Speaker 1: This is the OTP presented by Farm Bureau Health Plans.
Speaker 1: Get the home field advantage with healthcare coverage from Farm
Speaker 1: Bureau Health Plans. They've been protecting Tennessee and since nineteen
Speaker 1: forty seven. Hello, everybody, welcome to the OTP. And my
Speaker 1: name is Amy Wells, and I am so excited that
Speaker 1: you are joining us today because we had the chance
Speaker 1: to talk to a very special guest, Chase Rice. Now
Speaker 1: you might know Chase from his career as a country
Speaker 1: music singer, but did you know that he was also
Speaker 1: a very successful football player. He had dreams of going
Speaker 1: to the National Football League, but due to injury, that
Speaker 1: didn't really happen. We'll get into that during the interview,
Speaker 1: but we talked about how he made that shift from
Speaker 1: football to music. It's a very interesting story. And twenty twenty,
Speaker 1: when he had some time on his hands, he really
Speaker 1: did some remarkable things, putting out multi part albums, which
Speaker 1: is so cool. And so we had a chance to
Speaker 1: talk to him about all of these things and I
Speaker 1: want to share this with you guys. So here it
Speaker 1: is my conversation with Chase Rice, and he's coming to
Speaker 1: us from his Bison Fat Chase Rice I'm so excited
Speaker 1: to have you on the OTP. We have so much
Speaker 1: to talk about, and I guess the place that we
Speaker 1: should start is with your current single, Drinking Beer, Talking God. Amen.
Speaker 1: What was the genesis of this song and are you
Speaker 1: surprised by how much it's resonating with people right now?
Speaker 1: Answer the Sago one first, No, I'm not surprised, because
Speaker 1: I even liked the song. Like sometimes you do songs,
Speaker 1: you're like, I don't even want to hear myself sing this,
Speaker 1: or I don't want to sing it myself. But then
Speaker 1: when I kept listening back, I was like, man, I
Speaker 1: just want to keep hearing a song and just makes
Speaker 1: feel good. It makes me happy. It does remind me
Speaker 1: of a lot of stuff I did last year, you know,
Speaker 1: just with Quarantine Haptman, and the timing of it couldn't
Speaker 1: have been any better so I could relate to it.
Speaker 1: And if I can relate to it, I think that's
Speaker 1: a sure sign that other people are gonna be able
Speaker 1: to hopefully relate to it as well. So I'm glad
Speaker 1: that it is. I think it's really cool to see
Speaker 1: what it's doing already, because it's gonna I think this
Speaker 1: is the very beginning of the song and how much
Speaker 1: it can really connect. So you drop a single, and
Speaker 1: for a lot of people, especially in the environment that
Speaker 1: twenty twenty was like, that's enough, that's plenty to do
Speaker 1: in a year. You have a single, it's very successful,
Speaker 1: but you come back and saying, no, I'm not going
Speaker 1: to just give you another new song. You did an
Speaker 1: album in two parts. Why did you decide to surprise
Speaker 1: your fans in that way? And what was your inspiration
Speaker 1: for all of that music given that the world was
Speaker 1: nothing like anyone has ever experienced before. Well, it already
Speaker 1: started to be honest. I did part one of the
Speaker 1: album them very early twenty to twenty, and then so
Speaker 1: when I go start looking at part two, I was
Speaker 1: already ready to do something last summer, release it, and
Speaker 1: then obviously everything happened the way it did. But I
Speaker 1: didn't want to completely stop putting out music. I mean,
Speaker 1: a lot of people were sitting at home that was
Speaker 1: not a whole lot to do. So between Netflix and
Speaker 1: whatever HBO show was happening, people were also listening to music.
Speaker 1: So I decided to continue to put you know, part
Speaker 1: two out. Part three was actually supposed to come out
Speaker 1: last fall, and that didn't end up happening. I did
Speaker 1: push that part, but that's coming out here in the
Speaker 1: next months. So yeah, I just thought it was important
Speaker 1: to continue to put out music and continue to you know,
Speaker 1: not completely go on hold. I mean we weren't doing
Speaker 1: live music with that. I mean, you can't put out
Speaker 1: songs as you've got ready to go. Why an album
Speaker 1: in parts? Like, what's the benefit of doing that? It
Speaker 1: was definitely something I just wanted to try. That was new. Honestly,
Speaker 1: I was just fed up with how people were listening
Speaker 1: to music. And that's not blaming anybody. I mean I
Speaker 1: was listening to music the same way. I wasn't listening
Speaker 1: to albums anymore full all the way through this because
Speaker 1: I think we're starting to be trained to have our
Speaker 1: attention spans so short, which gave me the idea, do
Speaker 1: the parts, you know, put out last music, but put
Speaker 1: it out more often, give the people a chance to
Speaker 1: dive into six or seven songs as opposed to you know,
Speaker 1: a full album, which is usually ten to fifteen songs.
