Tucker Beathard released the first part of his debut album, Nobody’s Everything, in 2018, but since then, a whole lot has changed for the 25-year-old, changes that made their way onto KING, the second part of the project, released on Aug. 21. “I’ve had this music for a couple of years now and over that time, I definitely kind of re-looked at some things and added new songs and had time to really assess it all,” Beathard told PopCulture.com as part of our series, PopCulture @ Home.
“It kind of got to the point now to where it just feels kind of like a whole different project than just part two of Nobody’s Everything,” he continued, sharing that KING is “more relevant with where I’ve been in the past year” but has a similar sonic feel to his first project as well as the “same raw, real emotions and everything like that.” KING contains 13 tracks all co-written and co-produced by Beathard, including “I Ain’t Without You,” a song Beathard co-wrote with his father, Casey Beathard, about the death of Beathard’s younger brother, Clay, who was fatally stabbed in Nashville last year at the age of 22.
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“My little brother passed away in December and that had such big impact to me and my life to where leaving that out of my album, it’s a big piece that’s missing,” Beathard said, adding that he named his album after Clay’s middle name. “So I wrote a song that kind of covered that whole chapter in my life and it really just kind of turned into a whole new project. And I just wanted a piece of my brother on this album and his middle name was King. It just seemed like the right name to go with.”
Growing up with a songwriter for a father, Beathard “always knew” that he wanted to go into music, and when he started writing his own songs, he discovered that the storytelling root of country music was something he naturally gravitated towards. “I was like, ‘Well, man, if I can bring my different musical influences and different style, mix it with my country influences in songwriting, then why not try to bring something different to country music scene,’” he recalled. “At the end of the day, I just like making music and would rather just make music and see where it fits instead of try to make music that fits into anywhere.”
Whether he’s reminiscing on a past love in “You Would Think,” meeting a new one in a bar in “Too Drunk” or using football metaphors on “20/10 TN,” Beathard’s storytelling is a highlight of KING, along with his distinctive voice. The album also showcases the Tennessee native’s diverse musical influences, which range from rock to punk and folk and appear in crashing guitars, slinking bass and gentle acoustic guitar. “My music, it’s never going to fall short of emotion that’s for sure,” he said. “And whether that’s a fun song and rocking out or a more personal songwriter song, stripped down to just me and an acoustic guitar. It’s really passionate about the music that I write and record.”
You can stream KING here.
