Chad Brock, born on July 31, 1963, in Ocala, Florida, is an American country music singer whose career has taken many fascinating turns. From the wrestling ring to the top of the Billboard country charts, Brock's journey is one of perseverance and passion.
Early Life and Musical Beginnings
Chad Brock’s life reads more like a screenplay than an autobiography. Despite performing in the church choir throughout his youth, his initial love was athletics, and he was a highly touted high-school football player.
After joining the school chorus, however, Brock also emerged as a star soloist, and became so enamored of music that he turned down a collegiate athletic scholarship to pursue a career as a performer. He dedicated his eponymous debut Warner Bros. to his late chorus teacher, Florence Gabriel Reese.
“I think the first song I ever sang in front of anybody was ‘Lady.’ It was a funny reaction from people seeing a big middle linebacker on stage. Nobody knew I sang. The whole place was laughing at the beginning, because I’m Chad Brock, the football player. All of a sudden, they went silent,” says Brock.
“I totally stopped singing because of football, because I was so engulfed in playing,” says Brock. “My dad moved me to a different high school across town because it was a good football school.
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“For years after football, I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I was in and out of college, then Flo called,” says Brock. “She was the most wonderful woman I’ve ever been around. I hadn’t seen her in a few years. She was very sick; she had stomach cancer, but she wanted to see me. The last time I saw her, she was lying in bed and couldn’t get up, but we talked for three hours. She told me that I had a gift, and it was something that people needed to hear.
Relocating to Nashville to work as a songwriter, he initially struggled to get his foot in the music industry's door, and as a result spent three years touring as a member of the World Championship Wrestling organization.
Journey to Nashville
Brock moved to Nashville, Tennessee, to follow this dream, but he met with little success at first.“I went to Nashville three times. I went for the first time in 1988 and came back home. I went again in 1989 and came back home,” says Brock. “I didn’t have any money. My best friend, Scott Strickland, wanted to help me, because he believed in my talent. He wrote me a check for $10,000, which let me record my first demo,” says Brock.
“I cut the demo and walked in the front door of Warner Brothers. They liked it, but what do you do with a guy that looks like a middle linebacker for the Bears and sounds like Steve Wariner. I was 250 pounds, and they said I needed to lose weight. I got down to 200 pounds, but I looked like a POW. I looked sickly.
“I always stayed in touch with Warner Brothers. I never tried anywhere else,” says Brock. “I got myself up to 255 pounds and looked like that middle linebacker again, but I was more buff. The president of Warner Brothers looked at me and said, ‘Good lord, son, what have you been doing?’ I told him that they wouldn’t sign me at 200 pounds, so I couldn’t stay there. They asked me the next meeting if I knew anyone at World Championship Wrestling. They offered me a three album record deal with the stipulation that I learned how to wrestle.
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Warner Brothers and WCW got together to cross-promote Brock, and he trained at World Championship Wrestling's training facility, the WCW Power Plant.
Wrestling Career
Chad wrestled for WCW from 1994 to 1996, until an injury forced him to retire. He went by his country stage name, and wore purple trunks during a short wrestling career that actually coincided with his fame and success on the country music charts. An archived article shows that he and Curt Henning tangled.
“I was 31 years-old at the time. Physically, I was in great shape, but I wasn’t in the greatest cardio shape in the world,” says Brock. “The first guy they threw me in there with was an Olympic champion; six foot five, 285 pounds. He threw me around like a two year-old. I’d go outside, throw up and come back, again and again. Then they said that they’d see me tomorrow.
“Six months in or so, I had my first match in front of an audience, and it worked. The next week, they offered me a contract for three years. From 1994 through 1996, I was in the ring quite a bit,” says Brock. “I didn’t want to wrestle. I never did. All I ever wanted to do was sing.
Chad Brock in the WCW
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Country Music Success
Finally, in 1998, Brock signed with Warner Bros. and issued his self-titled debut later that year. In 1998, Brock released his debut single, "Evangeline", which peaked at number 51 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks (now Hot Country Songs) charts.
That song's follow-up, the ballad "Ordinary Life", became Brock's first major hit, peaking at number 3 on the same chart, as well as number 39 on the Billboard Hot 100. Following that song's success, Brock released his self-titled debut album. The second single, "Ordinary Life," was a breakout hit, climbing into the country Top Five, and "Lightning Does the Work" was also moderately popular.
“It happened here in Ocala. The radio station asked me if I’d heard it on the radio yet, and I told them I hadn’t. They told me to go out in the car,” says Brock. “It blew me away. I was doing something that my heroes did.
Brock's fourth chart single was a rewrite of Hank Williams, Jr.'s signature song "A Country Boy Can Survive", a number 2 hit for Williams in 1981. Chad's version, which featured Williams and George Jones, was entitled "A Country Boy Can Survive (Y2K Version)", was re-written with lyrics pertaining to the Year 2000 problem (abbreviated Y2K).
The song served as the first single from Brock's 2000 album Yes!. Its second single was the title track, which went on to become Brock's only number-one Billboard hit, as well as a number 22 hit on the Hot 100 chart. Brock soared to number one with his debut single, "Ordinary Life," then encored with the title-cut of his sophomore album, "Yes!", which topped the Billboard country singles chart for three consecutive weeks.
