Chase Rice Presented With Pandora Billionaire Plaque

Just hours after releasing brand-new song “Way Down Yonder,” multi-Platinum singer/songwriter Chase Rice was surprised at SiriusXM The Highway’s “Music Row Happy Hour” with a plaque commemorating his Pandora Billionaire status. The milestone commemorates over 1.5 billion streams on the platform, and Rice has been added to Pandora’s Country Billionaires Radio in celebration of the honor.
 
“Throughout my career, now matter where we were at with touring or radio success, our incredible fans have consistently streamed the music,” shared the man praised by American Songwriter as “one of country music’s most intriguing and lasting acts” in response to the honor. “This is a testament to those fans and their love of country music. They’re why we keep pushing ourselves and why we’re so excited to share new songs with them now.”
 
Rice quickly moved from one celebration to the next, making his way up Broadway to kick off the night’s Rock N’ Roll Cowboy tour stop at Bridgestone Arena. In addition to his chart-topping hits including “Eyes On You” and “Drinkin’ Beer. Talkin’ God. Amen.” plus fellow Platinum-certified favorites “Ready Set Roll” and “Lonely If You Are,” Rice also treated fans to a live performance of the just-released song.
 
Written by Rice together with Hunter Phelps, John Byron, Blake Pendergrass and Corey Crowder during a writing retreat in Florida that also produced recent release “Key West & Colorado,” the song paints a vivid picture of hardworking characters living beyond the confines of the law:
 
        Way down yonder where the outlaws wander
        You can feel that thunder in your bones
        Rippin’ hot rod runners under moonlight cover
        Just some back glass gunners on the road
        Where you buy your bud with your moonshine money
        Make your love where the bees make honey
        When the cut’s where you’re born and raised
        Man it’s in your blood, we were born this way down yonder
 
“When we wrote this song, I had the mountains of North Carolina where I grew up in mind; all the moonshining history there in the Appalachians,” recalls Rice. “Then all of a sudden during the recording process, Rob McNelley started playing this crazy carnival sound on the acoustic… and it got Western quick. That turned it from a song I didn’t think was even going to make the cut for this next album into one of my favorite songs on the project.”
 
The song and accompanying music video, shot in a single take as a time period piece at Fort Worth’s Stockyards National Historic District, previews a new sound embodying Rice’s next musical era. His forthcoming album, recorded during a two-week period alongside producer Oscar Charles and a live band at Rice’s farm outside Nashville, used makeshift recording environment to capture a pure, raw style unlike any of his previous studio projects.
 
The shift in setting suited the set of more vulnerable, personal music from the man Billboard celebrates as “having storytelling details tumble from his lips, his portraits created quickly and efficiently,” with CMT noting, “The vocalist worked day in and day out to find the courage to knock down the wall he had kept up his entire career. Once he demolished the barricade holding him back, he left his heart and soul on the writing table.”