Chase Ricehonored the memory of his late father with the live debut of his new song, “For a Day.”
“This is as raw as it gets,” Rice said of the new song, which he debuted this week at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. “I miss my dad every day, and if I could have one more with him here’s just a couple things I’d do with him. My favorite part would be seeing him with my niece and two nephews. I did three takes on this, one for each one of them, and I couldn’t hold it together for any of ‘em.”
Chase Rice.Chase Rice/Youtube
Before performing the track about his father, who died in 2008 of a heart attack at age 57, Rice reflected on the first time he played the Opry with his mother sitting front row. Next to his mom was an empty seat, left vacant for his dad.
As he hit the Opry stage in promotion of his new song “Way Down Yonder,” Rice explained to his fans that seeing his mother sitting next to an empty chair was the “start” of the other track, “For a Day.” The song isn’t the only emotional track on the new album, as Ricetold PEOPLEthat he “cried a lot” while writing another one about his late friend, but fans still got to hear “For a Day” for the “first time ever.”
Chase Rice.Chris Hollo/Grand Ole Opry
Rice has previously touched on the loss of his father through art, too. Even on his 2014 major label debut,Ignite the Night, he decided to mix party songs with other cuts that felt more serious to him, he toldPEOPLE at the time, calling it a “tribute” to his father. Later in 2018, hereleased the music videofor track “Amen,” which follows Rice as he visits his father’s grave in North Carolina.
“We recorded the video and all of the footage before I had ever even recorded the song,” he said. “That’s when you know something is pretty special when it falls into place like that. To me, it’s a higher power that allows something like that to turn out so well. [This] was all for me to go home and see my dad.”
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“It’s still gonna hurt,” he said. “But at least now I can move on with my life and live a life that he’d be proud of, as opposed to running.”
source: people.com