Chad co-wrote "Yes!" - the true story of how he met his wife, Martie - with hit tunesmiths Stephony Smith and Jim Collins. Although only two weeks into the relationship, he knew he'd met "The One," and deliberately tempted fate by crafting a marriage proposal into the second verse. Chad and Martie exchanged vows eight weeks later.
“Those two songs did really well, and then they wanted a new record,” says Brock. “’Yes!’ really happened. Every line in the song. I moved from a one bedroom apartment into a two bedroom. I told her that I’d come and get it. I hadn’t even brushed my teeth or anything. She opened the door, and I said, ‘I’ll be right back’ and went and brushed my teeth,” Brock says with a laugh. “Next thing you know, we were dating. I had a writing appointment with Jim Collins and Stephony Smith, and I walked in with the idea.
“We wrote it on a Wednesday. We had bus call that night, because we were heading to do shows in Orange County, California. I told everybody to bring their acoustics, because we needed to work it up. I knew we had something special. All the way out west, we worked up ‘Yes!,” says Brock. “We had to play it three times that night. People lost their minds. The second time we played it, they were already singing it back to me. We got a board tape made.
“The song just blew up,” says Brock. “It took 19 weeks for it to get to number one, and it stayed there for three weeks.
The third and last single from Yes! was "The Visit”.
2001 saw the release of Brock's third and final album for Warner Bros.. Entitled III, it was less successful than its predecessor. III had only one chart entry in "Tell Me How", which failed to make the Top 40. This album also reprised Brock's three highest-charting singles ("Yes!", "Ordinary Life" and "Lightning Does The Work").
“I chose songs that I really wanted to do for that record. At the same time, Warner had gotten rid of every general manager they had. They wanted new blood. They brought in a guy from California that wouldn’t know a country song if it hit him in his butt,” says Brock. “That record had a bunch of hits on it that should’ve been played. But they decided to put me on the shelf.
“I went to battle with their president, Benny Brown, over songs. He wanted to A&R every song. I didn’t like what they wanted me to sing, so we were always going back and forth,” says Brock. “I cut a lot of songs.
Chart Performance
Here's a summary of Chad Brock's album chart performance:
| Album Title | Year | Billboard 200 | Top Country Albums |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chad Brock | 1998 | - | - |
| Yes! | 2000 | 125 | 17 |
| III | 2001 | - | - |
Later Career and Beyond
Shortly thereafter, he signed to Broken Bow Records, then a newly formed independent label. There, he recorded his fourth studio album, entitled Free. Although five of its singles were released (with four of those five singles entering the country charts), the album itself was not shipped, and Brock exited Broken Bow's roster.
Disillusioned with the music industry, Brock stepped away from recording in 2005.
Brock left Nashville in 2005 to co-host a morning show on the Tampa, Florida station WQYK-FM along with country music parodist Cledus T. Judd. He remained on the morning show on WQYK-FM, while Cletus moved on to the Bull in Atlanta GA.
In 2007, Brock signed with Rocky Comfort Records, a label which was started by Tracy Lawrence, although he did not release anything for the label. His first single in four years, "Put A Redneck In The White House", was released in August 2008 on the Straight Shooter label.
In February 2010, Brock left WQYK-FM to begin his new position as Director of Programming for the new cable channel The Country Network. TCN will begin airing nationwide in June as part of the CMA Music Fest in Nashville. Although the main office for TCN will be in Nashville, Brock will be based in Atlanta
On October 25, 2010 Brock announced on his social networking page his intention to run for the United States Senate in 2014.
Personal Struggles and Resurgence
“I was miserable. I blew up to 309 pounds. My voice went away,” says Brock. “I didn’t know what I was going to do. I wasn’t happy for years.
“We found out that I had no testosterone and that my thyroid was bad. They put me on testosterone and a thyroid medication. Next thing you know, 90 pounds fell off of me. I was back to where I was in high school. But I still couldn’t find my voice,” says Brock.
“A buddy of mine owned a venue, and he wanted to start bringing in acts. I called my friends Billy Dean, Andy Griggs and Mark Wills. Mark told me, ‘We worked up “Yes!,” and you will get your big ass up there and sing.’ He told me that he’d be there with me, and if I couldn’t hit the notes, he’d be there to help hit the notes. I got up there, and it was like I’d never left the stage.
“Next thing you know, I’m back singing again, and I wanted to get back into it,” says Brock. “I got offered a record deal. Then another one. And another one after that. But I wanted to do it my way. I wanted to sing the music I wanted to sing. I didn’t want to have to fight for every song like I did last time. I waited it out, because I wanted to see what they were all about or if they were just talking. I ended up saying going with SSM Nashville.
“I put it out there that I was looking for songs. I’ve gotten the best material I’ve ever had. Songs are pouring in,” says Brock. “Sometimes it’s hard to find songs, especially if you’ve been out of the game for a while, but the best writers in the world are throwing songs at me. We’re putting together the record that I’ve always wanted to make.
“They understood what I was all about when record labels didn’t,” says Brock. “When I started doing shows again, they came out. ‘Yes!’ is 24 years-old, and I don’t have to sing half the song because the crowd is singing it. There’s 12 year-olds out there that know the song and say it’s the reason they listen to country music.
“Life is ups and downs, ebbs and flows, but you can’t quit,” says Brock. “I wasn’t done. God wasn’t through with me. I’m coming back and doing what I love to do. I’m 61 years-old, and I’m in the best shape of my life. I’ve just got a white goatee now.
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