Speaker 1: I just wanted each song to, you know, get its
Speaker 1: fair time as being the center of attention. I put
Speaker 1: so much work into these songs that if people weren't
Speaker 1: gonna listen to albums, I wasn't gonna give them one.
Speaker 1: Having said that, after Part three, I'm going to scratch
Speaker 1: that idea at least for my next record and drop
Speaker 1: a full album at one time, because now I'm in
Speaker 1: a place where I have a ton of songs that
Speaker 1: I'm ready to release it one time. So there's different
Speaker 1: ways to do it. There's some smart things about it.
Speaker 1: I think there's some bad things about it. I personally
Speaker 1: love full album, so I tried it and it did
Speaker 1: really well. People people love these songs. I'm starting to
Speaker 1: go back to live music now and an album Part
Speaker 1: one and two that I never really got to hear live.
Speaker 1: I'm finally hearing it live and it works people. It's
Speaker 1: connected with people. There's plenty of songs on this, you know,
Speaker 1: part one and two that we're not singles, but people still,
Speaker 1: you know, Forever to Go, Best Night Ever, people are
Speaker 1: singing the hell out of them. So yeah, it worked,
Speaker 1: But now I'm gonna go back to a full album
Speaker 1: later this year. How important is it to always keep
Speaker 1: things fresh for you as an artist? I mean your
Speaker 1: fans the consumers of course, but also just so that
Speaker 1: you don't get into a rut. It's very important. There
Speaker 1: was a three year period there where my band was
Speaker 1: about to kill me because our set was almost the
Speaker 1: same for three years. But I was like, man, if
Speaker 1: it's not broken, I fix it. But then I even
Speaker 1: got tired of it. It's like, man, I'm tired of
Speaker 1: going up and singing the same song. So I'm sorry
Speaker 1: MyD Bison and go nuts in the background. But to me, yeah,
Speaker 1: you gotta keep it fresh. You gotta if not, if
Speaker 1: nothing else, for myself, I mean, there's always gonna be
Speaker 1: the hits that you're gonna play. You're always gonna play
Speaker 1: ready to set role you're always and plays on you.
Speaker 1: I'm going to want it tonight now. Lonely if You
Speaker 1: Are has become a hit all last year, which was
Speaker 1: cool to finally see this past weekend. Like, man, this
Speaker 1: song really did connect with people last year. But to
Speaker 1: change it up for myself and for me to go
Speaker 1: out there on stage every night and actually be passionate
Speaker 1: about actually want to go do it, you need new songs,
Speaker 1: and that's what I'm working on right now. This next record,
Speaker 1: you know, Part three, like I said, comes out in
Speaker 1: a month, so that'll be three three new songs that
Speaker 1: I'll be able to play live. Throw some of those
Speaker 1: in there, and then full album later this year is
Speaker 1: going to be a whole other bats. That to me
Speaker 1: is by far the best songs I've ever written, so
Speaker 1: I'm real excited to get that out. It seems like
Speaker 1: you have a lot of life experiences to draw on.
Speaker 1: I did just a very basic, scratching the surface list
Speaker 1: of cool things that you've done in your life. You
Speaker 1: were part of a NASCAR pit crew. You were on
Speaker 1: Survivor Nicaragua and finished second, which I feel is important
Speaker 1: to add. You've traveled the world. You are currently talking
Speaker 1: to me on your bison farm with actual bison in
Speaker 1: the background, so I can confirm this is a real thing.
Speaker 1: You seem like a real renaissance man. How do you
Speaker 1: bring all of those different experiences and bits and pieces
Speaker 1: them and mush them all together and create music that's
Speaker 1: relatable to people who will never go to Nicaragua and
Speaker 1: wouldn't even know a bison if it walked up in him.
Speaker 1: In faith? Yeah, well, I don't. I don't sing about that.
