Bro country remains one of the roughest times in the genre's history. I still often resent that moment in country music, the glorified collection of jeans models drinking bad beer and ogling at women. Moreover, it never really sounded any good either. It still sounds incredibly plastic to this day. For Chase Rice, he's glad to be able to make more authentic country after years in the hammy, hyper masculine sub-genre.
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Recently, Chase Rice spoke with Whiskey Riff on their podcast. There, he gets candid about his early days making bro country and writing "Cruise" for Florida Georgia Line. However, he didn't really plan on getting into country music at all, let alone that subgenre. "The problem with what I was doing... I was clueless. Why wouldn't I have been? I learned to play guitar in 2006. A lineman at Carolina had me play Dave Matthews and stuff in the dorm rooms and I'd sing along to some country stuff and he'd be like, 'Dude, you should be a country singer.' That's like saying I should an astronaut. It was that far from reality for me," Chase says.
Chase Rice Leaves Bro Country in The Past For a More Authentic Sound
Fast forward to an injury that derailed Rice's football career and staying with both members of Florida Georgia Line. Then, Chase learns how to write songs underneath the pair. Nowadays, though, he sheds those early days cutting bro country records in favor of something realer. Records like I Hate Cowboys & All Dogs Go To Hell mark his shift with much more mature songwriting than what he would do during his college days.
Nowadays, Chase doesn't care if he becomes one of the premier acts in country music. Ultimately, he just wants to remain himself, whether that brings him to the mainstream or not. "If it does become something big, it would be cool. You want as many people to sing your songs as possible, especially when I love these new songs so much more than anything I've done. I just want people to know who I am through my music and know that it's not fake," Rice says.
"I don't care about if I'm the most popular artist in the world, I just want people to care about what I'm doing, and know that these songs were written really well, and say, 'I want to hear these songs in 50 years.' The stuff I was doing before, it's not going to stand the test of time," Chase concludes.
