“Y’all Ain’t Gonna Believe This;” The Chad Brock Story (So Far)

Chad Brock’s life reads more like a screenplay than an autobiography. Before embarking on a music career that saw him top the country music charts and travelling the country, there were pit stops in school choir, high school football and the World Championship Wrestling.

Even after closing the first chapter of his music career, Brock kickstarted a successful career in radio and television.

Amidst all of that, though, music remained his true love. Though 16 years have elapsed since he released his last single, Brock is back in the studio making a brand new album full of songs that he says is the truest musical representation of himself to date.

Before we can write chapter two though, we must rewind to chapter one, where a high school football player who loved Kenny Rogers, Charlie Daniels and the Allman Brothers Band was finding, and eventually showcasing, his musical talents.

“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’d been singing since I was very young. I sang in church, so I was singing all the old hymns when I was very young.”

Though he had that deep passion for music, initially, he wasn’t able to pursue it.

“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. My whole life was football.”

When his football career ended, Brock wasn’t sure where his path would lead, until he received a phone call from his former chorus teacher, Florene Gabriel Reese, with life-changing guidance.

“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. Next thing you know, I was in Nashville.”

It wasn’t until his third time moving to Nashville, though, that it stuck.

“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 know what to do, but when Flo called and said I had to do it, I moved again in 1991.”

Brock began to gain traction after his third move to Music City, though labels were admittedly unsure of how to manage someone with his middle linebacker physique.

“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. They didn’t know what to do with me.”

Soon, though, they had an unconventional idea and a direction for him.

“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. That was on a Monday, and on Wednesday, I was in wrestling camp in Atlanta.”

At first, it was a struggle.

“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. They wanted to see if I would quit.”

Not only did he not quit, but the hard work began to pay off, though admittedly, wrestling was a path he never truly wanted to pursue.

“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. But I didn’t care, because I wanted the record deal and I wanted to be a star.”

Soon, he had that chance after locking down a producing team and entering the studio to record his debut, self-titled album.

“Warner wanted me to cut songs with a new producer. He was a monster producer, but I didn’t like working with him. He was too serious. It just wasn’t for me,” says Brock. “Charlie Daniels told me one time, ‘Find somebody that produces you that you enjoy being in the studio with just as much as you enjoy anything in the world.’ Warner set me up with Norro Wilson and his partner, Buddy Cannon. From the first meeting, I knew they were my guys.”

The fruits of Brock’s labor came when the label sent his first single, “Evangeline,” to country radio and he was able to hear his voice coming over the airwaves for the first time.

“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. How many people in the world can say that?”

Brock found momentum when his sophomore single, “Ordinary Life,” topped the charts and the album’s last single, “Lightning Does the Work,” entered the top 20 before Warner Brothers wanted to move on to his next album project.

“Those two songs did really well, and then they wanted a new record,” says Brock. “I told them we had a lot more on the first one, but we started writing again.”

One of those writing sessions spawned “Yes!,” which was based entirely on a true story.

“’Yes!’ really happened. Every line in the song. I moved from a one bedroom apartment into a two bedroom. The girl in the old apartment was still getting my mail, so she buzzed me from the gate. 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. 45 minutes later, we walked out with ‘Yes!’”

Brock immediately knew he had a massive hit on his hands.

“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. When we got back to Nashville, I walked into the office and told the label, ‘Here’s your hit.’”

His instincts proved true when the song topped the country charts for three weeks and became the second most-played single on the year.

“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. Then it stayed in the top five forever.”

After the album’s third single, “The Visit,” landed in the top 25, the label once again wanted to move on to a new album, but label shakeups forced his next album, III, to get lost in the shuffle.

“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 made some phone calls, went in and said I wanted off the label.”

Though he wasn’t without a label for long, Brock admits that he never quite gelled with his new label, Broken Bow Records.

“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. We released some things, but they didn’t really have the oomph to push them, and they didn’t do well.”

Disillusioned with the music industry, Brock stepped away from recording in 2005. After a few pit stops working in radio and television, he began working 9-5 jobs.

“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. I thought I was done with music.”

A trip to the doctor’s office helped Brock shed the weight, but an old friend, and 90s country star, soon helped him find his voice again.

“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. I hit the notes, just like I’d hit them before.”

Reinvigorated, Brock was all-in on music again, and people began to take notice.

“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. They never wavered.”

Back in the studio and preparing to release music for the first time in over a decade and a half, Brock says he is floored with the material he has found for his new project.

“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. The first single will be called ‘Window on the Wall,’ and it’ll be out in the first quarter of 2025.”

As he looks towards the future, Brock says he is thankful for the passionate group of fans that have stuck with him since the 1990s.

“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. It means everything to me that people still want to hear me.”

And now, with the second chapter of his music career in full swing, Brock is ready to take full advantage of his new opportunity.

“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. I get to be the Chad Brock that I’ve always wanted to be, and I’m going to enjoy every minute of it.”