Speaker 1: I don't. I'm not going to be singing about survivor
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be singing about honestly I don't see my
Speaker 1: bis and never making the way into a song. But
Speaker 1: what it does do It allowed what I've realized, especially
Speaker 1: last year, was it allowed me to go live a
Speaker 1: real life. I realized from twenty thirteen to twenty twenty,
Speaker 1: I didn't have a life. I was just traveling. I
Speaker 1: was touring. And that's when I look back a lot
Speaker 1: of the songs and I was just trying to write songs.
Speaker 1: It's like, all right, what are we gonna write today?
Speaker 1: Yesterday we had a song that we wrote that it
Speaker 1: was we were just trying to write a song. And
Speaker 1: to me that that that's not music. So for me,
Speaker 1: having as much time as I've had, all for me
Speaker 1: to get over here and not be thinking about anything.
Speaker 1: All I'm thinking about what's in front of me, because
Speaker 1: what's in front of me could kill me if I
Speaker 1: slip and screw up. But being able to live real life,
Speaker 1: whether it's on my farm, whether it's just going to
Speaker 1: visit buddies in North Carolina, going to we had just
Speaker 1: had a ski tripping Big Sky Montana. Being a live
Speaker 1: real life has allowed me to open my mind up
Speaker 1: to Oh, there's a life out there that doesn't look
Speaker 1: like my crazy, fake life that you can get sucked into.
Speaker 1: And as a touring musician, and now I have a
Speaker 1: whole lot of stuff to write about. So that's why
Speaker 1: I'm real excited about Part three and real real excited
Speaker 1: about the next record. Now, this is a football podcast
Speaker 1: here on the OTP, so I feel I would be
Speaker 1: remiss if I didn't ask you a little bit about
Speaker 1: your own football career, because you played at North Carolina.
Speaker 1: Tell me about your football experience. When did you start
Speaker 1: and kind of how did that chapter of your life end. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I started in middle school and I realized really eighth
Speaker 1: grade was when I was like, oh, okay, I'm a
Speaker 1: solid player. In the ninth grade, tenth grade to start
Speaker 1: becoming even more solid. You become one of the better
Speaker 1: players on your team. You become one of the leaders.
Speaker 1: And then junior year was when it was like, okay, wow,
Speaker 1: I'm actually really good at football. I have a chance
Speaker 1: to go to college and not have to pay for it.
Speaker 1: I would have hated college anyway if I didn't have
Speaker 1: football and didn't have a reason other than going to
Speaker 1: class and partying, I would have hated it, but being
Speaker 1: able to earn the scholarship to University North Carolina gave
Speaker 1: me a purpose. It gave me a reason to go
Speaker 1: to college and a reason to go get an education
Speaker 1: on top of chasing a dream goal of playing in
Speaker 1: the NFL, and that was close to happening. I was
Speaker 1: a really good player in my sophomore year, started the
Speaker 1: back half of the season, geared up to be one
Speaker 1: of the best players on the defense my junior year,
Speaker 1: and then the very first game of the year, I
Speaker 1: got hurt. I busted my ankle real, real bad. It
Speaker 1: was an injury that I tried to come back from,
Speaker 1: but I was not even close to the same player.
Speaker 1: I'd lost speed, I'd lost confidence. It still does things
Speaker 1: where it'll like starting to slip out at tendon that
Speaker 1: I tore, and it just feels a little weird. But
Speaker 1: it ended every goal or dream that I had a
Speaker 1: play in the NFL. And on top of that, right
Speaker 1: a miserable time when you're realizing I can't play football anymore.
Speaker 1: When I was good enough to continue to the next level,
Speaker 1: my dad died. So it was just the worst of
Speaker 1: all worlds colliding one time. But that the way I
Speaker 1: dealt with it was I broke my first, very first
Speaker 1: song about it. So I realized it wasn't even another
Speaker 1: path that was so bad in the beginning that they
Speaker 1: wasn't like I was like, oh, I moved to Nashville
Speaker 1: and be a country singer. No, I was just a
Speaker 1: hobby and it was therapy for me to be able
Speaker 1: to write about my life. And luckily that therapy has lasted,
Speaker 1: you know, I guess now at this point has been
Speaker 1: over ten years and I get to make a living
Speaker 1: doing this. So that's how football transition into music through
Speaker 1: an absolutely horrible experience and a horrible couple of years.
