Chase Rice is a brand new man. After having success throughout 2014 with his Ignite the Night album, he is back with his sophomore project, Lambs & Lions, and the new music isn’t the only thing that’s got him fired up.

“I know who I am now,” Chase tells Country Beat Magazine. “I know who I am as an artist. For me, that’s the most freeing place a person can be, when they know who they are and know their purpose. When I can walk up to anyone and say this is who I am, this is what I do and nobody else in this world can do this, that’s a good feeling.

“I am the best at what I do – and that’s not in a cocky way,” he is quick to add. “I would say that for any artist – Sam Hunt, Thomas Rhett, Eminem, Garth Brooks – it doesn’t matter. Nobody in the world can do what those guys do. Just like nobody in this world can write the
article you’re about to write, you know? So when I realized that, and I really realized that as a person, nobody in the world can do what Chase Rice does … to me, that’s the most freeing place a human being can be. That’s not cocky; that’s freedom. That’s the way we’re meant to live, and that’s joy right there.”

That excitement and satisfaction is also something that reflects in his new music. Chase released Lambs & Lions on November 17, 2017, marking his first endeavor with Broken Bow Records. “This is just the tip of the iceberg,” Chase says of where he goes from here. “There’s a lot of different stuff going on for me and my career right now. It’s a lot of great stuff. It’s been two years in the making, but things are finally where it needs to be.”

Not only is Chase’s music where it needs to be, but also the same applies for his Head Down Eyes Up brand, which continues to grow in its apparel line. The phrase was one that came to Chase after he started his junior year at the University of North Carolina and was injured on the very first football game of the season. Devastated, Chase began rehab for his ankle injury and recalls the moment he had his head down in frustration, but was looking up at himself in the mirror of the weight room with determination in his eyes. That moment and that saying stuck with him as he embarked on his country music career, and since he has released an apparel line for both men and women to keep the saying alive.

“We’ve got a lot of plans for this year and next year with new product and new ways to get people wearing Head Down Eyes Up and keep that mentality going,” Chase says. “It’s already a success story, and now it’s just continuing to build on that. There will be some good stuff coming in the new year.”

Over the past 12 months since Lambs & Lions was released, Chase’s fans have helped make two album tracks not only become staples in Chase’s live shows, but also huge hits on country radio: “Three Chords and the Truth” and his latest release from the album, “Eyes on You,” which to date has been the biggest song of his career. Like most of the tracks on Lambs & Lions, Chase took part in writing “Eyes on You,” along with the help of co-writers Ashley Gorley and Chris DeStefano. The tune shows Chase’s softer, more tender, romantic side, singing about all the places he’s been to, but only has one memory of them all – the view of the girl by his side. When it came time to shoot the song’s music video, Chase wanted it to be as vulnerable as the lyrics, so who better to play his love interest than his girlfriend at the time.

“We wanted it to be very real,” explains Chase who says his real-life buddy was also cast in the video. “Everything about that video was what things I would really do … I would snowboard, I would fly fish, I would travel with friends, and we wanted to document that. That makes it amazing. It’s like man, I’m not actually working!”

However, there was a wrench thrown into the video shoot when Chase tore his pectoral muscle snowboarding as they were close to wrapping their last run of the first day. “We had two more days to shoot, so our goal was to not get hurt,” Chase says with a grin. “I just put my hand down on the mountain as I was going down pretty fast, and there was too much pressure on that part of the body I guess. It just snapped real quick. I was like ok… this is going to make for an interesting two days, but here we go [laughs]! I was icing a lot throughout the whole video and wimping my way through it with my arm, trying to not hurt it even worse. But it’s part of the cool story of what that video was. It’s going to be something to look back on and say that scar’s from that video.”

Chase had surgery a month after finishing the video, and in true Head Down Eyes Up mentality, he didn’t miss a show due to the recovery process. “I’m fully good to go now,” says Chase, who performed only two days post-surgery. Besides not wanting to disappoint fans
who had bought tickets to the show, there was one other factor in his determination to take the stage. The show happened to fall on the 10-year anniversary of losing his father. “It was extremely, extremely painful, but for me it was worth it,” says Chase, who bought a smaller guitar that he could wrap his arm around with ease for the occasion. “I wanted to play ‘Jack Daniels and Jesus’ with just me and a guitar. I wrote the date on that guitar, and it will be a memory I will always have.”

Even after 10 years, Chase still has days where he struggles with missing his father, but says he’s healed up now for the most part. What has helped him the most in the journey is talking freely about his father, which not only keeps his memory alive, but also helps keep his father’s spirit in his heart. “Somebody asked me the other day, what do you miss most about your dad,” he says softly. “I thought about it for a second. I was kind of stumped. I said I miss being a son. That was the first time that I realized that. I’m still my mom’s son, but I’m not my dad’s son anymore.”

As far as a family of his own someday, Chase is for certain that is something his future holds. “I’d give up music for that,” Chase says of having his own kids. “Now, that’s not the plan [laughs]! I can do both, but that’s how important that is to me.”

Until that day, he continues to soak up the precious time spent with his niece and nephew, and does what he can to be the best role model that Uncle Chase can be. “My life, doing what I do, it tends to be all about me. I honestly don’t prefer that, but that’s just the life that I live right now,” he explains. “Having people in your life that remind you that it’s not all about you, is the biggest thing any entertainer or famous person can have. Those two, when they get around me, they don’t know me as a singer. They don’t know me as the artist or the old football player. They just know me as Uncle Chase. That’s why it’s so special for me to be around them. They don’t care what I do, and I couldn’t love them any more than I do. I need more of that in my life.”

But if there’s one thing Chase Rice can tell you, it’s that good things come to those who wait. He is living proof. “Everything just seems to be in a good place right now,” Chase says, smiling. “There will be some more good stuff coming in the new year, and let me tell you … I am ready!”