The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Country hit maker Lee Brice back for show in Northeast Ohio
As he works toward a new album, country singer Lee Brice honored to sing with Carly Pearce on duet
Bringing the heat to a cold winter night is what Grammy Award-nominated country singer Lee Brice has planned for his upcoming return to O-H-I-O. With sales of more than 14 million albums, Brice — who will be playing his hits, as well as new tunes when he performs Feb. 22 at the Akron Civic Theatre — has scored No. 1 radio songs “Rumor,” “A Woman Like You,” “Hard to Love,” “I Drive Your Truck,” “I Don’t Dance” and “Drinking Class.” The Music City Artist also is a highly sought-after songwriter, having written “More Than a Memory” (Garth Brooks), “Not Every Man Lives” (Jason Aldean), “Seven Days” (Kenny Chesney), “Crazy Girl” (Eli Young Band), “Still” (Tim McGraw) and “You’ll Always Be Beautiful” (Blake Shelton). While The News-Herald didn’t talk to Brice about The Ohio State University Buckeyes, the conversation did cover him visiting his Youngstown-area in-laws; his chart-rising Carly Pearce duet, “I Hope Carly Pearce asked Lee Brice to sing on a duet she’d actually written with another country star, Luke Combs. “The song means a lot to her. It’s personal to her, so I gave it everything I had,” Brice says. You’re Happy Now”; and an upcoming new album. Q Lee, the last time we talked, it was about your appearance at Country Jam 2016 at Black River Landing in Lorain. Do you have any memories of that gig? A Oh, yeah. I know that a bunch of friends and family came out. We threw down pretty good. It’s always fun to get up to that part of that area. I get up there once a year. My wife loves to be there around Independence Day in Poland, outside of Youngstown, where they do their hometown fireworks. We get back there as much as we can. Q As a former long snapper for the Clemson Tigers, you’re obviously an ACC man. So we’re guessing there’s not much jawing with your Ohio State Buckeye inlaws. A (laughs) You know, they don’t talk a whole lot because they haven’t had much to talk about against Clemson the last few years. I don’t really bring it up. They don’t bring it up. We’re just polite and say, “Hello, how are you doing?” I don’t rub stuff in too hard. Q Something you can rub in is your streak of hits, including the recently released Pearce duet, “I Hope You’re Happy Now.” How did that song come about? A They asked if I’d be interested in doing a duet with Carly. I love her and what she does. The first thing I thought about when I heard it was it sounded in a good way like a true ‘90s country duet. I was a little confused because I knew that Luke (Combs) had written it with her, but I was really honored when I found out she wanted to hear my voice on the song. She said, “I want you to do your Lee thing.” I said, “I don’t know what that means, Carly.” She said, “Yes, you do.” The song means a lot to her. It’s personal to her, so I gave it everything I had. Q Not to jinx anything, but “I Hope You’re Happy Now” seems like a song that could have legs for years of radio airplay. A I feel like it’s one of those songs. My songs may move slow up the charts, but they sure do hang around a while. I think that’s because I really do work hard on either writing or picking songs that are kind of classic and they can be played. They’re not here-todaygone-tomorrow. Q Speaking of music, aren’t we due for a new album from Lee Brice? A We’ll, you got it coming. The new single,
“One of Them Girls,” I’ll have out here in the next couple of weeks. It’s just a killer song that came to me in the middle of the night. We’ll be playing that live in Akron. It’s kind of a really grooving, fouron-the-floor tempo. For the new album, I’m about probably 15 songs in as far as how many I recorded. I’ve got another five to go. I hope to have it out in the fall. There’s a piece of me that really wanted to pull out the true country side of me. There’s also really groovy stuff that you feel like you could almost put on top-40 radio, but it’s still very country. Q Finally, please tell us you won’t be wearing a Clemson jersey at your upcoming Akron show. A (laughs) I’m not. Listen, I don’t poke the bear. I don’t bring the heat. It’s a tough place to be on the other side of that. I just hadn’t had to feel that in a while.