Singer-songwriter Chase Rice has released his new album, ‘Go Down Singin' today, September 20. Following the success of his 2023 album ‘I Hate Cowboys & All Dogs Go To Hell' which Billboard hailed as “one of 2023’s most unexpected artistic pivots,” Rice continues to delve into personal and introspective themes with this new project.
Reflecting on his journey, Rice considers this 11-song collection an important milestone. “I’m 38 now, and I’ve journaled since I was 15 years old, but there’s something about being able to tell other people. I’m a deep person, but I don’t know how to show it in real life, so I’m trying to do it in my music.”
‘Go Down Singin' is a testament to Chase Rice's evolution as a songwriter and musician. Stripping back to raw, acoustic elements, the album presents an authentic and deeply personal exploration of Rice’s life, career, and the emotional experiences that come with it. Blending folk, country, and rock influences, Rice crafts songs that are both musically diverse and lyrically profound. You can read our review of it right here.
Thank you for your time today Chase, we know just what a busy guy you are.
I appreciate you wanting to talk to me, man.
Before we dig into the new album……I wanted to ask. ‘I Hate Cowboys……' was such a game-changing album for you, career changing even. As you move into this next phase of your career can you sum up or put into context what that album did for you?
(laughing) It fucked up everything!!!!!! I have no idea, man. I can honestly tell you that right now, music is the wild west. Radio isn't the only thing that gets you heard right now and I have no idea if I am becoming popular and everyone is loving me or if I am going away slowly. I have no fucking clue.
However, where I am in my life and career right now is a fun place to be because I just don't care about all that stuff. Obviously, you wanna work, you wanna be successful and you want people to love your music – you wanna be Zach Bryan, right? I spent so long trying to chase hits, trying to chase radio…….. Florida Georgia Line were the biggest act around so I thought I needed to be like them, right? Sam Hunt became popular and I tried to do that too. I always wanted to be my version of that sound but now, for the first time in my life, I'm just being me. I'm not comparing myself to anyone else for the first time in my career.
I love what Luke Combs is doing, I love what Morgan is doing but I've stopped fucking caring what anyone else is doing and that's a good place to be. I just care about making the best album I can possible make – we did that with ‘I Hate Cowboys……' without really having a clue what we were doing but now on ‘Go Down Singin' we're really dialled into to what we wanna do and how we wanna do it.
Will people find my new album? Will they listen to it? Will they give me a chance? Will it be promoted right? I don't know! ‘I Hate Cowboys…..' didn't seem to blow up and if ‘Go Down Singin' doesn't blow me up – I'm OK with it because I know how good it is.
‘Bench Seat' from your last album sent a lot of eyes and attention your way. Without that song you wouldn't have got to write four songs with Lori McKenna for this album.
I'm pretty sure that ‘Bench Seat' is why Lori said she'd write with me. She wouldn't write with me for years and that wasn't her being awful it was her saying ‘I can't help this guy. I can't help him write ‘Ready, Set, Roll' or ‘Cruise,' right? I completely understand her viewpoint on that. I've got to know her really well and she's the most incredible person, songwriter and artist in her own right. For her, the writer of such great songs like ‘Humble and Kind' to now be working with me on my songs is such an honour. I hope we can win her her next Grammy! (laughing)
‘Oklahoma' was my favourite song on ‘I Hate Cowboys…..' so it will come as no surprise for me to tell you that my favourite songs on ‘Go Down Singin' are ‘Haw River' and ‘Oh Tennessee.' I also love ‘You in '85.' Do you have an early favourite?
My two favourites are ‘Haw River' and ‘Oh Tennessee.' (laughing) You're right, they are both similar in tone to ‘Oklahoma.' ‘You in '85' is going to be a crazy, special song for me for a long time. God, this record is so good………I like it a lot better than ‘I Hate Cowboys……' and I was proud of that record.
‘Haw River' is probably one of my favourites on the album. It's one of the most unusual songs I've ever done – a murder ballad!
Where did the story and inspiration for ‘Haw River' come from?
