Chase Rice

Chase Rice turned an appearance on Survivor: Nicaragua in 2010 into a sustained run as a country artist. He first registered with listeners as a writer, supplying Florida Georgia Line the 2012 blockbuster “Cruise.” Capitalizing on that exposure, he stepped forward as a vocalist whose anthemic style echoed the bro-country sound associated with the duo. Mid-decade singles “Ready Set Roll” and “Gonna Wanna Tonight” climbed into the country Top Ten, while “Eyes on You” reached the summit of Country Airplay in 2018; the Florida Georgia Line collaboration “Drinkin’ Beer. Talkin’ God. Amen.” followed it to the top spot in 2020. Rice then began steering toward more introspective material, a direction reflected on the 2023 album I Hate Cowboys & All Dogs Go to Hell and its 2024 successor Go Down Singin’.

Raised in North Carolina, the singer-songwriter absorbed the updated country-pop of Garth Brooks and similar ’90s acts. Athletics occupied most of his high-school and college years, including a stint as linebacker for the University of North Carolina football team. When an injury ended that pursuit, he began playing guitar seriously and composing songs. After graduation he joined the NASCAR Hendrick Motorsports pit crew, performing in Charlotte clubs at night and commuting to Nashville on weekends for songwriter rounds.

Public attention arrived in 2010 when he placed second on Survivor: Nicaragua. The six-song EP Country as Me appeared in 2011, followed a year later by the album Dirt Road Communion; both sets registered on the charts, yet the decisive breakthrough came with his co-writing credit on “Cruise,” which debuted in mid-2012, dominated country radio for months, and peaked at number four on the all-genre Billboard chart. Columbia Nashville signed him, and Ignite the Night arrived in August 2014, entering the country albums chart at number one and lifting “Ready Set Roll” into the country Top Five. “Gonna Wanna Tonight” also reached the country Top Ten that year. After recording sessions that produced the 2016 track “Whisper,” Rice moved to Broken Bow Records; Lambs & Lions was released in November 2017, debuting at number six on Billboard’s Top Country Albums list and featuring the multi-platinum number-one single “Eyes on You.” A deluxe edition followed in 2019. That same year he performed a private concert on the reality series The Bachelor for Peter Weber and Victoria Fuller, a woman he had previously dated; the episode aired in January 2020, coinciding with the release of The Album, Pt. 1. The Album, Pt. 2 surfaced later in 2020, accompanied by the chart-topping Florida Georgia Line duet “Drinkin’ Beer. Talkin’ God. Amen.” and the platinum-certified “Lonely If You Are.”

Activity slowed while Rice prepared his next full-length project. “If I Were Rock & Roll” surfaced in 2021 and “Way Down Yonder” arrived in early 2023; both tracks appeared on his sixth album, I Hate Cowboys & All Dogs Go to Hell, produced by Oscar Charles and recorded at the artist’s farm. The set marked a deliberate turn from early bro-country toward reflective songwriting. That evolution continued on the 2024 album Go Down Singin’, which spotlighted ballads such as the title track and the tender “You in ’85.”