WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - Story Behind the Song: Wyoming Rodeos and Country Music with Chancey Williams

Episode Date: October 2, 2025

Join Lilly Faye as she interviews Chancey Williams about his path to becoming a country music artist and what it means to be a cowboy. 

Hey y'all, welcome back to Story Behind the Song. I'm your host, Lily Fay Kramer, and today I will be interviewing Chancy Williams. I first saw Chancy this summer in Wyoming at Cheyenne Frontier Days, where Chancy opened for Brooks and Dunn. And something that's really neat about Chancy is that he used to be a professional cowboy. He still is a cowboy. To fit that theme, I'm going to talk to him about one of his hits, The World Needs More Cowboys, which is a new favorite of mine. And one I really respect, and I find, super pertinent to this day and age. Can you tell me about how you first got into music? Yeah, for sure. So I grew up here in Moorcroft on our ranch. You know, I grew up rodeoing and ranching. So, you know, I played music a little bit when I was younger, you know, in elementary school and stuff. And then I was in high school band and stuff, played bass guitar. So we started a band in high school just kind of for fun. But, you know, that shop right over there, that's kind of where we started playing music. We had a couple of buddies got together and started a band. So, you know, we'd play music on. the weekends for our high school buddies,

just kind of a good excuse for all the kids to go out somewhere. You know, rodeoing was my main thing, so all growing up, little kid rodeos, the junior high, to high school rodeos, the college rodeoing. So that was always kind of my main thing until music took over when I got out of college. First started playing music, I guess,

after I was rodeo on. My mom plays piano and, you know, she taught music a little bit when I was in elementary school. She was an elementary music school teacher for a while. And her dad, my grandpa less, had a band for a lot of years. He was much older than me, so I didn't really get to see him play a lot when I was little just a couple times before he passed away. So my granddad played music, so I guess it was kind of in my blood. What kind of music did he play?

He's from Warcraft, Wyoming, too, and grew up in Newcastle. He played, you know, old-time cowboy music, country music, the old stuff. I've seen a few recordings of him over the years. It was pretty neat to watch. What was your experience like coming back to Cheyenne Frontier Days as an artist versus being in the actual rodeo? How is that? You know, it's a dream come through. You know, being from Wyoming, you know, Cheyenne Frontier Days is super special to people from Wyoming because it's the biggest outdoor rodeo in the world and it's right here in our home state.

So Cheyenne's always been special and especially to our family. My dad won Cheyenne in 1971, won the rookie Brunk riding there. And then, you know, me and my brother growing up right. Bucking horses, we just always dreamed of riding there because dad did. Getting the ride there was a dream come true, you know, and had a little success there. You know, I won a couple rounds in the rookie brown ride.

So it was just those years we would go down there rodeo and we'd always go to the night show concert and you know, I never really dreamed. Yeah, I probably was dreaming to play on that stage someday, but I just never thought it would come true. You know, years later to get to be able to perform on the main stage, it came full circle. It's just unbelievable, you know, I get to play everywhere.

We had to play a lot of great places across the U.S., but, you know, Cheyenne's always my favorite just because of our family ties to it. They put me in the Hall of Fame a couple years back, which I'm still humbled by. It's one of the greatest things that I've ever had happened to me, so I'm humbled by that. Cheyenne's been great to us, and being able to play there and ride there. Right there has been super special. That's so awesome. So I was wondering if you could tell me about the writing process and what you wanted to be. the song to how you wanted that to connect with your listeners and what it means to you.

