Featuring FREE concerts by American Idol winner Chayce Beckham and Big Head Todd & The Monsters

Deadwood, SD - Deadwood Mountain Grand is partnering with Deadwood’s Outlaw Square to present a free kick-start to summer concert weekend featuring free concerts by 2021 American Idol winner Chayce Beckham on Friday, May 26th and legendary rockers Big Head Todd and The Monsters on Saturday, May 27th on the outdoor Outlaw Square stage.

One of the fastest growing country artists in the country will be kicking off the events on Friday night as Chayce Beckham headlines the 8pm show with Colorado natives Big Head Todd and The Monsters headlining Saturday night at 8pm. Warming up for Big Head Todd and The Monsters will be the Rathco Band from Rapid City at 6:30pm. The free events are a partnership between the Academy of Country Music (ACM) nominated Deadwood Mountain Grand and Outlaw Square as an unofficial kick off to summer.

Big Head Todd and The Monsters

Big Head Todd and The Monsters have quietly become an American institution following three and a half decades of writing, recording, and touring (totaling over 3,500 performances). After countless sold out shows in amphitheaters and on the high seas, beaming their tunes to outer space (literally), earning the endorsement of everyone from Robert Plant to The Denver Broncos, and tallying tens of millions of streams, Big Head Todd and The Monsters cite the friendships formed in the crowd among their proudest accomplishments. Fast forward to 2021 and the Colorado quartet—Todd Park Mohr [vocals, guitar, keys, sax, harmonica], Brian Nevin [drums, percussion], Rob Squires [bass, vocals], and Jeremy Lawton [guitar, keys, vocals, steel guitar]—continue to unite audiences.

“Friendships have spawned because of our band,” smiles Todd.  “Maybe a bit like the Grateful Dead, the line between audience and stage has over time become a bit blurred and many lifelong friendships have been made in every direction.  I’m very proud of that.  Bringing people together and sharing a joy for a couple of hours is an important function of music.  Music can cultivate community, even harmony.  We need that!”

Fittingly, the guys in the band began as friends as well. Todd and Brian first crossed paths in high school jazz band circa 1982. Soon, the guys started to jam in Brian’s basement also joined by Rob. Sweat-soaked house party gigs and talent shows followed until they became a fixture on the bar circuit “before I was even old enough to drink,” laughs Todd. As perennial outliers, the musicians performed original material at these formative gigs, standing out from a bevy of cover bands in the scene at the time.
 
Adopting the moniker Big Head Todd & The Monsters, they served up their independent debut Another Mayberry in 1989 and Midnight Radio in 1990 to critical acclaim, setting the stage for their seminal 1993 breakout Sister Sweetly. Powered by staples “Broken Hearted Savior,” “It’s Alright,” and “Bittersweet,” it eventually went platinum, and they supported Plant on tour. At the time, Variety hailed Todd as “a soulful singer and nimble lead guitarist,” while The Los Angeles Times claimed, “Mohr, who has a voice like smoke, writes great songs that incorporates blues, folk, rock and country, which sounds sort of like, well, Big Head Todd and the Monsters.”

Throughout the next decade, the group presented fan favorites such as Strategem [1994] and Beautiful World [1997]. The latter yielded the cover of “Boom Boom” [feat. John Lee ******], which famously served as the theme to NCIS: New Orleans. In 2005, they exceeded our atmosphere altogether. Friends with connections to NASA encouraged Todd to write a song for NASA, so they ignited 2005’s “Blue Sky.” In 2011, Big Head Todd and The Monsters played “Blue Sky” live from the middle of Mission Control to awaken the astronauts aboard the shuttle. 2017 saw them release New World Arisin’ to fan adoration and critical acclaim. Glide Magazine claimed, “such tracks, like most of this music, radiate a sense of optimism and purpose ever so welcome in these fragmented times.”

Along the way, the band joined the Denver Broncos on their Super Bowl victory parade, delivering a triumphant performance to boot. Not to mention, they’ve headlined their own cruise multiple times and introduced Rockin’ the Reef as a five-night musical extravaganza in Jewel Paradise Cove in Runaway Bay Jamaica for 2022.
Big Head Todd and The Monsters took the stage at hallowed hometown haunt Red Rocks Amphitheatre a staggering 32 times. In June 2021, they made a rapturous homecoming to Red Rocks for their first full capacity gig at the venue post-COVID. Chronicling the gig, 303 Magazine described the group as “a longtime pal that has defined Colorado’s blues-rock scene for multiple decades.”

