Chase Rice Addresses Past Concert Criticism, Suggests It’s ‘Time to Go’ as Public Outings Ramp Up (Exclusive)

2020 was a challenging time for many, to say the least. While a widespread pandemic took over the entire world, people were forced to stay at home and quarantine, and with that came new ways of living. Along with the laundry list of things that changed, concerts and public gatherings were completely out of the question for months on end, leaving both artists and fans questioning what to do next. But now that there seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel, concerts are ramping back up.

Country music singer Chase Rice sat down with PopCulture.com for an exclusive interview as his third installment of The Album nears its release date on May 28th, to discuss his excitement for getting back on the road, and admits that the criticism he received in mid-2020 for hosting a packed concert, he understands now. “I do think it was a pretty questionable time,” Rice confessed following his performance in June 2020, just four months after the coronavirus had been deemed a pandemic. “Nobody really knew what to expect. So with people being upset about it, at this point, looking back, I understand that, actually.”

Rice does stand firm in his ground when he says “people need to have more conversations” and that “taking things to social media, that’s not something I’m getting involved with.” Now one year has passed, the 35-year-old is ready to retake the stage, and he described his excitement in three words: “Time to go.” It couldn’t be more of a perfect time for the singer, too, because he’s releasing the third installment to The Album on May 28, giving his fans a lot of new music as he gears up for more and teasing that this is just the “tip of the iceberg.”

“I think this is the tip of the iceberg of where it’s going to be going because I wrote all of these songs before [the pandemic] — I only wrote one during COVID and quarantine, which is called “Bedroom” — the rest of them I wrote before.” He described the third bunch of songs not really having a place just because they have such different sounds, but nonetheless, he is thrilled for fans to hear. In fact, he confirmed he has another album coming out later this year that will dive in deep, giving listeners something they’ve never heard from him before.

While he is getting back on the road, it’s going to take a while to get back to what we all once knew. So Rice described his upcoming performances as “hit or miss” because no one really knows what to expect still. “At the end of the day, I think there’s gonna be a lot of shows that are awesome, and there’s gonna be some shows that are a little bit questionable,” he explained, but that they’ll “get through that period’ and come fall when he headlines tour things should be back in action, giving fans some hope that we’re returning to normalcy.