Yeah, you know, that's been a saying kind of around for a long time. But, you know, the University of Wyoming had came out with a new ad campaign. They branded everything, the world needs more cowboys. So I called Trent Wilman, who was producing my records at the time, I told Trent's like, hey, we need to write, the world needs more cowboys before somebody else does. I said, it's such a great title. I flew to Nashville. It was two days before we were tracking an hour. album. We didn't even have it wrote yet. So we wrote that song the night before we tracked. So it was like, I mean, as fast as you could write one, we recorded it the next day. But that song's been really good to me. But you know, when the University of Wyoming came out with

that ad campaign, it came with some controversy, you know. Well, even still today, everybody's touch you about everything, whether it's religion, race, sex, sexist, one way or the other. Not a lot of people, but some people complained about University of Wyoming having an ad campaign that says the world needs more cowboys. They said, well, what about cowgirls? They tried to say that the majority of cowboys are white males or whatever. So me and Trent sat down to write that, and I explained all that to them. So we wanted to write it for everybody, you know, because some of the greatest cowboys in the world came from Mexico. And, you know, they're not necessarily white. And one of the lines in the song is some of the greatest cowboys are cowgirls. So, I mean,

That song doesn't really mean you have to be a cowboy like a male cowboy. It just embraces the lifestyle of a cowboy, whether you're a female or whether you're a different race or you're from a different part of the world. Anybody can be a cowboy and have that cowboy spirit. So we tried to write that the song that everybody could relate to it. Some of the toughest cowboys ever met with cowgirls. And then another line is they come in every size and color from all over the world. So, I mean, it kind of paints the picture of anybody can be a cowboy. You don't just have to be a cowboy.

So we wanted to get away from any drama that that song title would come with after the University of Wyoming had a little bit, you know, but it's such a broad thing that anybody can relate to it. And the idea of being a cowboy isn't necessarily out ranching or whatever it is, some of that, but it's also about standing up for little people and standing up for what you believe in. You don't necessarily have to where a cowboy has to be a cowboy. It's how you live your life. It's more of an idea. So how would you describe the idea?

of being a cowboy, especially if you're not on a ranch or you're not competing in rodeos. I would say just like a real humble person that likes to work hard that kind of looks out for the little guy, you know, always trying to be respectful to everybody, no matter where you go, what part of the world. Like I was just in New York City last week. There's cowboys out there that don't know they are, you know, holding the door for people, just being respectful to people. I think cowboys, you know, the way they are and the way they hold themselves and carry themselves is a hardworking, humble, respectful type person. That's just kind of the way the cowboy way of life is.

And that's what I was saying. Like, I think there's a lot of people out there that have that cowboy spirit that don't necessarily know their cowboys. Humble, hardworking, standing up for what you believe in, and just always trying to do the right thing. So you flew into Nashville to write the song with Trent. So Trent was your producer. He helped you produce.

Are y'all good buds? Or what's y'all's relationship like? Yeah, Trent's great. You know, he produced, see, three records for me, Brodyo Coal Beer, Third Street, one of these days. Trent's amazing writer and an amazing producer. I definitely wouldn't be where I am without him. But I've since moved on.

I'm a songwriter and producer by the name of Bryce Long. It's producing my new stuff. And not because anything of a Trent, Trent's frigging awesome, but Trent's also super busy. You know, he produces all Cody Johnson stuff, which you know, those guys are killing it. He's producing, I mean, it could be almost 100 guys. I don't know how many guys he's producing,

but Trent and I are still really good friends. I just, Bryce and I thought we'd try something a little different, you know, where we could focus on some of the songs a little bit different and kind of just try some different stuff. You never know what's out there. Not saying I'll never go back and have Trent produce one, I don't know, but still good friends. He got me where I was writing a lot of the songs we play live, Trent and I wrote together. But the stuff Bryce and I are doing is just a little bit different sound and, you know, your sound evolves over the years. And so I really have enjoyed the stuff Bryce Long and I have been doing like some of these last seven singles we put out of. performed really good and they perform really good live.

So all those are pretty much in our set list now. And we're dropping a new album October 17th. Well, that's coming up. Yeah, that'll be fully produced by Bryce. So it'll have those, our last seven singles we put out along with three new ones. And then we have another six recorded that are already done. And then we're recording in November, another four. So we'll have another full album ready to go by hopefully, we're thinking May or June,

just put another one out. Wow. That's a lot. That's really good. Yeah. Have you been to the Ryman or the Grangell-Oprey? Which one do you like better? Yeah, we got the opportunity to play the Ryman with Cody Johnson.

