gotta be bad.
Speaker 2 (44:29):
Speaking of which, I saw you wear sunglasses quite a
bit in some of your videos and one there's a
couple of videos, but one in particular, you go for
a double sunglasses. Look, I'm curious, do you wear two
sunglasses just for like extra UV protection?
Speaker 1 (44:46):
Like what I do have sensitive I do? I will
admit that I do have sensitive eyes. But that was
just a funny video that we did where we were
picking on my merged guy. But you know again, I'm
I'm I'm a big you know, the more you get
to know me, the more you'll understand my sense of humor.
But I just love funny content and putting stuff out
(45:06):
there to kind of let people into the that side
of what not only I do, but my band and
stuff and being on the road can be kind of
grueling sometimes, so it is nice to lighten it up
a little bit with some funny content. Uh oh, I
love it. TikTok's like a TikTok is heavily kind of yeah,
it's humor. Yeah. So it's like, I think that's what
(45:26):
that one TikTok had that made it so viral. It
is like here you have me singing, trying to genuinely sing,
like oh, you actually got a decent voice or whatever,
and then my buddy's being a goofball in the background,
and then you just merge like it's actually good and
it's funny, and it's a perfect recipe for something to
to go viral like that. And so we're always trying
to make funny videos and just trying to lighten lighten
(45:48):
the mood up a little bit. So yeah, I thought
I thought it'd be funny if we had two pairs
of sunglasses on a note knew and you just take
one off. You still have a pair on.
Speaker 2 (45:57):
Oh, dude, that's awesome. I just didn't know. I just
didn't know if you know, you wearing two songs.
Speaker 1 (46:01):
But if I was, I hope that somebody would have
like an honest, sit down conversation with me if I
if I genuinely walked around with two pairs of song
glasses on at the same time.
Speaker 2 (46:10):
Yeah, No, I was just curious if maybe you had
some like insider info about, you know, the benefits of
two shades versus very maybe you got you got that
that medical Uh, I don't know insider info. Well, Hey,
we got just a few minutes left, so we're gonna
take a quick break, guys, and we'll come right back
and talk a little bit about new music and some
new stuff.
Speaker 3 (46:28):
Thanks.
Speaker 2 (46:29):
What's up, guys, We're back William Beckman in the studio.
He is releasing new music. Put out two albums, but
releasing new music on the road. Such a great hang, dude.
I am really enjoying chatting with you, and I'm also
very excited for this next segment one because you have
no idea what's coming in too, because it's one of
(46:49):
my favorite segments with our friends over at Ariot. They're
a great Western apparel company, and they have tasked us
with the opportunity to ask rapid fire questions to our
guests on the podcast. So the way this works is
we got sixty seconds on the clock. I'm not these
are just kind of simple yes or no questions. They
(47:10):
get a little bit weirder as we go along, and
we're going to wind up the clock to sixty seconds
and see how you do.
Speaker 1 (47:17):
Okay, So it's just a yes or no pretty much.
Speaker 2 (47:19):
I mean there might be like there's simplistic questions in
this South, So we're going to see how you do.
Don't be nervous, Okay, whatever comes to mind. Man, it's
all good baby. So here we go rapid fire questions.
Let's get it. What's the best type of muffin blueberry?
Do you like the word dapper?
Speaker 1 (47:39):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (47:40):
If you were given an all expenses paid trip to Cleveland,
would you take it?
Speaker 1 (47:44):
Of course?
Speaker 2 (47:45):
Ask for permission or beg for forgiveness?
Speaker 1 (47:49):
Ask for permission?
Speaker 2 (47:51):
If you would you eat a day old takito from
seven to eleven? Would you rather go bald or grow
fifty percent more hair everywhere else?
Speaker 1 (48:02):
From fifty everywhere else? I feel like I'm gonna regret that.
Speaker 2 (48:07):
But yeah, is a handlebar mustache the best type of mustache?
