Lee Brice Goes a Little ‘Crazy’

Lee Brice is poised to enter the Top 10 on the country charts with the hit 'Love Like Crazy,' from his brand-new album of the same name. It has been three years since the Sumter, S.C. native released his Top 30 debut single, 'She Ain't Right,' and in the meantime, he's been plugging around the country music scene, writing songs, finishing his album and playing hundreds of shows. Lee had a few false starts with his follow-up singles, 'Happy Endings' and 'Upper Middle Class White Trash,' which received little airplay, but releasing his first album (one that took more than three years to make), it seems the timing could not be more perfect. The singer-songwriter is riding high with his hard-earned success. Prior to 'Love Like Crazy,' his biggest achievement came as one of the songwriter's on 2007's 'More Than a Memory,' which Garth Brooks took to No. 1 straight out of the box. Lee has also written songs for Jason Aldean, Blake Shelton and most recently, Tim McGraw with 'Still.'

Lee began his musical aspirations at seven-years-old when he learned to play the piano, and at age 10, he was already crafting songs. In high school, he won the school talent competition three years in a row. He became a star on the football field and attended Clemson University on a gridiron scholarship, but when an arm injury sidelined his athletic pursuits, he decided he would pursue a career in music, leaving college a year early and forgoing his civil engineering degree for three chords and the truth. He moved to Nashville on the advice of producer and A&R executive Doug Johnson and has not looked back.

The Boot recently caught up with Lee at the Nashville office of his record label to talk about his new album and hit single, how the movies 'Sweet Home Alabama' and 'The Notebook' inspired a song on the disc, what kind of qualities he wants in a romantic partner ... and how the woman who inspired 'More Than a Memory' keeps coming back around.

The original title of your debut album was from the first track on the disc, 'Picture of Me.' Why did it change to 'Love Like Crazy?'



The record label is really who changed the title because they wanted it to be associated with a big hit like 'Love Like Crazy,' which I understand. But I didn't necessarily agree, so in my liner notes I said, "'Picture of Me, let's just call it the album title at heart." [laughs] But it is a picture of me. The album 'Love Like Crazy' is just a bunch of snapshots of where I'm from, and even the song 'Picture of Me' is a total detailed song about me, but I think a lot of people can relate because they're like me. They're just normal country folks who work hard and try to do the right things and play hard.

I decided not to even put the lyrics in my CD booklet. Instead of lyrics, which you can go get online, I decided to do little blogs about each song. What I was thinking when I wrote it or what I feel about the song now, or anything. With 'Picture of Me,' I just said, "Hey! This is a picture of me as a son, as a lover, and let's just call it the album title in spirit." [laughs]

The lyrics of 'Love Like Crazy' are something every woman wants to hear her man say.

That's what I felt when I heard it. I thought about my grandparents and how they were together almost 60 years before granddaddy died. Now I see her alone, and it's crazy because she was with him all of that time. I can't imagine being with somebody for that long and them not being with you anymore. I get to thinking about them every time when I sing the song. Even though I didn't write it, I feel like I did. I feel really attached to that song.

The song also gives good advice, such as "Don't outsmart your common sense" and "Always treat your woman like a lady." Is that advice someone may have given you?

That's my favorite line in the song: "Never get too old to call her baby." [laughs] I love to see an old couple and him going, "Awww baby." In fact, I was talking to a senator one day, and he said, "Lee, I write books. I'm not much of a songwriter, but I think I've got a good title that would be a good song idea ... I was with this old couple one day, and I was just asking them how they were doing, and the old guy reached around and put his arm around his wife's back and he said, 'Me and my baby, we're just falling apart together.'" That's a great story! So, I went and wrote the song and we gave a percentage to the senator for the song title. [laughs]

Some people could have called you crazy for leaving Clemson a year before graduation to pursue a career in music.

That's exactly right. They could have called me crazy for doing what I'm doing. But hopefully, one day down the road, it will pay off. I may have already gone through my hard times and still broke, but I'm happy. I couldn't imagine doing anything else at all.

It's funny! Looking out the window [of Curb Records] at that building right there that we're looking at, that's where I decided to move to Nashville. I was in there with [producer-songwriter] Doug Johnson, and I played him a few songs, and he said, "Man, if you don't love civil engineering like I can see that you love this, you need to be here now -- right now!" I had a year of Clemson to go and I quit and came here.

The songs on the new album paint a picture of real life. They sound like they could almost be ones that you play at frat parties with your buddies and connect with them on a basic level.

