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Chase Rice

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Former college football player turned Nashville songwriter who co-wrote 'Cruise' before fronting his own arena-sized run — later records trading bro-country for starker, rootsier writing.

Chase Rice was born in Florida but raised on a farm outside Asheville, North Carolina, and attended AC Reynolds High School. He went on to play linebacker at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and an injury closed off any chance of a pro football career afterward.

Before settling into music, Rice spent time in NASCAR, joining the Hendrick Motorsports pit crew as rear tire carrier on Ryan Newman's Nationwide Series car. He also worked on Jimmie Johnson's Sprint Cup car and picked up two championships with that team.

In 2010 Rice appeared on Survivor: Nicaragua, reaching the final three and finishing runner-up to Jud "Fabio" Birza. That same year he began focusing seriously on a country music career, which eventually brought him to Nashville and into songwriting rooms.

His writing credits include Florida Georgia Line's diamond-certified "Cruise," one of the biggest country singles of the 2010s, and his own early singles, among them "Ready Set Roll," fit the party-leaning country-pop sound of that period. He has since released six studio albums, with his third, Ignite the Night, topping Billboard's Top Country Albums chart, and he has scored two Country Airplay number ones, "Eyes on You" and "Drinkin' Beer. Talkin' God. Amen.," the latter featuring Florida Georgia Line.

Later in his career Rice moved toward sparser, more rooted arrangements and first-person writing, working with a smaller sonic palette than his radio singles suggested. He continues to tour extensively as a headliner.

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