CASEY BEATHARD
Casey’s songwriting career
Award-winning songwriter Casey Beathard first moved to Nashville to become a recording artist. After all, even though he played football at Elon (NC) University, music had always been his passion. “Since I was 8 or 9 years old, I’ve loved music,” he said. “and it wouldn’t go away. My mom was very influential in my music. She played the piano and sang at Christmas and around the house, her side of the family would get together and we’d sing.”
After college he took a job as a landscaper, but hoped there was more out there for him. At night he would play his songs at different clubs, but didn’t realize “I could make a living at that.” He was soon told he needed to move to Nashville. “When my lease was up, I loaded everything up and came here, I had never been here before.”
His first two jobs when he arrived set the course for his future success. “I was working at the Country Music Hall of Fame where I met a lot of influential people,” he said “One of them tuned me onto a job at the Bluebird. I was around the history and great songwriters every day.” He worked in the kitchen and as a bar-back at the Bluebird, but was allowed to sing one night when there was an opening. “I learned a lot that helped me with my skills as a writer and singer,” Casey said. This led to singing around town and doing $40 demos on hit tunes. He was allowed to use these demos to pitch himself and originally was signed to Capitol Records.
After starting to concentrate more on his songwriting, he had the title cut on Kenny Chesney’s album, “I Will Stand” and then a cut called “Right Where I Need To Be” on Gary Allan’s album, a big hit for Allan in 1999.
“I decided since I had a wife and family, I’d be a better husband and dad if I stayed off the road,” he explained. Some of his favorite cuts are Trace Adkins’ “Just Fishing” and Travis Tritt’s “I See Me”. Casey says he writes about his family and that means a lot to him.
Huge hits since then have been “Like Jesus Does” & “Homeboy” by Eric Church, George Strait’s “The Breath You Take”, Aaron Tippin’s “Where the Stars & Stripes & Eagles Fly”, Kenny Chesney’s “No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problem”, and a string of #1’s that include “Come Back Song”, “Find Out Who Your Friends Are”, “Don’t Blink”, “Cleaning This Gun”, “Ten Rounds With Jose Cuervo” and “The Boys of Fall”.
The son of respected football executive Bobby Beathard, and the father of four children, Casey is a two-time winner of Broadcast Music Inc’s Songwriter of the Year for 2004 & 2008.