That's all I ever did forever. I started out writing songs, and the only time I ever played out was around the campfire or on the staircase or in college at parties. It's funny. I never did just covers. I also did the stuff I wrote. I felt like that's what people wanted to hear, even though maybe they didn't. [laughs] We're trying right now to think about our next single and what that choice is going to be. Right now it's between the song 'Beautiful Every Time,' which I think is a smash, and 'Some Things.' That is a story. In fact, I just watched 'Sweet Home Alabama' and 'The Notebook,' those two movies, and then the story about my life -- that same girl who I wrote 'More Than a Memory' about -- I had all that in my head, those three things. And so now, if you go back and watch those movies and you listen to that song, you can totally see it. [laughs]

We were at a [radio] station the other day and they played it. A lady called in and she said, "Oh my God, that is totally me." It's a story about never getting past something and then reuniting with someone possibly in the future who you've always loved and always will. And she just went on about this story, it was like a movie just like 'The Notebook,' where they separated and years later they get back together, and it was magic still. Boy, she just told a great story, and it was like, "Eh, that could be the [next] single. We'll see." [laughs]

How about the song, 'Power of a Woman.' Do women really have that kind of power over men?

Yeah! I sat around for eight years writing songs about the same girl, and ended up writing 'More Than a Memory' about that same girl. Lyrically, it's one of my favorite songs. "She can make a man pick up the bottle or help him lay it down." My favorite line is "She can stop his whole world from turning or turn his whole world around." [laughs] That's probably a single after the next single, just because dudes can't disagree with it and girls want to hear that. It's truth, so why not tell it in a big old song?

What kind of woman has power over you? What do you look for in a potential girlfriend?

It's so weird how people say that you look for somebody like your mother. I always thought, "No way," because when you're 17 or 20, your parents get on your nerves. They don't think you know anything and you don't think they know anything. But they know everything and you don't know anything. [laughs] My mother is gentle, kind and giving. I've been around a lot of women who aren't. They're brash and rude, if they want to be. And I love a woman to be confident, but some just go too far. I want a woman who needs me a little bit, just to be a woman. My mother leans on my daddy, and I love that. She trusts him in ways that I cannot fathom yet. I like that. I like to be able to take care of somebody.

Do you still have feelings for that one girl you wrote all of those songs for?

You'll always have feelings for your first love. Her little sister is an extremely talented actress-singer who was on Broadway for a while, so, my ex-girl and her family moved to New York, then they have been doing the Disney thing, and now they're moving to Nashville. [laughs] I haven't talked to her in years, and she just called the other day and said, "By the way, I'm going to be your neighbor." It's just funny. But I'd say I don't. We dated a little bit after 'More Than a Memory' came out, and I just didn't feel it as much. And she's got a certain type of life she wants to live. We talked about happiness, and some people just kind of want to be in their day-to-day, and that's what makes them happy -- comfort . I'm definitely far from that. I'm on the road all the time, and I definitely want to go see the whole world one day, so that probably won't work. Either way, she's going to be in Nashville. [laughs] I'm sure I'm going to run into her. She's probably going to end up dating somebody, some other artist here. [laughs]

You originally picked up a guitar because of Garth Brooks, then you write a song that he records with 'More Than a Memory' and he takes it straight to No. 1 out of the box, not to mention that fact that you guys are probably friends now. How surreal is that for you?

That's like a dream. When I say a dream, I don't mean like a dream come true, which it was, but more like a dream, "Did that really even happen?" I was talking to Jerrod Niemann one time -- he wrote a song for Garth [the No. 1 hit 'Good Ride Cowboy'] -- and he told me, right as that stuff was happening with me with 'More Than a Memory,' he said, "It hasn't hit you yet, has it?" I said, "No, it really hasn't." He said, "It will. About six months from now, you will wake up and say, 'What in the hell just happened?'" [laughs] And I still feel like sometimes I haven't woken up yet.

On this album, you've represented the rough and rowdy kind of guy, along with the tender and warm-hearted guy. People will most likely connect in some form or fashion, because nobody is just one type of person.

Nobody is, so you've got to give them everything. If I was just a ballad guy or if I was just a tender guy or just a rocking guy, I would do just that, and there are artists who are predominantly that way. But it depends on what kind of mood I'm in ... so, that's why I have to have it all on there. I watched Garth shows, and I watched him shoot out fireworks and then sit down at the piano, and that's what I want to do.

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