Lee Brice Says New Single 'Memory I Don't Mess With' Is the 'Depths of Who I Am' (Exclusive)

Lee Brice released "Memory I Don't Mess With" as the second single from his upcoming album, Hey World, earlier this month, staying in his laid back-but-emotional wheelhouse with the nostalgic track. Set to a soothing groove, "Memory I Don't Mess With" finds its narrator reflecting on past experiences with an ex, which can sometimes be hard to relive.

"That's a memory I don't mess with / The girl I was the best with / The one I was obsessed with," Brice sings in the chorus. "Girl, you just don't get it / I'd fall right back with one slip / Always leaves me helpless / Don't hate me, I can't help it / Gotta leave us where we left it / You're a memory I don't mess with."

The 41-year-old wrote the song with Brian Davis and Billy Montana and shared that he initially wasn't sure what kind of sound he wanted to go with for his next single. "I was actually between some stuff," he told PopCulture.com. "I was like, 'I might want to put out something rocking to get people ready to come back to shows,' but then once we got to thinking... usually the label goes, 'Hey, Lee. Whatever it is you want to do let's just roll with it,' and they still were doing that, but they did give me their two cents."

Brice explained that looking at his recent releases, he and his label decided to choose something that best represented his core as an artist. "They were like, 'We've had 'Rumor,' and then we had the duet ['I Hope You're Happy Now' with Carly Pearce',] and we've had 'One of Them Girls.' They're like, 'We just feel people might be just yearning for that quintessential Lee Brice song,' and the truth is that that is," he said. "'Memory I Don't Mess With' is the depths of who I am. It's me musically to a T. If I had to write one type of song the rest of my life it'd be that kind of song."

"So I agreed with them," he continued. "We just put all of our heads and hearts together, and that's what we felt like was good at this time of year. It really fits, and so we'll see, but it seems like people are liking it so far, so hopefully, we had a good decision."

Hey World's lead single was "One of Them Girls," which recently went to No. 1 for three consecutive weeks, the longest tally of Brice's career. "That was crazy," he reflected. "We weren't even supposed to go in the first week, and we did. We just blew past some people, and then we were going for a week, so it was there, and by far, and then it just was up so high that it held on for another week. It was insane. It was people just love the song, and I think maybe that attributes back to having the momentum going, and really just hitting them over the head."

Brice joked, "Of course, my wife will say, 'It's because I told you that every girl would like it.'"