Chase Rice was asked how new artists should treat the music business and he essentially said, be like Megan Moroney.

The “You In ’85” singer is back to being an independent artist because he had leverage. There was a clause in his contract with Broken Bow Records to get out of his record deal and he used it, he says.

“I was in the studio recording this, Go Down Singin‘ EP … and that week, ‘Bad Day To Be a Cold Beer’ got pulled from the radio, we got no CMA (Awards nominations) and they (the record label) denied the budget to record the album that we were already recording,” he remembers.

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“I’m not going to be told when I can and can’t record,” he said. “To me no artists should deal with that.”

The problem is, most new artists don’t have money or leverage to make those kinds of decisions. Now a decade into his career and with royalties from hits such as “Cruise” in his pocket, Rice can do it, but there are other ways, he tells Taste of Country. You just need to be patient, like Moroney.

• Rice released the 11-song Go Down Singin’ album last month.
• It includes several songs that focus on struggles with sobriety and others that examine the death of his father when he was younger.
• Prior to signing with Broken Bow, Rice was with Sony Music Nashville.

“I met her (when she was) in college,” Rice shares. “She was opening for Jon Langston. I watched her play and was like, ‘Man this girl’s good.'”

The group went out to dinner that night and Rice looked at his calendar and offered Moroney a proposition. “I said, ‘I’m playing Georgia Theater in a couple of weeks. I’ll let you open for me. I want you to open for me … but you have to write a song between now and then and you have to play it live that night.'”

He says his jaw hit the floor when he heard the song she wrote, but he’s been further impressed how she’s managed to remain in control of crucial components of her business.

“She put songs out and made Sony come to her. That’s what you gotta do,” Rice says. “There’s a right time to sign. Make ’em come to you.”

The conversation is just part of a recent episode of the Taste of Country Nights, On Demand podcast. To be clear, the singer has no hard feelings about separating from BBR and understands they made a business decision. They simply weren’t what the other needed at that time.