No using the Almo voice? Tell me how you like
your coffee.
Speaker 1 (48:15):
I can't.
Speaker 2 (48:18):
Last one pickles yes or no? Yes, I can agree
with you there, And I still want to hear your
Elma voice.
Speaker 1 (48:24):
I wish I could. I don't even know to practice bad.
Speaker 2 (48:27):
Oh and uh you told me this earlier. But dream collaboration,
dream collaboration.
Speaker 1 (48:33):
We're gonna go with Casey mus Graves for for this one,
just for the sake of picking one.
Speaker 2 (48:37):
There we go, rapid fire questions. You did really well,
you made it, you made it far.
Speaker 1 (48:43):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (48:44):
A lot of people like choke up too long? Yeah
it's got too and you were just you were cruising.
Speaker 1 (48:49):
Man, it was the only one I'm a little bit
concerned about. Is the is the balding or I feel
like I would just have hair everywhere else except on
my head, which is probably not as good. But look
is just being flat out balled.
Speaker 2 (49:02):
Yeah it would be well, you just have to wear
a lot of suits to cover it up.
Speaker 1 (49:06):
But would be like you got like a pretty like
slick do going on? Thank you? Do you use a
lot of like hair gel, not jel. But there is
like some palmade that I used that if I if
I ever forget to pack it and it's like show day,
it's not good.
Speaker 2 (49:22):
Yeah you said it with like it had a little
like a little like palm made, like you gave it
a little flair.
Speaker 1 (49:27):
Well, it gets a little, it gets all over the place,
and it's not the funnest to work with. But you know,
you do it for the sake of the show and
for the sake of the podcast.
Speaker 2 (49:34):
Yeah, you do it. You do it for the people.
Look at that, right, that's awesome. So, I mean, I
know you put out. We actually haven't one hundred percent
talked about this. I want to talk about your most
recent album, and then I want to talk a little
bit about new music. But what was because okay, so
the most recent album, there's a couple of songs on there.
I'm trying to make sure I get this right, but
(49:55):
Tennessee Drinking, which I do now, and then the other
one was called Damn this Heart of Mine, right, yes,
and the whole albums Here's to You, Here's Me, Here's
to You, Here's Me.
Speaker 3 (50:02):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (50:02):
Okay, So talk to me a little bit about the
process of making that album. Specifically, I want to hear
about Tennessee Drinking just because I love that song.
Speaker 1 (50:10):
Thank you man. So yeah, this is like the first
compared to the one before, which was mostly written just
by myself. I had a lot of collaborators on this
on this particular project, and so Tennessee Drinking is one
that I wrote with Randy Montana and Jeremy Spilman, both
of which are very accomplished songwriters, so to get to
(50:33):
work with them was a real treat. And those two
guys definitely know how to write a good song, so
I was lucky just to get to work with them.
And damn, this Heart of Mine is a song that
I wrote one afternoon with a friend of mine who's
a songwriter here in Nashville as well. His name is
Nick Walsh, and we've written quite a few songs together
on this record. But it was really kind of nice
(50:55):
to get to lean on other people and try to
collaborate with other songs writers, because, like I mentioned, the
first record was mostly just me and my songs that
I had written by myself. So yeah, this record, this
last one, was really cool to have other people involved
and help me make the best creative decisions when it
(51:16):
came to the actual writing of the songs.
Speaker 2 (51:18):
Do you do you like writing by yourself or writing
with other people more?
