Chase Rice

Early life, education, and early career

Born in Florida, Chase Rice was raised on a farm in Asheville, North Carolina. He attended AC Reynolds High School and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was a linebacker on the football team, but did not pursue an NFL career due to injury.

After graduating from UNC, Rice was selected to join the Hendrick Motorsports pit crew as the rear tire carrier for Ryan Newman’s Nationwide Series car. He also worked on Jimmie Johnson's Sprint Cup Series car and won two championships with the Lowes team.

Survivor: Nicaragua

Rice was selected as a castmember of the reality television show Survivor: Nicaragua. He said that he was able to get his application into CBS through a college friend who had a connection with the network.

Rice was originally on the "La Flor" tribe, consisting of younger contestants. During his time on the tribe, he was quickly attracted to fellow contestant Brenda Lowe, who became aware of his attraction and used it to her advantage, recruiting him and several others into an alliance. However, after La Flor won three of the first four tribal immunity challenges, the tribes were blended and Rice ended up on the new version of the original "older contestants" tribe, "Espada", while Lowe remained on the new version of the La Flor tribe. Rice and Lowe both ultimately made it to the merged group, "Libertad", where their alliance successfully caused the eliminations of Alina Wilson and Marty Piombo, before turning on Lowe and eliminating her as a threat. Following Lowe's elimination, Rice continued with the alliance under new leader Matthew "Sash" Lenahan. After two contestants (NaOnka Mixon and Kelly Shinn) quit, the alliance continued eliminating targets Ben "Benry" Henry, Jane Bright, Dan Lembo, and Holly Hoffman, although Jane and Holly were members of the alliance. The alliance tried to eliminate Jud "Fabio" Birza as a threat against the jury, but Birza managed to evade them by winning the last three consecutive immunities. Rice performed exceptionally well in the post-merge challenges, being on the winning team in 2 of the 3 team-oriented rewards, and winning the last two individual rewards. Eventually, Rice made it to the final three with Lenahan and Birza, where he had a chance to win the $1 million as "Sole Survivor". In pleading his case to the jury, Rice claimed that he was being open about how he played the game, but was criticized both for his rash decisions and occasional indecisiveness, as well as being perceived as a follower under both Lowe and Lenahan. Although both Rice and Lenahan tried to accuse Birza of not knowing what was going on in the competition, the jury still ultimately chose Birza who received 5 of the 9 votes; Rice received the votes of Hoffman, Bright, Lowe, and Wilson. Had the future rule of Survivor been in place that "quitters" were not allowed to serve on the jury Chase Rice would have been the winner of this season, as 2 of Fabio's 5 votes came from Naonka Mixon and Kelly Shinn, who both had quit the game.

On the nationally-televised reunion show, Rice played his single "Buzz Back". Although he received national media attention on the show, he says that reality show stardom did not help propel his country music career; instead, he cited it as an important life event that was more valuable than money and that put his life in perspective.

In the official issue of CBS Watch magazine, commemorating the 15th anniversary of Survivor in 2015, Rice was voted by viewers as the 10th most attractive male contestant in Survivor history.

Country music career

Chase Rice began playing guitar in college. He cites his father as the inspiration for his career, recalling his father saying "boy anyone can play guitar, but no one is gonna really listen to you until you start singing." He models his albums after his live show and is building his career through the performance aspect. His first studio album, Friday Nights & Sunday Mornings, was released on April 22, 2010. This 13-track album includes the first song he ever wrote/recorded, “Larger Than Life”, which is about the passing of his father. In March 2011, he released Country as Me, a 6-track EP featuring his single "Buzz Back". He has received air play as a "Highway Find" on satellite radio channel The Highway (Sirius XM). In April 2012, his Dirt Road Communion debuted as #48 on the Billboard Country Albums chart and was the #6 download on iTunes for the week.

In July 2012, he signed with Creative Artists Agency. He was a co-writer of Florida Georgia Line's "Cruise", which topped Billboard Hot Country Songs.

In October 2013, he released Ready Set Roll, a 6-song EP including the title track. Ready Set Roll peaked at #1 on the iTunes Country album chart. The physical version of the album was released in November 2013 and included the bonus song "Jack Daniel's and Jesus". On January 29, 2014, the official "Ready Set Roll" music video premiered exclusively on CMT. The next day, the video debuted on VEVO. He partnered with Columbia Records for distribution of "Ready Set Roll" in March 2014.

On June 30, 2014, Rice released the album cover, release date, and album sequence for Ignite the Night. The full-length album was released on August 19, 2014 and included the Platinum-certified single, "Ready Set Roll".

In February 2016, Rice released "Whisper", the lead single from his upcoming album. The song failed to gain any traction on radio, peaking at #56 on the week of April 23, 2016 after just 3 weeks of being on the Country Airplay chart. It is currently Rice's lowest peaking single to date, only behind How She Rolls which peaked at #55 in 2013. The second single from the upcoming album, "Everybody We Know Does" was sent to country radio on June 24, 2016.

Rice left Columbia in 2017 and signed to Broken Bow Records the same year.

Tours

Discography