Chase Rice blended his biggest hits into a medley when he took the stage at the 2022 iHeartRadio Music Festival on Saturday afternoon (September 24), reflecting on some of his best career milestones before he launches a new era (and tossing a few cans of beer to eager audience members in the process).
Rice delivered high-energy renditions of โReady Set Roll,โ โLonely If You Are,โ โEyes On You,โ โCruiseโ โ the smash-hit that Rice co-wrote and Florida Georgia Line released in 2012 โ โDrinkinโ Beer. Talkinโ God. Amen,โ (sharing beers with the fans) and โKey West & Colorado,โ his latest single to released earlier this year. He also gave fans a sneak peek of his next era with one of his newest, unreleased songs, โWay Down Yonder,โ which heโs been teasing on his social media channels.
The singer-songwriter previously explained that his latest song tells the โstory about a man trying to figure his life outย โ trying to figure out his past, trying to figure out his satiation with the breakup that he had or the woman that was in his life that he lost โ and the trip that he took to help him along that journey.โ Rice recalled of writing the song, inspired by a real-life road trip: We went out onย Brian Kelleyโs boat that day โ it was me, him,ย John Byron,ย Blake Pendergrass,ย Corey Crowderย andย Hunter Phelpsย โ and he told me that Iโd actually posted about a trip I did from Key West to Colorado and he thought itโd be a cool title. Within less than a minute I twisted it to what the song turned into.โ
โKey West & Coloradoโ is just the beginning of Riceโs next era of music. Catching up with iHeartRadio last month, Rice called the song โa perfect example of where this album's going.โ
Riceโs upcoming project, which he aims to release late this year or early next year, was inspired by his dad, and in particular, a photo of him on a trip to Wyoming in the โ80s. Riceโs late father wore a cowboy hat and held a beer in each hand. Earlier this year, Rice teamed up with Coors Banquet when he spoke with the company about the photo of his dad โ holding Coors Banquet โ that would soon become his album cover. The Colorado-brewed beer company aims to spread awareness for American firefighters through the program Protect Our Protectors, which gave Rice an opportunity to put on heavy firefighter gear and get an idea of what itโs like to battle a blaze.
โItโs just a whole new phase in my life that I'm so fired up to get out there,โ Rice told iHeartRadio of his next album, which is set to get โreally personal.โ โIf I'm gonna put my dad as the album cover,ย it's gonna be music that I'm proud of, and I think he would be proud of. โฆI especially think he'd listen to this album and say โOK, that's the son that I raised and the son that I know.โ It's very, very personal to me with these songsโฆand much more vulnerable than any other music I've made.โ
In case you missed it, or just want to re-live all of the amazing performances, The CW will air a two-night television special on October 7thย and October 8thย from 8pm-10pm ET.