The show ‘1923,' the ‘Yellowstone' spin off. It was inspired by the priest in that show who was abusing women, which is something that still happens to this day. People in power with sick, twisted minds who abuse their positions of power. I wanted it to be an empowering story, to highlight the strength and bravery of this particular women in the song who stands up for her fellow sisters and kills his ass and sends him down the river.
There's a song way back on my ‘Dirt Road Communion' album called ‘Room 205' that is a similar thing, a murder ballad. The album wasn't great but that type of song has always intrigued me. Maybe I should re-do that song because I don't think people know about that one, that would be sick.
‘That Word Don't Work No More' is a very different type of song for you.
Yeah. That's me and Lori, she's featured heavily on that song. Very different for me, no chorus just lots of storytelling. ‘Fireside' is also a cool song to play live, I love that one. The years I spent chasing a sound and a radio hit watered down my writing abilities but it's back now and I love figuring out ways to get better at it. I also need to find a way of making people give a fuck about it but I don't quite know how to do that anymore. I know I won't stop trying though!
I'm not going to be that guy that dances on Tiktok and I'm not going to follow the trends like I used to. I just want people to hear my music, that's what matters to me. I'm showing people who I am now and I've never done that before.
‘Arkansas' is another great song on the album. Who's that doing the speaking introduction at the beginning of the song?
That's my buddy, JD. He's from Arkansas although he owns a property in Oklahoma now. It's one of the best bird hunting spots I've ever been to in my life. He's a really good friend of mine and a big influence on my life in a positive way. One day he was telling me this story about a guy that works with him, Aaron, whose dad had to stop going hunting on Christmas morning – so that song came from a true story, that was the inspiration behind it.
The songs on this album really say something. Some of them are third person stories, some of them are personal to you like the title track and ‘You in '85.' Did you ever think you would become this type of storyteller?
I probably wouldn't have thought that in 2019 when I was releasing songs like ‘Eyes on You.' I wanted to be in stadiums, I wanted what my friends had and I wanted to be popular. Now I want to look back on my career in 40 years time and know that I was really fucking good at this. If that doesn't put me in stadiums or make me as popular as Morgan Wallen or Zach Bryan then I just don't care. I want to….I need to make great music.
I was listening to John Prine on the bus last night and his storytelling is insane. I didn't even know who John Prine was six years ago because I did not grow up on his music. My music history is terrible because I grew up on one jukebox that my mom and dad would play. From 90s Country onwards I know what I'm talking about but prior to that, it's terrible, man, and it's something I'm doing my best to educate myself on. The history of our genre. Post Malone has done a better job of diving into the history of Country music that I have and that's sad on my part.
You're out on tour with Dierks Bentley right now. He seems a great dude who always looks after his crew and his support artists. Are you having fun?
We're currently parked backstage right now!! There's buses everywhere, Dierks is just over there. Dierks takes care of us like we were his family, it's insane. Everything we've asked for, he's accommodated, he's just a great guy, one of a kind.
When it comes to your setlist – how does your older material sit in amongst the new songs you want to play?
Yeah, it's been a bit of a grind to puzzle that out. I asked Charlie Worsham, a great artist and songwriter in his own right, from Dierks' band, to come stand side stage and watch our set. I asked him to help us integrate the old stuff with the new stuff, we were struggling at first to get the balance right. We only have 45 minutes so we were playing a lot of the ‘I Hate Cowboys….' record but then I'd break the set down into an acoustic section where I can play ‘Cruise' and ‘Ready Set Roll.' The acoustic nature of that segment allows me to tell the story of my career whilst we are doing those older songs. After that we're playing ‘Haw River' and it really shakes things up! (laughing)
People do want to hear some of the old songs like ‘Lonely' and ‘Eyes on You.' Bailey Zimmerman was, like, ‘Dude! You gotta play ‘Ready Set Roll' that song was the shit when I was at school! (laughing) We try to do it all. Charlie helped us sort out how to do but it will all change again once the new album comes out – it's a never ending process that will change again once we're headlining next spring too. In a way it's kind of a blessing that I don't have a load of huge hit songs – it's a wild west out here for my career right now for sure!!!!
Chase Rice's excellent new album ‘Go Down Singin' is out TODAY (September 20th) in all the usual places. Go check it out.
