Chase Rice at the iHeartRadio Music Festival 2022

The Video for Chase Rice’s New Single ‘Bench Seat’ Will Rip Your Heart Out

Chase Rice’s I Hate Cowboys & All Dogs Go to Hell is coming February 10th. Rice claims that this album will show listeners a different side of him as an artist. So far, the singles from the project have proved that. However, none of them come close to the emotional depth of his most recent single “Bench Seat”

Rice released the new song earlier today alongside a cinematic music video. Watch the video below, but be warned, it’s a tear-jerker.

Chase Rice on the Origins of “Bench Seat”

“Bench Seat” is one of three solo writes for Rice on the upcoming album. According to The Music Universe, the heart-wrenching song started with a suggestion from a friend that the country star almost discarded. Chase Rice revealed that a buddy of his came to him and suggested he write a song about “a guy and his dog driving around together.”

“That cliché was exactly the thing I was trying to avoid on this album,” Chase Rice recalled. However, he let the idea sit in his mind for a while and something a little deeper came out of it. He sat down with his guitar and started writing. The result is a song about Rice’s friend and the dog that saved his life.

“My buddy was in a really dark place – to the point where he was ready to end his own life. It took a lot for him to take me back to that moment, but when he told me what stopped him, it stopped me in my tracks,” Rice said. “His dog came and laid his head on his lap, and that connection saved him.”

Chase Rice went on to say that he wrote the song from the dog’s perspective which “might not be obvious right away.” He also wanted to look at “what that moment might have meant for the two of them if not for that intervention.”

The Video Is a Heartbreaker

The video for “Bench Seat” harkens back to a time when music videos were more like short films. At just over seven minutes long, the clip plays the life story of a man, his dog, his growing family, and how everything turns out. Chase Rice created the concept of the video while he wrote the song.

“For the first time in my career, I could envision the whole video as I was writing the song. I wanted to shine a light on the topic of mental health because this is something that makes way too many people feel alone,” Rice said.

“When my friend was in that moment, it was impossible to see anything but the heaviness. He was able to get the help he needed, though, and now he’s living a beautiful life and starting a family,” Rice said. “That’s what this video is about – showing you the potential for a happy end to the story if you are able to find a way to get help through the dark times.”