“The Red Rocks performances have all been special to me,” Todd goes on. “Growing up in Colorado, I always loved going to shows there as a teenager. I’m super proud of that. The COVID year was really unique, because we played there four times before finally getting back in front of a packed house. It meant a lot to all of us.”

“For a half-Asian kid growing up in Littleton, Colorado, it’s not likely I would’ve ever ended up being as involved in blues music as I have been,” he observes. “It’s unbelievable we’ve gotten to play and even record with some of my idols.”

In the end, Big Head Todd and The Monsters will never stop bringing crowds together. “If I had any message for our listeners, it would just be, ‘Thank you’,” he leaves off. “We’re so fortunate to have lives making music. We’re grateful to be in the situation we’re in, and we’re going to continue as long as we can.”

Chayce Beckham

Some people learn things the hard way.  
And a fortunate few turn those hard-won lessons into songs.  
 
That’s Chayce Beckham, a 26-year-old, reckless blue-collar troubadour who survived his own missteps long enough to be embraced by the entire country on American Idol.
 
People see themselves in Beckham. He is an authentic voice for a working-class generation. With honest, slice-of-life storytelling and a voice that cuts through like a chain saw, Beckham’s music serves as a reminder that it’s the simple things in life that matter most and not material things.  
 
A year ago, he was living at home after losing everything, driving a forklift, and writing songs because music was a refuge. After winning the 19th season of “American Idol” in 2021, he immediately began creating new music and writing new songs with some of the best tunesmiths in Nashville and released his critically acclaimed debut EP Doin’ It Right via 19 Recordings/BBR Music Group in 2022 that skyrocketed to No. 1 on the iTunes All Genre and Country charts.  
 
With his backstory, the EP title seems slightly ironic, but it actually foresees where the triple-threat performer, vocalist, and songwriter is headed: The direction is emphatically up.  
 
Making American Idol history, Beckham was the first contestant to ever win the competition show by performing an original song – his self-penned track “23.” A semi-autobiographical account of his struggles with alcohol and the lows it can take on a person, the track quickly shot to the top of both the iTunes Country and All Genre charts and numerous viral charts,?racking up more than 203 million on-demand streams and growing.  

Beckham co-wrote four out of the six tracks on his debut, which was produced by Ross Copperman (Dierks Bentley, Darius Rucker, Keith Urban), along with Lindsay Rimes on the track “Doin’ It Right,” featuring traditional and muscular instrumentation with banjo, mandolin, and steel guitar throughout.    
 
The first taste of new music from the EP is the smooth southern comfort cut “Tell Me Twice.” The title was inspired by Beckham’s mom, who had encouraged him for years to try out for American Idol. It was something they said to each other, and it made him think about all the things in life that you should just do and not think twice about.   
 
Other cuts include the untethered “Where The River Goes” about chucking responsibility to go where the world can’t find you. An avid fisher himself, the song is a subtle nod to the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s “Fishin’ In The Dark.”
 
“That was the inspiration,” Beckham said. “It’s got summertime, cornhole, going to the beach vibe. I listen to those playlists. I know the words to every song. I love honky tonk music, Hank Jr., George Jones, and Vern Gosdin. I lose my mind for that stuff, and it is a key component in all my music.”
 
“I love telling stories about life, where we come from, the whole thing, the good times and the bad times, especially the bad times,” Beckham quipped.   
 
He hesitates to interpret his songs for anyone. “They should take the lyrics and apply them freely to any given situation and get out of them what fits into their life,” he said. “The message and lyrics may be completely different for them than it was for me. And that is for them to figure out.”
 
Katy Perry said he sounds “like the hearts of America.” But Beckham doesn’t think of himself as a great singer; he prefers telling a great story. “I’m not good at anything else,” he claimed.  
 
He started playing guitar at three. And like many of the life-altering events in his life, it started with a fall.  
 
Split custody meant weekdays at his maternal grandparents’ 10-acre farm and weekends in LA with his dad and Latina grandmother from Durango, Mexico. She had a car but refused to drive. On one of their daily walks around Southgate LA, the pre-schooler tripped and hit the pavement. They were in front of a music store and to distract him from his bloody knees she took him inside.  
 
