A nostalgic tribute to fall, football, and some of his oldest friends.
Today, Chase Rice released a nostalgic new song called “Joe,” which is a nostalgic track about his days playing high school and later college football, and the special memories he made with friends that are more like family.
I think many fans still think of Rice being a prominent fixture of the “bro-country” era, but he has drawn a line in the sand and taken a step out of that style of country that made him a household name (he famously helped FGL write “Cruise”). His releases of I Hate Cowboys & All Dogs Go To Hell and Go Down Singin’ in back-to-back years were intentional as it gets. He wanted to establish himself as authentic, traditional, and most importantly, not what everyone assumed him to be. That also shined through in his stellar album, Eldora, which he released in September of 2025.
And “Joe” is another reflection of that, which opens with the famed “Good Better Best” phrase that Rice’s state champion high school football team used, and has since been adopted by the Chicago Bears. Ben Johnson, the Bears’ current head coach, played alongside Rice at A.C. Reynolds High School in Asheville, North Carolina, (Luke Combs went there too), and they played together at North Carolina as well.
Rice wrote “Joe” solo, and he says he wrote it about a year ago while sitting in a duck blind, and it came to him while he was hanging out with some of his buddies from his days at the University of North Carolina, and he felt a lot of gratitude for all of their years of friendship:
“I wrote ‘Joe’ exactly a year ago, sitting in a duck blind. I was watching the sun come up with a bunch of buddies from Carolina and I just felt gratitude. Grateful for the years I’ve lived and all the people who have made my life so awesome. Grateful for the ducks, the dogs that get ’em and all the conversations had sitting in that blind.
I realized I still have friends in my life from the time we were teenagers, and I realized how rare that is, and even more so how much of a blessing it is. I thank God every day that I get to do music for a living, and that I can turn these stories into songs.”
He added that it’s relatable because “everybody needs a Joe in their life,” someone who “brings everyone together… and shows up when it matters most”:
“Everybody needs a Joe in their life – that person who brings everyone together, who shows up when it matters most and who you know you can count on through the good times and the hard times. I’m lucky to have this group of guys in my corner, and I hope everybody listening can think about who their ‘Joe’ is, too.”
In a video he shared on Instagram, Chase shared that “Joe” is in one of his “top two” favorite songs he’s ever written or released:
The song opens up with Rice reflecting on 2004 when his high school team was “one game away” from winning the state championship, though a “hook and ladder ended the dream,” but Joe, his lifelong friend, was there to bring some words of wisdom and encourage the team:
“It was 2004 we were at it again
One game away another ring on our hands
But that hook and ladder, it ended the dream
Was the end of an era, the end of a team
We sat there in silence heads hangin low
Just like that clockwork stood up old Joe
He said I love you men been a hell of a ride
We yelled good better best for the very last time”
He acknowledges that maybe the whole thing” wasn’t about football at all”:
“Carolina boys come one come all
Tougher than buckshot when our backs at the wall
Little red on our necks from the weight of the haul
Turns out the damn thing wasn’t bout football at all”
Even though many of his teammates went to different schools, they remained “thicker than thieves,” and it was Joe who had the idea for them to do a yearly trip, which started with a Braves game.
Then, fast forward to 2025, when Joe broke the news to him early during a hunting trip that he had “stage 4 cancer,” and asked his friend to take care of his wife and make sure his song gets in a blind and learns how to hunt:
“Fast forward twelve years to 2025
Joe broke the news as the sun broke the sky
They call it stage 4 I’ve had the time of my life
Won’t ya take care of Katherine, get my boy in a blind”
Just like always, Joe was the one encouraging everyone and making them feel better, when he was the one with a life-altering situation:
“We sat in that A-frame didn’t say a thing
I looked at ole Joe he had a smile on his face
He knew we had his back if its the last thing he knew
Cause that right there’s just what Carolina boys do”
It’s incredibly nostalgic, right on time as we’re in the thick of football season, and is incredibly meaningful considering just how personal it is for Rice. Every verse feels authentic, and it’s not hard to see why it’s one of Rice’s favorites.
“Joe”
