Chase Rice has quite the interesting career trajectory.
The country music artist got his start during what one could call the “Peak of Bro Country.” Rice was actually a crucial part of the rise of that genre, considering he co-wrote “Cruise” with Tyler Hubbard and Brian Kelley of Florida Georgia Line.
Though it was a successful part of his career, Rice has historically been very open about how it wasn’t all that fulfilling. And when he sat down with the Whiskey Riff Raff, he was happy to talk more on his Bro Country past:
“It was an interesting route for my whole career. I just randomly listened last night to an album I put out in 2012 called ‘Dirt Road Communion.’ And it wasn’t great, but there were signs of, ‘I’m just doing what I’m doing.’
Right around that time is when we wrote ‘Cruise,’ and ‘Cruise’ is the biggest blessing and curse that I could have asked for. We were in there, write it, it blows up and I’m like, ‘F**k, this is cool.’ And that was when Bro Country became a thing. Love it or hate it, it was a thing. And it was huge.”
Admittedly, it was a thing.
As to whether Rice loved it or hated it, the best way to describe his feelings towards the sub-genre would likely be “indifferent.” And he’s far enough removed from it all now to see that he kind of just fell into it accidentally, since he didn’t ever really see himself becoming a country music star in the first place:
“The problem with what I was doing… I was clueless. Why wouldn’t I have been? I learned to play guitar in 2006. A lineman at Carolina had me play Dave Matthews and stuff in the dorm rooms and I’d sing along to some country stuff and he’d be like, ‘Dude, you should be a country singer.’ That’s like saying I should an astronaut. It was that far from reality for me.”
After learning how to play guitar thanks to a teammate of his at University of North Carolina, Rice’s linebacker career at UNC was derailed by an injury. So not too long after he got hurt, he moved to Nashville to chase a dream that still felt very foreign to him.
And then at one point, he became roommates with Brian Kelley and Tyler Hubbard:
“They taught me a lot about writing songs. And whether you loved them or hated them, at first it was like, ‘They’re doing something different.’ The problem with what they were doing different was (me saying) ‘I want to do that now.’
Looking back, I don’t really fault myself for that because I didn’t know any better. That’s how I learned how to write songs. I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I didn’t know what I didn’t want to do. I just knew, ‘This is cool, it’s different.’
I was so clueless to what I wanted to do that I just went with it. We just threw a bunch of stuff out there. Looking back, somebody should have grabbed a hold of me (and said), ‘Let’s see if we can do this instead.’ But they didn’t know either. We were having success. So I rode that wave as long as I could ride it.”
Even as he was having commercial success, Rice knew deep down that he always wanted to do something like else that was unique to himself – like how Eric Church has always done things. So in 2018, he started recording new song ideas into his phone while actually playing guitar – something he hadn’t done in over 10 years.
Then in 2o20, Rice hit a wall and deleted social media off of his phone. It was that very night that he remembers writing a song by himself called “If I Were Rock and Roll” after watching a Bruce Springsteen documentary. That song, along with his fan favorite track “Bench Seat,” flipped a switch for Rice. The country music singer remembers that it was in those moments that he decided to stop chasing what was popular, or what the radio was playing.
And since then, he’s put out two albums – I Hate Cowboys & All Dogs Go To Hell and Go Down Singin’ – that sound far removed from anything he was ever doing during his “Bro Country” era. Rice said there was another moment in particular that could very well have been his “ah-ha moment” for making the stylistic switch:
“I was talking to somebody about that out in Utah, and she said it, and I said, ‘Damn, I’m using that.’ It’s such a well thought-out thought. She said, ‘It sounds like you don’t want to be well-known, you want to be known-well.’ And I was like, ‘Sh*t, that was well said.’ That would be it.”
Now he’s focusing in on more personal, authentic projects, like his most recent Fireside Sessions project. He’s also got a new album on the way called Eldora, which he describes as “mostly story songs” that are inspired by his time spent out in Colorado.
Rice would probably be the first to tell you that he finally feels like he’s on the right track career-wise, and he’s now setting out to make music that’s genuine and authentic to himself. His definition of success looks different now, and he hopes that fans will come to appreciate the new music he’s bringing to the table:
“If it does become something big, it would be cool. You want as many people to sing your songs as possible, especially when I love these new songs so much more than anything I’ve done. I just want people to know who I am through my music and know that it’s not fake.
I don’t care about if I’m the most popular artist in the world. I just want people to care about what I’m doing, and know that these songs were written really well, and say, ‘I want to hear these songs in 50 years.’ The stuff I was doing before, it’s not going to stand the test of time.”
You can hear more from Rice in the latest episode of the Whiskey Riff Raff podcast:
