Chase Rice Writes About Lifelong Friendship in New Single "Joe"

Chase Rice wrote his new single "Joe" entirely himself, and he wrote it in a duck blind. The diamond-certified songwriter found the idea during a morning spent watching a Carolina sunrise with friends he has known since his teenage years, and the result is a song about the people who remain after the games end and the hunting trips become memories.

Rice's subject is the dependable friend who holds a group together. The title honours the person who organizes the gatherings, shows up during difficult times, and somehow makes sure everybody stays in each other's lives. As the songwriter puts it: everybody needs a Joe. Rice just happened to write a song about his.

What makes the song personal?

"Joe" opens with the "Good Better Best" chant. The chant originated with Rice's state championship high school football team and was later embraced by the Chicago Bears, earning attention on ESPN's NFL Countdown. The detail takes listeners straight back to the traditions and friendships that shaped him.

The song also carries a structural trick. Each chorus revisits a different memory involving football, duck hunting or baseball, and the verses gradually reveal that the activities were never the point. They were simply the excuses everyone needed to get together.

Rice remembers writing the song while sitting in that blind, surrounded by longtime friends, feeling an overwhelming sense of gratitude for the experiences they had shared. The friendship the song celebrates does not require daily phone calls, elaborate plans or a perfectly organized group chat to survive.

What does this change for Rice's catalogue?

"Joe" continues a turn toward personal storytelling that Rice solidified on his eighth studio album, ELDORA. The 12-song collection, written in Colorado with producer and collaborator Oscar Charles, marked a bold creative move toward raw, independent country music inspired by the American West. It followed Rice's decision to leave the major-label system and embrace a more instinctive approach to songwriting.

That evolution has produced intimate material. "Connie Lou," also from this period, celebrates the romance between Rice's parents, while "Joe" turns his attention to the friends who have accompanied him through different chapters of his life. Both songs demonstrate how a personal story becomes universal when the details stay specific.

A career built on bigger stages

Rice's career includes the diamond-certified hit "Cruise," which he co-wrote, alongside his own country radio favourites "Eyes On You" and "Drinkin' Beer. Talkin' God. Amen." He has amassed more than three billion streams and years of arena and stadium performances.

Yet "Joe" draws its inspiration from something ordinary: sitting outside with old friends, watching the sunrise and realizing how lucky you are that they are still there. Somewhere, there is probably a real Joe who has no idea how many people depend on him to keep the gang together.

Chase Rice has now given that person his own country song, and it signals where his instinctive, independent songwriting is likely to go next.