You know, Cody called me personally to ask us to come open for him there, which is super nice. Like Cody Johnson and his crew, we look up to a lot. Cody's done it the hard way and earned it. His band live to me is there's nobody better. Like those guys are, we gauge our band all the time, like what Cody's guys are doing. I'm like, man, we gotta try to be as good as those guys, because they're so good.

But it was sure nice of Cody to ask us to open to the Ryman. It was my first time there. I've got to play the Grandal Opry six times in October 29 with my full band. We debuted, I see three years ago, and we got to do it full band with my guys, which was special, because typically when you debut at the Opry, you get to use the opera band,

which are some of the greatest musicians in the world. But we humbly asked if I could use my own guys because I just didn't, you know, I didn't feel right that I was getting to play the Opry and they weren't, you know, I wouldn't have got to that point in my career without my band. We got the debut together, but the few times after that I did use the opera band and it was great, but this upcoming show, we're going to fly the whole band back down and do our full band for the opera on the 29th. Both are the same.

I don't know which one I like better. The opera, you just, there's nothing like it. The format is run off an old radio show, so it's still kind of ran that way with all these There's artists throughout the night, you know, the emcees, and it's something super special that everybody should always see is the Grand Alopry. But the Ryman, there's something magical about, you know, the Ryman Auditorium. There's definitely some magic in that room. So it's hard to pick.

From like a concert goers experience, I like the format of the Grand Alopri, but I like how intimate the space is at the Ryman because you feel like you're right up next to the artist. And it's more of like a songwriter night, which I prefer better than just people going straight through the set list. I know. That's a good way to put it. You know, they're great in two different ways.

We had the band all through college. You know, we'd play rodeo dances and street dances and weddings. We'd play about everything. But it was fun. You know, I loved it as my college job, basically. But, you know, after college, I had to do an internship to finish my master's degree. So I moved to Nashville and worked for TKO artist management, which managed Chris Lidue and Toby Keith and Soria Brown.

TK. Kimbril and so I got to work for Toby for a year and TK there that kind of got me involved more I just after living there a little bit and kind of digging in in the music business I thought well maybe I'll take it I run a this for a career over rodeo because you know you can only rodeo so long and so I made an album while I was down there working for TK and Toby and move back home and then it was music from then on you know music has never come it wasn't easy for us me and my band like we really have had to scrape everything we've ever acquired ourselves, which, you know, it's different for all artists. Like some artists moved to Nashville and spend five to ten years and get a deal and blow up

and have radio hits. And, you know, we've kind of done it backwards. We've stayed west mostly and toured as much as possible, gained fans literally one fan at a time. I know artists say that, but we have. We've played shows over the years where there wasn't a lot of people there, and then we've, you know, gotten where we're playing shows like Shying Frontier Days in front of 20,000 people so but we've earned it every step of the way which has felt good you know we have it we didn't have somebody have the foot in the door for us in Nashville or win a singing contest or we kind of earned it with grit and and hard work which is super rewarding when we get shows like Cheyenne or the grand old opera we know like nobody handed this to us it's it's a tough business to be in for sure there's

so much competition and not that not that any artists in my opinion compete with each other because I think there's room for everybody, because everybody's different. But trying to get the show good enough where people want to book you for big stuff, writing the right type of songs, the crowds will react to and go stream. It's been a journey, you know.

