Chase Rice is about to release his new album, Go Down Singin’, and it’s safe to say that this is Rice as you have never heard him before.

The new record is acoustic-driven and features Rice’s vocals more present. Some might not be aware of how far back Rice’s credits go.

He is one of the writers for Florida Georgia Line‘s mega-hit “Cruise,” and has seen solo success as well scoring a couple of No. 1 songs himself.

But we have just learned that he goes even further back than that with country star Luke Combs.

Chase Rice Once Spoke at Luke Combs’ Middle School and It Didn’t Go Well

In an exclusive interview on Taste of Country Nights On Demand, Rice spilled some juice about an encounter he once had with Combs at his middle school.

Rice recalls a conversation with Combs on his bus a few years ago in which Combs said to Rice, “‘Dude, do you remember going to the middle school when you were a senior?'”

The “Eyes on You” singer explained that he was one of the better players on his high school team, and they were asked to go speak to the middle school football players and inspire them to be great.

Rice said, “As soon as he started saying that, I was like, ‘Oh god.'”

Rice explained, “I went and talked to the middle school kids and was like, ‘This is what you should do to become successful,’ and he was in the room that day.”

Rice recalled why he was so embarrassed with that speech that day. He said a kid asked him if he got a chance to go to the NFL and not graduate college, would he do it?

Rice told us he had the worst answer for the kid. He said, “The obvious answer was no, graduate, get your degree. My idiot 18-year-old self was like, ‘Uh, yeah, I’d probably take that opportunity and go right to the league and forget about school for a while.”

It’s cool that the two country stars can get together and recall such a great story that they both share together, that dates back to before either of them had any hits in country music.