“We Are All About Band Leader Wyatt Beard”
Wyatt Beard
Back in 1997, Kenny Chesney’s band leader at the time called up Wyatt Beard and asked him to play in a band with a young artist named Kenny Chesney. Wyatt said, “yeah, I’ll go try it”, even though he hadn’t ever heard of Kenny Chesney. He has since played for Kenny for past 21 years and is now the one we all know and love as the leader of the band. We can’t imagine not having his background vocals with Kenny on tour every year. He stands up at the back of the stage playing those keyboards perfectly everynight! He has said that, “I don’t know how long Kenny will do this, but that’s as long as I’ll do it.”
Wyatt is from Arlington, TX and attended Sam Houston High. Wyatt began playing piano at the tender age of 3 with the guidance of his grandfather. Three years later, a local newspaper titled him “The Young Liberace”. He was in his first band, The Texas Goldminers, at the age of 9. They would load up the family van and Wyatt’s father would take the band to all of their shows. At 15, Wyatt started a show in Branson, MO, where he played each summer through high school. He played in Branson for 10 years.
At Foxboro Stadium, Wyatt was awarded the inaugural CMA Touring Musician Award in 2011. “This is a once in a lifetime ride that I will never even comprehend for another 20 years or so,” said Beard of playing with Chesney’s band. “I try to enjoy the moment.” Wyatt has also said that one of the greatest moments he’s had on stage was with Willie Nelson at Farm Aid and the most scared moment he’s had was playing the White House, but he felt that it was a great honor.
Wyatt has done instruments/vocals on Kenny’s records and The High Line Riders plus vocals on others, such as Willie Nelson, Aaron Lewis, Billy Ray Cyrus and Stephanie Lane. He has also worked on “writing and arrangement” for Jamey Johnson. He also mentors young performing acts
Wyatt lives near Nashville with his wife Karyn and their two children.
We loved meeting Wyatt back in 2015 after a show in NYC that Kenny and the band did to promote the Big Revival album release!
Thank You to LH our “Sandbar Contributer” for the information on Wyatt!