Chayce Beckham Teases Fishing Plans With ‘American Idol’ Judge Luke Bryan (Exclusive)

During the American Idol Season 19 finale last month on ABC, judge Luke Bryan invited then-contestant Chayce Beckham to go “bass fishing one day,” explaining to the audience the California native “earned” his fishing trip with the country megastar following consecutively perfect performances. Excited over the public invite stated in front of millions, Beckham would later win the competition that evening but their fishing would be put on hold — at least for now.

“That will all work itself out real soon. I’ll be in Nashville, he’ll be in Nashville, and we’ll have a good old date, me and Luke,” the 24-year-old winner laughed in an exclusive with PopCulture. Sharing how everyone “cared so much” about him and provided a lot of “love and support,” Beckham says he could tell they were very much trying to communicate their encouragement from a serious place. “Everything I actually held onto […] I’m still carrying it with me and I think most of it was just, ‘Be real. Be a real person,’ and continue to do that. Because what Luke said, that’s what got me where I’m at, now, is just being real with people. So yeah, I think that’s kind of just something that’s always in the back of my head.”

The winner, who is currently in Nashville and gearing up for production of his debut record, is humbled and excited to make new music revealing that when the time comes, he would love to collaborate with some of his favorites. “To get with Stapleton, I always wanted to work with Chris Stapleton — I’m a huge, huge, Chris Stapleton fan. But I mean, I love Stapleton, Midland, Luke Combs. Luke, if you want to do something, holler at me,” he said. “[But] just anybody. I’m excited to work with any of these artists and just to be able to get my music and my message out there to other people and I can gel with other people and kind of be able to write a great song. I don’t think that I’m going to limit myself to anybody. I want to work with as many other artists as I can to create a catalog of music that a lot of people can listen to, and relate to, and enjoy for years to come.”

Beckham adds he is “very particular about not having favorites or number ones,” stating he loves “everybody” and is happy to even make music in the first place. “I really want to get to work with as many people as possible, so any of those names I’ve just rattled off and then hundreds more,” he said. “Do as many duets as possible and yeah, just collab on music.”

Adding how some of his favorite songs are collaborations in the country genre between two different artists, he is looking ahead at getting the chance to do that as well. “You got great songs like ‘Whiskey Lullaby’ [by Brad Paisley and Allison Krauss] and Chris Stapleton does really good duets,” he said. “Hopefully we can make some of those in the future, I don’t know who it will be with though. So, I guess we’ll just have to find out.”

“23” is now available to purchase on Amazon and Apple Music. For more with Chayce Beckham and all your American Idol news, keep it locked to PopCulture.com for the latest.