During a recent guest appearance on Taste of Country Nights, On Demand, Chayce Beckham shared his thoughts on breaking the American Idol “curse” thanks to the success of his No. 1 song, “23.”

Beckham is the first American Idol winner to have a hit song after the reality show since Phillip Phillips did it with “Home” in 2012. He’s also the first country winner to notch an airplay No. 1 with their first post-Idol single since Carrie Underwood!

“Is that true? That’s crazy, that’s wild,” Beckham said when he was told the news. He won Season 19 of Idol in 2021.

“I feel like when I wrote that song, it was just me telling my truth and talking about what I wanted to talk about, and not in a million years did I ever think the whole world was gonna hear this song and it would be this big ole’ song.”

“I just wrote it to make me feel good about some of the bad decisions I made and needed to sing about it,” Beckham says, elaborating on the reasons he wrote “23.”

He had no idea the impact it would have on country fans across the world.

“I guess people just related to that connected to it so much, like on the music video, just seeing everybody’s comments and talking about their stories and how the song relates to them … it’s just kind of crazy to see how much it has reached people,” he admits.

The American Idol winner’s circle is a place few artists have been, and Beckham didn’t know what to expect on the day he won.

“I don’t know what I expected, you know? I was just on top of the world that I was there. Lot of other places I could have been, and that’s one I’d pick a million times,” he says.

“I’m very grateful for the way it all panned out. When I was there, ya know, win or lose, it wasn’t anything that I was gonna let stop me from what I was doing afterwards.”

“I was already moving on a freight train, ya know? I was gone,” he clarifies, noting that he was moving forward musically whether he won or lost.

American Idol judge Luke Bryan has become something of a mentor to Beckham since the show, and the megastar says he’s “over the moon” excited for what the young singer has done already.

“To get to know him and how good of a person he is, he’s just a good dude,” Bryan reveals. “And to think that he wrote ’23’ by himself a couple years ago, and even from American Idol, winning that, to now — I know he’s been celebrating probably the same way that I celebrated.”

On getting his first No. 1 as a singer-songwriter, as Bryan did long ago, the “One Margarita” hitmaker notes that it’s a time Beckham won’t ever forget.

“It’s a big day in everybody’s lifetime. As an artist, you never forget when you have your first No. 1. I’m so proud of him and the way he’s gone about it,” Bryan says.

Evan Paul is the host of Taste of Country Nights, a syndicated radio show heard on more than 130 country radio stations nationwide, every night from 7PM to midnight. He plays the best new country music and interviews today’s top stars, like Luke Combs, Morgan Wallen, Kenny Chesney, Miranda Lambert, Dan + Shay, Keith Urban, Carrie Underwood, Luke Bryan, Chris Stapleton, Lady A, + more!