Ben Chapman rang in 2025 the same way a lot of grind-it-out songwriters did: By throwing a rager at his Nashville home. Chapman and his girlfriend at the time, Meg McRee, welcomed friends into their home, counted down to a midnight toast, and made resolutions like “Give zero fucks for the next year.”
Two days later, McRee told him she wasn’t feeling well. She took a pregnancy test. “It lit up like a Christmas tree,” Chapman tells Rolling Stone.
The shock for Chapman and McRee quickly turned into a life-changing year. They were married in the spring. In September, they welcomed their firstborn — a boy they named George.
On the list of things eternally altered that holiday weekend for the 28-year-old Chapman was his latest studio album, Feet on Fire, which dropped this past Friday. He had been about halfway through recording what became a 12-track project — his first record since 2024’s Downbeat — when he and McRee got the news that they were going to be parents.
“I had about six songs done that I knew for sure were going on there,” Chapman says. “The other six were during that period of, ‘Oh my God, my life is gonna change. I don’t know what this looks like. We are so excited, but scared as fuck.’ It was a two-part record.”
With Anderson East — who had previously produced Downbeat — at the controls, Chapman worked through the uncertainty with songs steeped in change, new beginnings, and hope.
“All 12 songs fit together,” Chapman says. “It’s by far my favorite record that I’ve ever been a part of. I think I dig it because it’s so true. Not that the other ones aren’t true, but this is the record where I became a man.”
On the song “Baby Blue,” which he and McRee co-wrote, he sings about “tradin’ the old for the new, and painting it baby blue,” over a heavy, room-filling piano riff. His twangy Georgia vocals are front and center, marking a sharp contrast from “Everything’s Different,” which was written before he and McRee learned they were expecting. On that song, Chapman laments about his unwillingness to evolve. “Still ain’t seeing no one in the mirror/I don’t recognize the face/Everything’s different, but ain’t nothing changed,” he sings.
The fact that he and McRee are both artists adds a layer of uncertainty to their future as parents, Chapman admits. While he navigates the release of Feet on Fire and gears up to tour, he now has a second person to consider. “Sometimes it’s hard,” he says. “I find myself going to the bathroom and breaking down a couple of times. Not in an all-sad way, but if he crawls while I’m not there, I’m gonna lose my mind. I hope that one day, he’ll look back and go, ‘Dad was chasing a dream,’ and maybe that’ll inspire him to be whatever he wants to be.”
One part of Chapman’s live experience that he’s determined to not change is Peach Jam — the seasonal residency he hosts at Nashville’s Basement East. It began as a post-pandemic labor of love to get artists and fans back into the habit of experiencing live music again, and has since morphed into a mini-festival featuring Chapman’s favorite songwriters. He’s had guests like Lainey Wilson, Lukas Nelson, Kaitlin Butts, and Carter Faith all play it. The next one is set for June 3 and will showcase Rome, Slater Nalley, and Benny G.
“It’s so authentic,” Chapman says of the event. “Sometimes, we mess up, but sometimes it’s the best thing ever.
The same can be said about his new balance of music and father. “It all kind of bleeds into one,” Chapman laughs, “in the most perfect way.”
Josh Crutchmer is a journalist and author whose book (Almost) Almost Famous is available now via Back Lounge Publishing.