Speaker 1 (51:24):
They're two completely different experiences. I think it's nice to
have a healthy balance between the two. That's something that
I'm just now starting to try to get back into,
is writing by myself. Some people think this is weird,
but I've done this for a long time. But I've
always been like a big Bob Dylan fan. And there's
a couple other songwriters that I can think of that,
(51:45):
Like there's old photographs of them using like an old
mechanical typewriter, like with the hammers and stuff. And I've
got like maybe four or five different typewriters, and I
find it like when I write by myself, I find
it a really cool way to write and just to
kind of even if if it's just lines or poetry
or whatever, like, I enjoy that part of it. And
so I used to do that a lot, and that's
(52:06):
how I wrote a lot of songs. But in recent
years I've been touring and been so busy that it's
hard to find the time to do that anymore. But
I'd like to get back into it because it was
I came up with, you know, I wrote songs like
Bourbon Whiskey and in the Dark off of the first
record like that, you know, and those songs kind of
came to me in fifteen twenty minutes. And you got
(52:26):
to be there to capture lightning in a bottle like
that when it hits.
Speaker 2 (52:29):
But like you wrote the whole song in fifteen minutes.
Speaker 1 (52:32):
Yeah, Like I would sit down at a typewriter and
kind of like hammer out these ideas that would end
up turning into these songs. And now the songwriting process
when I'm co writing, especially here in town, is you know,
meeting with people and doing the meet up at eleven
and right till three or four, which is great. I've
written some great songs that way as well. But it's
(52:53):
just a completely different See, it's such a different process.
If I brought my typewriter on music row, I'm pretty sure.
Speaker 2 (52:59):
I'd get some weird looks and I wasn't going to
see you You should typewriter to not computer.
Speaker 1 (53:04):
Yeah, I'd have to bring it in like a I
would have to bring it in like a wagon. Those
things are too heavy to all around.
Speaker 2 (53:11):
That's like classic why like, like, it's a legitimate typewriter.
Speaker 1 (53:15):
Yeah, so they're mechanical, they're not electric typewriters, because there's
two kinds, you know, the ones like in the seventies
and eighties that you could plug in and stuff. Though
these ones are the ones with the hammers so like,
and most of them are that I have or like
vintage ones from like the forties and got one from
the fifties. But again, it's just a cool way to
get ideas out there. And one thing I personally like
(53:37):
about it compared to writing like on a laptop, is
it doesn't allow you to backspace. You know, you can
cross things out or just keep going. But yeah, but
I find myself sometimes writing and if if I write
something and then I kind of change my mind, rather
than deleting it, I'd kind of just keep going. And
oftentimes you find yourself going back and be like, oh,
(53:58):
that that wasn't that bad app role that or maybe
maybe maybe it doesn't belong right there where you initially
put it, but it it could belong later in the song,
or it could it could be its own idea separate
from this song completely. But when you delete something on
a on like a word document or something. You'll never
see it again, and you don't really know if it
(54:18):
was a right judgment call, you know what I mean.
Some some things take a little bit of not respect. Interesting.
Speaker 2 (54:24):
It's kind of like you have to commit to the idea,
and I think, like, you know, some ideas are something.
Let's say, there are some bad ideas, but there are
also some ideas that are bad and deleted that could
be good ideas if they continue.
Speaker 1 (54:35):
The same thing. When you're writing things by hand, I
think it's a I think anything creative, any any form
of creative writing. If you're writing, if you're writing it
long hand, it's better to scratch something out then to
cross something out than to scribble it out. Like you
always want to be able to be like, what was
it that I say that I uh, so you can
revisit that I scratched out because I don't I don't
(54:57):
know if that was the right call.
Speaker 2 (54:59):
Interesting. Yeah, you probably still get some looks for a typewriter.
Speaker 1 (55:03):
On a music Oh yeah, no, I don't.
Speaker 2 (55:05):
I don't.
Speaker 1 (55:05):
Brit Brand. I like.
Speaker 2 (55:06):
I like the philosophy behind it.
Speaker 1 (55:08):
It's good and it's funny because I only really bought
one and I would tell that same story that and
then I've gotten like I've been gifted three or four
other ones from other people, you know, so I've got
like five of them now, yeah, which is crazy.
Speaker 2 (55:21):
It's very cool though. I like that. I'm I'm not
in the typewriter game, but maybe I should.
