Photo Credit: Alexa King
Chase Rice has certainly been a name to watch ever since the North Carolina native moved to Nashville. Since then, he has spent two weeks at No. 1 with his chart-topping single “Eyes On You.” If that’s any indication of his future, there’s no stopping him now.
At the moment, the multi-platinum chart topping country sensation is in the process of wrapping up his Eyes On You Tour, which will be followed by his headlining AM/PM Tour through the fall and a 12-date tour to Europe in January.
Rice will be performing in New England (at Hampton Beach, New Hampshire and Portland, Maine) later this week before returning to Boston in October. We caught up with him last week to talk about his fall tour, working with Florida Georgia Line and why he has his eyes on Fenway Park.
Photo Credit: Alexa King
You’re currently on tour and then kicking off your fall AM/PM Tour in just a few weeks (August 1) here in New England with the first stop in Providence. Tell us a little about what we can expect on this tour.
It’s not going to vary too much from what we have done in the past. I really like entertaining people and our shows have a lot of energy. There will be some acoustic steps in there and I will play my new single “Lonely If You Are,” which I think has the chance to be bigger than “Eyes On You.”
After your fall tour, you’re set to head over to Europe for your 12-date “The Pint of Anything” tour that includes your first full-band headlining shows as well as a series of acoustic performances.
It’s usually crazy this time of year, so it will be good to reenergize. Europe is a good change of pace. After that, I am taking the months of February and March off just to relax, fish and do whatever I want to do.
Why do you think the song “Eyes On You” became such an overnight sensation?
The day we wrote it, we knew it was special. It has a real hook melodically. Sometimes songs just work and we all knew right then it would be a hit.
You co-wrote that song with Ashley Gorley and Chris DeStefano. What was it like working with them on this?
We had worked together a ton before, but this was definitely a better day than we had before. We all know how to write hits so coming together for this one was a lot of fun.
Photo Credit: Alexa King
Some people might not know that before establishing your own singing career, you were a co-writer on Florida Georgia Line’s hit “Cruise” back in 2012. Tell us about that experience.
We were just writing a ton of songs together and neither one of us had large success at that point. We thought we had something special with this song and then “Cruise” just blew up.
Who have been some of your songwriting inspirations along your career?
I am not really sure to be honest with you. I didn’t know songwriters like Craig Wiseman or Dallas Davidson, but for country music stars, I would say Garth Brooks for sure and Chris LeDoux. I started getting into Kenny Chesney in middle school and high school. Then I got into bands like Blink 182 and Eminem. I am kind of all over the map when it comes to what I listen to and you can probably hear that in my music.
What was it like performing “Eyes On You” live here in Boston on City Hall Plaza last month prior to this year’s Stanley Cup Final Game 1?
That was awesome! I couldn’t believe how loud that crowd was. It was so cool to see such a huge reaction. Boston is home to me. We were at a baseball game at Wrigley Field recently and I kept saying Wrigley is no Fenway. We even went to (former Red Sox pitcher) Jon Lester’s house after and there were so many guys who came there from Boston. The city is always home to us. I love that town. It’s kind of the same thing with Chesney. He feels the same way about Boston. I’d like for my first stadium performance to be at Fenway Park. I hope it happens over the next few years.