Speaker 1: But if you can tarn a negative and a positive,
Speaker 1: that's one of the best things you can do in life. Well,
Speaker 1: now has it almost flipped to where football is something
Speaker 1: that becomes a release or an escape and music is
Speaker 1: the thing that you do as your career, that's the dream,
Speaker 1: that's the job, and now football is where you can
Speaker 1: kind of have that life. Yeah, it literally has flipped.
Speaker 1: Their Saturday nights or Sundays depends on the game, whether
Speaker 1: it's college or the NFL, that I'm not walking off
Speaker 1: the bus to go singing unless this game is over.
Speaker 1: I'm not missing what's about to happen. So that's how
Speaker 1: much I love football. That's so much. I finally get
Speaker 1: to be a fan as opposed to Watson the game thinking, oh,
Speaker 1: this is Tampa two, what's the middle linebacker going to do? Okay,
Speaker 1: now they gotta whatever matchups. You're obsessing over the technical
Speaker 1: stuff in the game and how it's played as as
Speaker 1: opposed to now, I just watched football and I drink
Speaker 1: beer and it's awesome, and I get to do my
Speaker 1: job while I do that, you know, going on a stage.
Speaker 1: So I couldn't love my life anymore. So if anyone
Speaker 1: is ever at a Chase Rice concert on a Friday
Speaker 1: or Saturday night and you're a little bit late, they
Speaker 1: should check ESPN because there's probably a pretty good game
Speaker 1: on somewhere Tar Heels are playing. I think it was
Speaker 1: Clemson in the ACC Championship a couple of years ago.
Speaker 1: Oh man, I was thirty minutes going late at the
Speaker 1: Grizzly Ros and they didn't seem to mind. The people
Speaker 1: were cool with it, because I guess that's pretty normal
Speaker 1: for some people to be late sometimes anyway, But at
Speaker 1: least mine was an okay, reason I was watching my
Speaker 1: tar heels. So how did you become a Titans fan?
Speaker 1: If you're someone who normally was a college football guy,
Speaker 1: that was kind of your spot. How do you transition
Speaker 1: to the NFL. That was tough for me because I
Speaker 1: grew up in Floor and that was back when the
Speaker 1: Jags were a brand new team and the Titans became
Speaker 1: a new team to Nashville. But because I grew up
Speaker 1: in Florida, I was pulling for two teams of Jags
Speaker 1: and the Titans because they had Javon Curse. Literally, Javon
Speaker 1: Curse is the reason I'm a Titans fan because he
Speaker 1: was a Gator and I grew up a Gator and
Speaker 1: he was my favorite defensive player in the world. And
Speaker 1: I remember him literally holding the chain just like around
Speaker 1: his neck, being tough as hell during the Super Bowl
Speaker 1: against the Rams, and I'm just sitting there all in
Speaker 1: wanting to win so bad and obviously the most heartbreaking
Speaker 1: loss you could possibly imagine. Oh my god, the amount
Speaker 1: of Florida Gators in country music is unbelievable. Like, do
Speaker 1: you guys get together on the weekends? There are so
Speaker 1: many Gators fans in the country music space. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of dogs. There's a lot of Georgia Bulldogs. There's
Speaker 1: a lot of Gators, and I'm a Gator for sure,
Speaker 1: grew up one, but I went to the University of
Speaker 1: North Carolina. So I think there's three of us really
Speaker 1: that are Tar Heels, Me, Luke Combs, and Eric Church,
Speaker 1: all Carolina guys. I'm claiming that the heels all day
Speaker 1: long over the game. That's good. It provides some variety,
Speaker 1: which we appreciate. You've actually gotten to meet and create
Speaker 1: real relationships with some of the guys on the Titans team.
Speaker 1: Do you find you have a lot in common with them,
Speaker 1: not only from your football experience and so you can
Speaker 1: relate in that way, but also because there are a
Speaker 1: lot of similarities when it comes to preparation and process
Speaker 1: from music to sports. Yeah. I mean, first and foremost,
Speaker 1: that's the world I came from, so it's just easy
Speaker 1: for us to relate. Matt Overton's one of my best buddies,
Speaker 1: and he came out of the Titans last year. So
Speaker 1: any guy that has to work for what he has.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of players out there who are just
Speaker 1: talented as hell, more talented than I could ever be
Speaker 1: and just didn't have that mindset. I've seen so many
Speaker 1: players I had more talent than anybody, but didn't have
Speaker 1: the mindset of, you know, working hard. And any guy's
Speaker 1: like a guy like Matt Overton that just works so
Speaker 1: hard for everything he's ever had nothing given to him.
