Lee Brice

A burly country-rock singer-songwriter with endless gruff, Southern charm, Lee Brice - born on June 10, 1979, in Sumter, South Carolina - is renowned as a blue-collar Nashville troubadour who tells backwater stories of heartbreak, hell-raising and old testament redemption. Growing up in South Carolina, he sang and played piano in Baptist churches, listened obsessively to his aunt's Willie Nelson records and taped gospel groups off the radio, before leaving his tiny rural town of Sumter to pursue an American Football scholarship at Clemson University. A serious arm injury ended his sporting career, but Lee Brice soon headed to Nashville, Tennessee and, by the late 2000s, was penning songs for Sister Hazel, Jason Aldean, and Keith Gattis. Things really took off for Lee Brice when he co-wrote “More Than a Memory” for his hero Garth Brooks. He came to prominence as a performer when his single “Love Like Crazy” became a long-running, radio favorite and one of the most recognizable country hits of 2010. His second album, Hard 2 Love, produced his first number 1 single “A Woman Like You,” but it was his track “I Drive Your Truck” - which told the poignant, real-life story of a soldier killed in Afghanistan and his father, who found comfort in driving his son's pick-up truck - that stood out and was named Song of the Year by the Country Music Association. He returned in 2014 with a more raucous set of hard swigging party tunes on I Don't Dance, which topped the US Country Charts, before reflecting on his life, marriage, and family on his most mature and personal album, Lee Brice (number 7 / 2017). After duetting with Carly Pearce on her 2019 number 1 single “I Hope You’re Happy Now,” Lee Brice returned with the album Hey World (number 8 / 2020), which included the number 1 singles “One of Them Girls” and “Memory I Don’t Mess With.” Three years after the release of Hey World, Lee Brice returned with the single “Save the Roses.” Nominated for many awards during his career, he won twice for Song of the Year at the ACM Awards (2012 and 2014), plus a Single of the Year at the 2015 ACM Awards, and won for Musical Event of the Year at the 2020 CMA Awards.