Chase Rice helped spur the “bro-country” movement when he co-wrote Florida Georgia Line’s 2012 hit “Cruise.” The track topped Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart and ascended to the top 5 of the Hot 100. After releasing three albums in the same vein as “Cruise,” the North Carolina-raised artist, 40, surprised longtime fans by adopting a more traditional country sound on his 2023 album I Hate Cowboys and All Dogs Go to Hell. Leaving his longtime label, he kept that sound on the independently released Go Down Singin’ in 2024. Rice’s second independent release, Eldora, dropped Sept. 19, which also happens to be his 40th birthday.
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Both critics and Rice agree that his decision to put “bro-country” in the rearview has yielded some of his best work yet. However, it isn’t receiving the radio play that the “Eyes on You” crooner enjoyed earlier in his career. Here’s why he’s OK with that.
Why Chase Rice Decided to Go Independent
In order to become the artist he has always wanted to be, Chase Rice needed to break free from his longtime label. Eldora marks his second album since splitting from Broken Bow Records, and you likely haven’t heard a single word of it on country radio. But radio hits are just not something the Survivor: Nicaragua runner-up cares about any longer.
“On paper, it was like, ‘OK, what do I need a major label for?’ I need them for their money to pay for the record. I need them to promote the s— out of the record,” Rice said during a recent appearance on the Take It Outside podcast with Jay Cutler and Sam Mackey. “What’s the number one way labels promote? Radio? I’m not giving them radio songs anymore.”
The “Ready Set Roll” singer believes that some Eldora tracks could have been radio hits with the proper production. “But the way Oscar [Charles] and I are producing these songs, we’re not necessarily thinking like, what is the format for a radio song and what does that sound like?” he explained. “We’re thinking, how do we make the best song we can possibly make with real instrumentation, soul, and real singing? No Auto-tune, no nothing.”
[RELATED: Exclusive: Chase Rice Didn’t Change, He Just Got Brave Enough To Be Himself]
In another interview with Country Now, Rice explained that he found the confidence to step off the hamster wheel that is chasing mainstream country success. “If it never comes back, I’m cool with that,” he said. “I want to make great records. I want to be proud of my music at the end of my life. And that’s where I’m at now.”
Featured image by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images
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