Speaker 1: That's the guy that I can get along with because
Speaker 1: that's what I had to do in football. So I
Speaker 1: love people with that mindset in general. They're good people
Speaker 1: to be around. They're good people to surround your surround
Speaker 1: yourself with. Guy like Mike Rabel, I mean as a player,
Speaker 1: he was one of those guys where I'm talented, absolutely,
Speaker 1: but plenty of linebackers out there faster than him, plenty
Speaker 1: of linebackers out there stronger. But he had that mindset
Speaker 1: with guys like Teddy Bruski and all that, that we
Speaker 1: gotta work, let's go. And that's why I get a
Speaker 1: lost so well with Mike as well, So any people
Speaker 1: with that mindset, and that's the culture that he's building
Speaker 1: with the Titans as well, that's a team I can
Speaker 1: get behind. You know, all right, I know I've got
Speaker 1: to let you go. But for my last question, we
Speaker 1: kind of blew over the bison farm thing, and I
Speaker 1: want to lean into it just a little bit. So
Speaker 1: why did you decide that a bison farm was something
Speaker 1: that you needed in your life? Well, I had the farm.
Speaker 1: That was first thing. If you get into bison farming,
Speaker 1: you gotta buy the farm. You're crazy because you're not
Speaker 1: going to make your money back. I already had the farm.
Speaker 1: I loved looking at my land, but I'd never really
Speaker 1: looked at it a lot because I'm on tour, I'm
Speaker 1: on the road, and then all of a sudden, you
Speaker 1: give me a year off and I'm walking on my
Speaker 1: front port standing at my land. I'm like, I gotta
Speaker 1: do something with this. And my preacher was actually at
Speaker 1: my house one night. You're just grilling out, cooking, and
Speaker 1: he starts talking about his buddy, who's a bison farmer.
Speaker 1: I'm like, I mean, there's nothing more American than American
Speaker 1: buffal I called Daniel was actually here. We're gonna work
Speaker 1: the bison here in a minute, And I said, to man,
Speaker 1: do you think i'll need a new truck if I
Speaker 1: get these bison? He said, Brother, that is the last
Speaker 1: question you need to be asking. There's a whole lot
Speaker 1: into this before you end up needing a new truck,
Speaker 1: and I'll sell you right now. These guys are all girls.
Speaker 1: And then there's Bennington right there, the big one. But
Speaker 1: I'm about to get worked and it's our first day
Speaker 1: doing that so on this farm anyway, So it's gonna
Speaker 1: be a learning experience today, but by the end of
Speaker 1: the day, I'm gonna have a whole different experience that
Speaker 1: I've ever had before. I'm excited. Oh my gosh. Well,
Speaker 1: we're gonna circle back and call you back at about
Speaker 1: six thirty tonight and see if you're still alive, you
Speaker 1: still want to keep these bison on your property, and
Speaker 1: we'll go from there. I'm gonna be diving into some nice, nice,
Speaker 1: very very cold beers after this one, so i might
Speaker 1: be slurring my words a little bit, but it's gonna
Speaker 1: be a good day. Chase, thank you so much for
Speaker 1: a chat with us. This was phenomenal. Look forward to
Speaker 1: the season. It's gonna be fun. I'm glad we can
Speaker 1: hopefully have fans back. That'll be the best look to
Speaker 1: the folks at Farm Bureau Health Plans when you need
Speaker 1: someone who understands the exes and ohs of healthcare coverage,
Speaker 1: they've been protecting Tennessee and since nineteen forty seven. Thank you,
Speaker 1: thank you, Thank you to Chase Rice for taking some
Speaker 1: time to talk with me. What an awesome conversation. And guys,
Speaker 1: thank you for tuning into this edition of the OTP,
Speaker 1: the Official Titans Podcast. So great to have you here
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Speaker 1: Draft is over, but we are not. There is so
Speaker 1: much more to come this off season. There's tons of
Speaker 1: Titans football to talk about, so be sure you stick around.
Speaker 1: I'm Amy Wells. Thank you so much for tuning in
Speaker 1: to this edition of the OTP.