Chase Rice changing his tune with deeper, more meaningful songs

BY TRICIA DESPRES | FOR THE SUN-TIMES

If you are a country music artist coming through Chicago on tour, chances are you are going to end up playing a mega-arena, the Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre, Joe’s Bar. You might even end up with a slot at House of Blues.

The Aragon Ballroom?

“Aragon [Ballroom] is kind of a step up for us,” Rice said in a recent interview, of his upcoming October 16 show at the Aragon Ballroom. The Cadillac Three and Cam open.

“We have sold out both Joe’s Bar and House of Blues, so we decided to take it to the next level and kind of take a chance like I have done my whole career. The biggest compliment I can get is that not a lot of country artists play there. [Laughs] That’s just the way I like to do it. I like trying to find anything that no one in country is doing and then try to do it.”

That’s exactly what Rice did when he hit the big time in the country arena as the co-writer of the Florida Georgia Line mega-hit “Cruise” back in 2012. Since then, the former NASCAR pit crew member-turned-country hit maker has hit it big with country charttoppers such as the Top 5 hit “Ready Set Roll,” fan favorites like “Ride” and “Carolina Can,” and the still chart-climbing hit “Gonna Wanna Tonight.”

“Honestly I don’t pay any attention to the charts,” Rice says pointedly. “I have put enough good people around me to do that kind of thing. I know artists and writers who watch the charts every week and it drives them crazy. I can’t say that I don’t care about Number One songs, but they are not my priority whatsoever. My priority is to make sure that I put out the music I want to put out and that it’s the right music for the fans that keep coming to my live shows.”

The momentum from his fan base has been key to propelling the career of Rice, who has long looked to country music legends for guidance on how to stage a truly rocking country show. “I grew up watching guys like Garth Brooks and Kenny Chesney,” recalls Rice, who played Soldier Field this summer, opening for Chesney on his Big Revival Tour. “I was in the crowd at their shows and I was just partying my a– off. I wanted to go and forget about life for the three hours that I was there. Garth and Kenny did an amazing job of bringing everything that I wanted to life on that stage.”

And while Rice begins to wind up his current album “Ignite the Night,” he has begun to write for a new album, which he says will be completely different than anything he has done before.

“I’ve even started disliking these songs that I have written about a girl and a truck and a perfect night,” Rice says. “I don’t dislike the ones I have put out. I just dislike the amount of songs I put out about that sort of subject matter.”

Instead, Rice says he looks to focus on songs that show a bit more depth to him as a person.

“It’s exciting for me at this point of my life to really know who I am,” says Rice. “I put out 19 songs on my last album, and I figured out through that what I love and what I hate. It will be all about depth in this next record. If there is any way to find out who someone truly is, it’s through hearing about the deepest parts of their lives. That’s what these new songs will have in them.”

Tricia Despres is a local freelance writer.