Chase Rice has been releasing music and writing songs for more than a decade. Keeping an arduous schedule for most of those years, the North Carolina native is now taking a much-needed break from touring in 2026, a welcome relief after so many years of relentless hard work.
“I’ve taken my first year off of touring, for the first time in 13 years, full touring,” Rice tells Cowboys & Indians. “I’m still doing shows here and there. It’s a lot different, ’cause I got a lot more time at home, got a lot more time to say yes to other things. It’s still going pretty nonstop. It just looks a lot different than it did the last 13 years.”
When announcing he was taking a break, Rice said he wanted to enjoy life, instead of maintaining such a busy touring schedule.
“I love songs, I love living them, hearing stories from other people, and figuring out how to put that life into music,” he said in part. “After 13 years it’s finally beat me up to the point where I need to step away for a while. I need to go live life so that I have more real experiences to write down.”
Chase Rice Talks About His Love of Songwriting
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Rice may not be touring, but passion for songwriting is stronger than ever. His first big cut as a songwriter is “Cruise,” Florida Georgia Line‘s massive 2012 hit single. Rice later said the overwhelming success of the song was both a “blessing and curse,” because although it brought him plenty of success and notoriety, he spent years in writing rooms trying to chase that early hit.
But in recent years, something shifted for Rice, bringing him back to his first love, songwriting, but this time on his terms.
“I always have loved writing stories that are true and real,” Rice says. “A lot of my early hits weren’t that. It was just me trying to write hits. When I decided to stop doing that is when I think the music got really, really good. Telling stories about either my life or other people’s lives. No matter what the details are, we’ve all lived through a lot of the same stuff. So I love sitting down there with a guitar, and just telling a story. That’s my favorite way to write songs these days, and that’s where I’m at.”
2020 brought a worldwide shutdown, and a lengthy break from touring and live music. It also brought Rice back to the way he wrote songs in the beginning.
“When I went back during 2020 to write songs on guitar again, it changed,” Rice reflects. “It went back to writing songs like I did in the beginning. To me, the best version of me, and the best way to write a country song, is to pick up a guitar and just write it, and tell a story. It’s not complicated.”
Chase Rice Looks Ahead in Country Music
Rice has had enough success that he could consider putting the brakes on in the future, finding a rhythm of work and time off that works for him. Fortunately for his fans, that isn’t at all his intention.
“I don’t want to do this till I’m 50,” Rice says. “I want to do this for the rest of my life, however long that is. It would be a tragedy for me if this thing continues to go, and people still say, ‘That’s the ‘Eyes On You’ guy.’ That’s not it for me. It’s fun to not follow the trends. Just write what makes you happy, ’cause that’s the way it should have been the whole time.”
Photo Credit: Lauren Tucker