But like I always give credit to my crew and my band, but we've literally done it the hard way. And we've just always told me that years ago, he was like, there might be people out there that out sing me and outwrite me, but he's like, nobody's gonna outwork me. And I've always remembered that. We'll drive, we just got back from California,

for two days. Three weeks before that we were in California. So I mean, there's no amount of work that we won't do. And it's paying off, you know, so I think things in this business, you cherish more if you've earned it, you know, seen artists get it handed to them and maybe blow it and not care as much for it. We still love what we do. We love touring. We love putting out music. We love playing for the fans. So, I mean, it's been a journey and we're still hungry as ever. We love it. So when you released, the world needs more cowboys, what did your fans have to say about it? What were their reactions? Oh, they love it.

You know, like, anytime I put out cowboy songs, our fans eat it up because everybody knows exactly who I am. You know, there's, as you know, a lot of fake stuff in the music business. And everybody knows exactly who I am. I'm in Moorcroft right now at our ranch. Like, I'm a ranch kid that rode bucking horses. So anytime we put out cowboy stuff, our fans eat it up because they know it's a, real authentic Wyoming country music. I don't have to fake nothing and stuff that I sing about.

I try to stay in my lane when it comes to songwriting and songs I record. They've got to be super accurate for cowboys, for ranchers, for people in the Western way of life because, you know, it's the life I live and it's the life I've always lived. So I don't know how else to be than a cowboy. So I sing real authentic cowboy music. So when we put out the world needs more cowboys, you know, our fans obviously ate that up. And it also tied well to the University of Wyoming because that was their ad campaign. So I love putting out cowboy songs, and we still are.

We still put out a lot of cowboy stuff. But I've started cutting a few songs. They're maybe not necessarily full cowboy, but still relate to the Western way of life. Like we put out a song called Miles on me last year. And cowboys can relate to it because it's about traveling up and down the road to rodeos. Ranchers can because it's the hard life of ranching. But it also could pertain to truck drivers or people that. live on the road. So, you know, just those type of songs that necessarily not every song has to have

cowboy in it, even though a lot of my stuff ends up with cowboy in it somewhere. Just being true, blue, authentic, Wyoming cowboy, that's all I know how to do. And I love how original you are, because that is who you are at your core. Yeah, you know, it was, it was a tough go there when I first started putting music out. You know, it was kind of about the start of bro country, you know, and country music really changed. And, you know, good for those guys. That was a good genre for those, Some of those guys made a lot of money. It just really wasn't what I did. You know, and look, my family and friends who were rodeo cowboys in the face, you know,

like I'm still a cowboy, so I've got to sing things that are true to me. So that whole era of rural country, that whole 10 years, we were just still sounded exactly how we sound today. You know, but things finally come around, you know, now that, you know, cowboys in country music is cool again. It's great. And we've thought we were cool the whole time, I guess. Nashville kept saying, you know, Cowboys are cool again. I'm like, hey, time out.

Us Cowboys stuff, we thought we've always been cool. Yeah, we're not cool again, we've always been here. Exactly, exactly. That's kind of what I don't like about country music now is it's more mainstream and it's taking the place of pop music and for people my age, like they're listening to country music instead, which is great, I love it, but sometimes it's a little bit frustrating because you don't know, you can't judge someone if they're country or not or if they're a cowboy or not, but, Sometimes I'm like, are you listening to this because it's popular or what? Right.

And I'm a fan, a lot of those guys. Like Morgan Wallen has some great songs. He also has some songs I don't care for, but, you know, Cody Johnson has some great songs. And, you know, again, you don't necessarily have to be a cowboy, but you know what? It is funny being in Nashville a lot now that everybody's wearing a hat now. Yeah, it's like everybody thought they got, it's funny seeing like the bro country guys buying cowboy hats. I'm like, man, you guys didn't look like that a few years back. But, you know, anytime people embracing the cowboy way of life and trying it, I'm for that.

Even if you don't know what you're doing, I just hope you have your hat on the right way. And I think it's all good for the Western life. There's very few real cowboys in country music. And I think they're starting to be more and more of been seeing on, you know, TikTok and whatnot. So I think it's great. Cody Johnson's maybe the guy we can thank for some of that, for busting the door down for cowboys being mainstream again. You know, he's cutting some great songs. and like I said, him and his band are great.