Beckham has a clear memory of the clerk telling him, “I’ve got a guitar for you. Your grandma’s going to buy one of the nicest guitars for you, but you have to be good.”  
 
From the start, Beckham was obsessed. Someone taught him a few chords. By first grade he had taken a couple guitar lessons. But Beckham learned more by mimicking records he heard on Country radio than following rigid instruction. He listened to bluegrass, and ‘80s and ‘90s Country George Jones and Clint Black, Don William and Brad Paisley. Later he found Van Halen and AC/DC.  
 
After high school, he started a band and he started singing, “not because I thought I was good, but because no one else wanted to.” Building a fanbase, his band started organizing multi-band festivals in the backyard of their rented house in the foothills of Glendora for up to 300 people.   
 
Known as the Sinking Sailors, the music was more Nine Mile than Music City. Beckham would close his eyes and sing at the top of his voice just to be heard over the din.  
 
Doors’ front man Jim Morrison was his idol and Beckham was living a fast lifestyle that eventually came crashing down. A potentially fatal car wreck changed everything. Witnesses left him in the crushed vehicle because they assumed he was already dead. He lost everything and moved home broke and humbled.  
 
“Sometimes it’s good to fall, because it gives you something to get back up from,” said Beckham.”
 
Emotionally bruised, Beckham found comfort in Country music. “Country music healed my wounds and put its arms around me,” he said with genuine candor. “Sometimes you have to lose yourself a little to find yourself. I went back to my roots.”
 
When he finally took his mother’s advice and agreed to try out for American Idol, he didn’t have money for a decent guitar, but his family and friends came through with $1,700 in donations, enough to buy the Takamine guitar he played on the show.  
 
Giving memorable, powerhouse performances night after night of songs such as Chris Stapleton’s “You Should Probably Leave” and Zac Brown Band’s “Colder Weather,” Beckham knew Country music was his future. He also now has an endorsement deal with that guitar maker.  
 
“This is the right time in my life,” Beckham said. “I know I can handle success and I know I can handle what life is going to throw at me. There is no way I could have handled this stuff before. I’ve stopped questioning the chain of events that got me here. Now, I just let it happen.”
 
It’s been an incredible journey and far from over.  

Due to fan demand and an impressive 1 million-plus on-demand stream per week since its release in 2021, Beckham’s pensive and American Idol-winning song “23” is currently climbing the Country radio charts. Having wrapped 2022 tours with Jimmie Allen and Luke Combs, Beckham is headlining his own shows before hitting the road for superstar?Luke Bryan’s 2023 Country On tour this summer.

Both days of concerts are free to the public and are all age’s shows. For more information or interview requests, please email [email protected] or visit

Deadwood Mountain Grand Hotel, a Holiday Inn Resort is the restored 1906 Homestake Mining Co. ore processing plant that overlooks Historic Deadwood, which features a 98-room luxury hotel, full service restaurants, 210 state-of-the-art casino games, high stakes gaming action including Dale’s Sportsbook Bar & Grill, a 3,000 person entertainment and event center and a multi-level parking garage.

Outlaw Square was created through a public-private partnership with a concerted effort to build a local gathering space to accommodate public events. Historically, Deadwood had public spaces including a gazebo or band stand on Sherman Street and Chautauqua Park on the top of McGovern Hill as well as early parks. But as the decades wore on, some of the locations and facilities succumbed to age or redevelopment. Deadwood now has a state of the art facility as a public gather space hosting a variety of events and activities year round.

Construction of Outlaw Square began in the autumn of 2018 with funding coming from the Deadwood Historic Preservation Commission and the State of South Dakota. Its location on the corner of Deadwood Street and Main Street is the former site of Deadwood’s City Hall and the Deadwood Theater, grand Victorian-era public buildings that were destroyed by a tragic fire in 1952.

It’s also less than 100 feet from the confluence of Whitewood Creek, City Creek, and Deadwood Creek, where gold was first discovered in Deadwood Gulch in late 1875 – an event that opened the floodgates to the prospectors, entrepreneurs, and gamblers who built Deadwood into one of the West’s most legendary towns.