Lee Brice Opens up About Struggle of Parenting While on the Road

Lee Brice just celebrated his sixth No. 1 hit, with “Rumor,” from his self-titled fourth studio album. His continued success means he has spent much of the last several years on the road, resulting in time away from his wife, Sara, and three children, Takoda, Ryker and Trulee. While Brice hates the time apart from his sons and daughter, he makes sure to be just as present in their lives, even while away from home.

“I try to be the daddy you should be,” Brice shared recently with PopCulture.com and other media. “It’s hard to come home when you’ve been gone for three weeks and then immediately be like ‘Boy, did you say ‘Yes sir?” Or start disciplining. So I try to be the discipline daddy just as much as, obviously just as much as wrapping them up in my arms and have fun and stuff. I try to be the daddy I should be, [and] I would be if I was home every day.”

Brice admits it is especially hard with his little girl, who is the baby in the family.

“It’s a little difficult to do that when you’re gone that much,” conceded the singer. “Especially with Trulee, but she’s my little two-year-old girl. My sons are like, ‘Why are you so nice to Trulee?’ First of all, she’s my daughter, she’s the girl. Second of all, she’s a baby still, boy. Go over there and pick your shoes up off the floor. She picked up her shoes; she’s two.

“Everything that I feel like I’ve learned is from my parents and the good parents that I’ve seen in my life and try to be,” he added. “A lot of that is don’t spare the rod as far as, we have to, in those moments, you have to stop and be the bad guy, say no. It’s hard to do that when you’ve been gone but I try to do that.”

Brice sees evidence of himself in all three of his children, but thinks that it’s his daughter who will have the same musical talents that he possesses.

“Takoda, I think he’s the most like me so far,” Brice revealed. “He’s kind of a jack of all trades. He’s sort of good at anything he wants to do but he’s not laser-focused on being the LeBron James of anything yet. He’s just like, ‘I want to do that,’ then he’s like boom. He does really well. He can sit on the piano and dabble, but he hasn’t done some big spark. Ryker likes to sing, but he’s too busy being the bull in the china shop.

“Now Trulee, even though she’s only two, she runs over to the piano all the time,” he continued, illustrating how the toddler likes to play the piano. “She’s singing along. I gave her a guitar yesterday. I tuned it to where she could just hold one thing, instead of the chords, and then go up on one thing. So kind of a Dolly Parton kind of style thing. She really has, to me, the most interest.”

Photo Credit: Getty Images / Lisa Lake