Chase Rice Reacts To Criticism, Pushes Upcoming Show

Chase Rice posted a video reacting to the criticism he got when he performed a show in East Tennessee on Saturday night (6/27).

Kelsea Ballerini said on her socials Sunday (6/28), "Imagine being selfish enough to put thousands of people’s health at risk, not to mention the potential ripple effect, and play a normal country concert right now.  @ChaseRiceMusic, We all want (and need) to tour. We just care about our fans and their families enough to wait."

An unapologetic Chase said in his video to fans, "I understand that there’s a lot of varying opinions, a lot of different opinions on COVID-19, how it works with live music crowds and what all that looks like. My biggest thing is y’all. Y’all are why I get to write songs, y’all are why I get to tour the country, why I get to do live shows and sing these songs to you guys and you guys sing them back. You guys are everything to me, so your safety is a huge priority."

He added, "Moving forward, I have a show in Ashland, Kentucky, on Friday, and it’s a drive-in show. You can take your trucks, take your cars. You have your own space, you can get out of your cars, you can get out of your trucks and party with me. Please do sing the songs but stay in your own space, stay with the people you came with. The biggest thing for all of us is the safer we are now, the quicker we get to actual normal live shows, which I know we all want."

Rice closed with, "Love ya'll and God bless country music."

The venue Rice played, Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary, is a former maximum-security prison turned event venue in Petros, Tennessee. A representative for the venue says they complied with COVID-19-related guidelines by reducing capacity from 10,000 to 4,000 people and implementing other safety measures, such as making hand sanitizer available and requiring staff to wear masks and gloves.