So all those things happened for a reason, you know. All of us cowboys needed Cody to succeed. Because if, you know, Nashville tried real hard for Cody being a cowboy, and it didn't work, it wasn't going to go well for any of us. So like Cody being real successful is helping everybody. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Yeah. What's your fondest memory of Toby Keith?

Oh, man, I got so many. Like Toby treated me so good, you know, I moved down to Nashville. I didn't know anybody. I didn't know one person in Nashville. So it was pretty lonely because I came from Wyoming where everybody knows everybody. And so Toby and his camp treated me well. Kurt Motley, who's my agent today was Toby's agent. Kurt always treated me great.

TK., who was Chris Ledoo's manager and Toby's treated me great. And Toby just treated me like a son, you know. I mean, I got to be in the studio with him when they were cutting albums. I got to drive Toby. Everywhere he went when he came to Nashville, I would just kind of with him 24-7 until he'd fly home. And so one of my favorite is. moved to Nashville I had my old rodeo van which I still have a 95 Chevy van big conversion band that's my town vehicle and so Toby was going to the BMI Awards one night

to the red carpet to do I think it was the night they were on and Willie Nelson and Toby and Willie were playing together and anyway I was out running some other people from the office around in my van and pulled up where Toby and then were getting ready to get in the limo and Toby said let's take that van to the red carpet so we got my red and white rodeo van and drove it to the red car with Toby and his whole entourage in there, you know, as TK and Kurt and his whole bunch. They thought I was just some lost cowboy that took the wrong road. They kept trying to direct me out of traffic.

And TK. said, you know, stay right here. We pulled right up the red carpet. Toby cracks the door open. He's like, hey, honk the horn. It's a honk the horn. My old van, Toby Keith gets out and, like, it's the only non-limmo or black SUV and the whole red carpet line. But it's classic Toby Keith to be like, hey, I don't want to take a limo.

I want to take this old van. So it, yep. Took Toby to the BMI Awards, the red carpet in my van. That is amazing. I love that. Yeah, Toby, he was just, he was as down home as anybody, man. Just a great dude. You know, there's tons of stars in the world. There's tons of stars in music.

There's just a handful of superstars, you know, Toby was one of those superstars. He's a, you know, what they call a first-nameer. You know, you say Garth or Reba or George or Alan. When you say Toby, everybody knows who you're talking about. Where do you think country music's going? like 10 years when the pendulum swings again. What do you think?

What are your predictions? I don't know. I wish I had a crystal ball. I don't know. And, you know, no matter where it goes, I think guys like myself and true authentic artists will stay to what they're doing. And there'll be a fan base for those artists no matter what you do. It gets bigger, smaller. But I don't know.

You know, the bro-country thing was a big change. And I don't know how far pop country gets before they have a subgenre of it. Does there need to be two genres of country music? I don't know that. I just always keep my head down and doing what I do. And, you know, I put out music knowing that I got a lot of fans that like it. But, you know, there's probably people in the world that don't like it. And that's okay.

You know, not everybody has to like everything I do. And the fans that do like what we do, I think we'll like what we do for no matter what we put out. And, you know, always trying to build that geography out, you know, further across the U.S. and across the world for people to get to know us. But I just think if an artist, if you stay true to who you are and be authentic, fans can see through it. Or they can see that. But I think fans can also see through if you're faking something. You know, if I started wearing different clothes or singing kind of poppy songs, I think my fans would turn against me.

But, you know, we're always trying to get new fans out there and cut stuff that broadens that fan base. And I don't know where music's going, but I know where I'm going. I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing. And if people like it and still come to shows, I'll keep doing it. We just try to be kind to everybody and be real. And I think the fans like that. So we just continue to do that. And that was Chansey Williams on Story Behind the Song.

I'm your host, Lily Fay Kramer, and I'm so glad y'all could listen to Chancy's incredible story on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM.