Chase Rice On His Upcoming Album, Opening For Garth Brooks & A Commitment To Making Great Music

In late January, Chase Rice dropped his surpise The Album – Part I. It featured seven new songs including “Lonely If You Are,” which is currently on the Billboard Top 25 country chart and still climbing. Now, less than three months later, he’s announced he’ll release The Album – Part II, with four brand new songs on May 15th.

“We’ve been eager to get more new music out to the fans, especially during this crazy time,” says Rice. “I’m really proud of these songs and hope they can bring a little joy to people while they’re stuck at home.

The new songs will be the latest in his ongoing project called The Album. So far, there’s a Part 1, the upcoming Part II, and Rice promises others will follow. The idea evolved after he began trying to figure out a way to release his music more quickly.

“I have so many songs I’ve written that I’ve never released and may never hear the light of day and I decided I’m not doing that anymore. It’s like, if I write it and love it, let’s put it out. And we kind of stumbled on the idea (of what to call it) by accident. I just kept saying the album, the album, the album and thought what if we just call it that?”

Even before COVID-19 forced everyone to shelter-in-place, Rice was writing and recording new songs on a greater scale than ever before. He’s had a burst of creativity in recent months motivated by a renewed focus on his music future.

Rice first broke onto the country music scene as an artist in 2014 with his Top 5 hits “Ready, Set, Roll” and “Gonna Watch Tonight.” Last year, he had his first big No.1 with “Eyes On You.” Although he’s been making music for nearly a decade, he’s recently rededicated himself to become better at the craft of songwriting. He’s collaborating more with those he can learn from, and working to dig a little deeper in drawing from his own experiences.

“It has to be about my own life or I’m not going to believe it. I like to paint the picture of what really happened to me and I think sharing personal stories, real stories, that’s what I’ve gotten so much better at.”

He points to the lyrics of one of his favorite songs from The Album – Part I, a song called “Forever To Go” to show what he means.

“I can still see that dress you’re wearing with the yellow wildflowers. That’s what she was wearing the day I met her. Or the line about ‘I can’t even watch the Red Sox play without seeing you in that pretty hat.’ I took her to her first Red Sox game. So, yeah, I’m getting more ‘real’ in my music and there’s going to be a lot more of that.”

His efforts to improve his songwriting skills are part of an overall shift to excelling at all aspects of music. He’s determined to become the best songwriter, best performer, best musician, and hopefully down the road – best producer – he can be.

“A big part of that, honestly, came after watching the songwriting documentary by Ed Sheeran. When I watched that documentary what I noticed was not only how great of a musician and producer he is, but that he works his ass off and does everything! And I realized I wasn’t doing it at that level, because I hadn’t focused on it and made it a priority. Now, music is definitely the top priority in my life.”

Rice got his first glimpse of music success as a songwriter in 2012. He co-wrote the country megahit “Cruise” that would make stars of his childhood friend, Brian Kelley, and Tyler Hubbard, the two men who now make up Florida Georgia Line.

The story of Rice getting to that point is an interesting one.

Before music, Rice played football at the University of North Carolina and had dreams of making it to the NFL until an ankle injury ended his career. (He was still in school when his dad first encouraged him to learn to play the guitar.) After college, Rice was recruited by NASCAR to work on the Hendricks Motorsports’ pit crew and while he was there, his team won two championships. At one point, though, Rice got into a fight with a fellow NASCAR co-worker that resulted in a two-week suspension. During his downtime, he decided to head to Nashville to visit his old friend, Brian Kelley.

While in Music City, Rice got the call to appear on TV’s Survivor: Nicaragua. He left for Central America, did the show, and ended up winning second place. Afterward, he returned to North Carolina to continue working with NASCAR, but he’d lost so much weight during Survivor (38 pounds), he was told he’d need to gain some of it back before he could rejoin the pit crew. So, he went back to Nashville and this time he stayed. He moved into a house with Kelley, Hubbard, and another singer/songwriter, Jesse Rice (no relation to Chase), and they began writing songs together.

In the years that followed, Rice enjoyed the early success of “Cruise,” as well as the money, the partying, and the fun that came along with it. But along the way, music, which initially seemed to come easy to him (along with other things in his life), began to get a little more challening. He soon realized it was all because it had suddenly become more mportant to him. Now, with a lot of experience and some major life-lessons under his belt, Rice knows exactly what he wants, and it’s made all the difference.

“At first it was football and I was good, but I wasn’t the best,” he says, reflecting back. “I was heading that way when I got hurt. And then my dad died. And then there was NASCAR and I was good at that, but I didn’t love it. And then I did Survivor and I got second place. I was good, but I wasn’t the best. And then I moved to Nashville and started doing music. And now it’s not the easiest thing I’ve done anymore and because it’s gotten so much harder for me, I’ve gotten so much better. And that’s just the beginning, I think.”

He’s now driven to make music that stands the test of time.

“I want to make music that I can put out now and be proud of, and have it be something I can still be proud of 20 years from now. When you listen to Springsteen or a lot of Eric Church’s stuff, or George Strait, you’re like that’s so good! What did I hear yesterday from George Strait, I think it was “I Saw God Today,” and it still sounds awesome!”

His renewed focus has brought greater success and some unique opportunities. This week he did he did a special live performance of “Lonely If You Are” from his farm for Good Morning America. Earlier this year, he appeared on ABC’s The Bachelor, and in February, he opened for Garth Brooks at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan.

“If you’d told me 10 years ago I’d be at a show with Garth Brooks, I’d be like, wait! What!?” he says, shaking his head and laughing.

Rice walked away from that weekend with some very valuable lesson,

“Getting to see how Garth works was huge for me because it’s such a professional thing and he’s so good to people. And I was like, okay, I’ve got to step it up, I’ve got to step it up and get better.”

Off-stage, Rice says Brooks took time to share some advice on success, maintaining faith through the highs and lows, and striking a balance and staying true to what’s important when things get chaotic.

“After two minutes into the conversation with him, you forget his name is up there with the Beatles, Elvis, George Strait, and whoever,” Rice says. “He’s one of the greatest of all time, but he doesn’t make you feel like that. And he was very helpful. I’m in a good place, the music’s in a good place, and talking to him about all of it was huge.”

As Rice looks forward to the release of The Album-Part II in mid-May, he’s still creating new music. He’s excited about getting back on the road later and doing live shows later in the year. He knows there’s so much yet to come.

“I’ve already had a hell of a career, but I want so much more, and I understand I’m not going to get it unless I put the work in. And now I’m putting in the work. I’m busting my ass learning from a lot of people who are smarter and better than me. I know who I am now, and I think that’s going to show in the music.”

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