Speaker 1 (55:26):
You should. It's fun tell you what.
Speaker 2 (55:27):
I'm more good aesthetic to more just evinced now than
I was five minutes ago.
Speaker 1 (55:31):
Yeah, I mean, and if you don't even have to
use it, you just put it on it. It looks
cool decore, you know.
Speaker 2 (55:35):
Yeah, So how do you balance with all this new
stuff and you're writing, recording all this stuff, But then
you're also, like you said, like can get a little
grueling on the road and play shows. You write music,
got to get give me on damn Instagram and TikTok
every day. It seems like, you know, how do you like,
how do you balance it? Do you do anything outside
of music?
Speaker 1 (55:55):
You know, like there are I do where I come from,
Like my I've got an older brother and my dad.
You know, they like to fish and they like to
hunt and do outdoorsy things. And although it's been a
minute since I've really had an opportunity to go do that.
That's something that I do look forward to doing whenever
I'm not working, but also just taking time for myself,
(56:16):
you know, resting. There's nothing wrong with being a catch
potato for on a day off and watching something on Netflix.
That's another thing. I don't really watch a lot of
TV or anything. I watched some stuff on like flights
and stuff, but I don't get to watch series or
anything that because then I get upset because I get
really like I get really into something and then I
never have time to really finish it. So it's just
(56:38):
like I'm like I saw the first three episodes and
then I never followed back up with dude, it's the worst. Man.
Speaker 2 (56:44):
Everyone's talking about the show Suits, which made like a
big comeback this last year, and I got super into
it and then like whatever, last month, the year got
like super hectic for me and I just like dropped out.
Speaker 1 (56:55):
I haven't watched it.
Speaker 2 (56:56):
Since, and it's like it's like killing me because it's
like I left at the most like a climactic part
of the show. So like, maybe you're doing it well.
Maybe you're doing a good job by not even diving
into the TV show.
Speaker 1 (57:07):
Yeah, Like I'm like, I'm a big movie guy. You know,
I can knock that. You know, a movie you knock
out in two hours and then it's done with. But yeah,
if it's like a series, especially when it's when it's
not when the series is still ongoing. Like, man, I
just don't have the time to like sit down and
really what's your favorite movie? Probably The Godfather? The series
(57:28):
of The Godfather. I'm like classic with that, but the
first one is by far my favorite movie.
Speaker 2 (57:33):
I can't crack you, man, You're just classic everything. You
got the suits, you got the country. But you know,
Godfather's got to be one of the best movies of
all time, right, it is up there. I'm poking fun
of you.
Speaker 1 (57:45):
It's top ten, right, It's oh, it's in rank these
five things.
Speaker 2 (57:48):
It deserves, you know, the one or two spots certainly. Well, dude,
it's been like, it's been great chat with you, man.
I feel like we could we could keep talking all day.
But anything else that you want to let people know
just before we're a wrap up, that's it.
Speaker 1 (58:01):
You know. I got new music that I'm working really
hard on at the moment, writing a bunch of songs,
and we've announced quite a few shows, some Texas shows.
We've got some out of state as well too, so
be on the lookout for that. But yeah, just follow
follow me on Instagram and and uh and all that stuff.
And I'd love to see some some new faces at
some of these shows. I love it, dude. Well, I'm
(58:24):
certainly a fan.
Speaker 2 (58:25):
I think everyone else, uh you know that maybe is
watching this will become a fan or if they're not
already William Beckman, go check him out. Guys. Stuff's online.
It's on his on his website and his YouTube and
and TikTok and all that jazz and dude like, so
pumped for you, so pump for your sounds very unique,
your style is very hip. You don't think it's hip.
(58:47):
I think it's hip. Appreciate it and thanks for jumping
on this.
Speaker 1 (58:50):
Thank you man, Thank you for having me. It's been
a pleasure.
Speaker 2 (58:52):
Of course. We'll see all next week for a new episode.
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