Chase Rice brought his mom in to watch the music video for a new song called “You in ’85,” and it looked like she was crying before he even pressed play.

The personal ballad compares Rice to his father Daniel Rice, who died in 2008. His memory has always permeated the singer’s music, but in recent years songs about dad have stood out as he offers fans a more traditional, organic brand of country music.

• Find “You in ’85” on Rice’s new Go Down Singin’ album.
• It’s his first independently released album after over a decade making music for Sony and Broken Bow.
• Taste of Country’s interview with Rice is featured this week on the Taste of Country Nights: On Demand podcast.

Talking to Taste of Country, Rice describes his father as nothing short of his hero. Find him holding to Coors banquet beers on the cover of Go Down Singin‘ in the same way his father did from a decades-old photo that covered his 2023 album, I Hate Cowboys & All Dogs Go to Hell.

“My dad was a great dad. My mom was a great mom,” he shares. “We were raised in a family of three boys and lived the American dream. I would love to recreate that.”

A social media video shared on Sept. 23 finds Rice inviting his mother on to his bus to watch the music video. It’s filled with old Rice family footage that portrays Daniel as a strong man unafraid to have fun with his boys.

“So wild seein’ my dad for the first time in 16 years, a lot different than just seein’ him in a picture,” he says in the caption. “Some awesome memories in this video.”

Connie Rice sits trying to hold back tears as Chase stands with a hand on her shoulder. Together they take a trip down memory lane.

Rice’s longing to become a father comes with an obstacle: He struggles with the idea of marriage.

“Well, I love women,” he answers when asked why. “That’s been no secret I don’t think. It’s gotta be a hell of a woman to come into my life and say, ‘OK.’”

He also has great respect for the institution of marriage and doesn’t want to screw it up.

Fans who got to know Rice as songs like “Ready Set Roll” were released in 2013 and then dipped out may not recognize this version of the songwriter. The transition to a more introspective, less flashy artist has been ongoing for several albums and — now free of record label expectations and input — he’s leaned more into an organic sound.

“It makes sense, though,” he says. “I’m 38 years old. Why would I still be singing ‘Ready Set Roll’ and ‘Eyes on You’?”

“For a You” is another Rice song about his father. Much like “You in ’85,” it closed his last studio album.