Chase Rice struggled to name the strangest rumor he's ever read or heard about himself since first becoming famous as a reality television cast member in 2010. "I've been hearing a lot of them lately," he quips.

The singer is referring headlines claiming he and reality television star Kristin Cavallari are a couple. US Weekly recently reported that the two were "all over" each during a Nashville date, adding that they "really like each other." Talking to Taste of Country Nights, Rice admits he doesn't feel like he's earned fame.

"I don’t know why people care about what I do with my life," he says. "The only thing that I like being in a headline for … is when people talk about music.”

Rice was part of Survivor: Nicaragua in late 2010, and shortly afterward he gained recognition as a co-writer of Florida Georgia Line's "Cruise." He developed as an emerging singer-songwriter in Nashville until 2014, when his major label debut ("Ready Set Roll") reached the Top 5 on Billboard's Country Airplay chart.

Another Top 5 called "Gonna Wanna Tonight" followed, but then his commercial success tapered off until he switched record labels and released "Eyes on You," a No. 1 hit in 2019. Just recently, "Drinkin' Beer. Talkin' God. Amen." with Florida Georgia Line hit No. 1, but Rice tells Evan and Amber he's not impressed with all of the attention given to his love life, in lieu of press for his hit song.

“Luckily for me I've never wanted that other stuff. I don’t care," he says. "My personal life needs to be my personal life, because that's the part of my life that's sane. That's the part of my life that's safe and normal. And if you lose that, I don’t know what would happen to me, but I wouldn’t like it."

The 36-year-old Rice has never gone public with anyone he's dated, leaving that part of his life in the dark from fans. However, his romantic endeavors did become national news in 2020 when he appeared on ABC's The Bachelor. He was to perform for the show's star Peter Weber and his date, who turned out to be a woman named Victoria Fuller, whom Rice had spent time with before. It angered him.

"I didn’t think they would do that to me, to be honest with you," he told Taste of Country at the time. "I knew going in that she was gonna be on the show, and I told my publicist, manager that and they were like, 'It's fine. They're not going to do that.'"

That incident is not necessarily the reason Rice put his love life on lockdown, however. Pressed to expand on the decision, he says it goes back to the nightmare celebrity stories he heard growing up.

"You got musicians — and artistic people, especially — diving into killing themselves and stuff like that, and I don't think it's any accident. There's just something really unhealthy going on," he says of attention paid to public opinion. "They don’t really have a touch of reality or something — I don’t know the details of each situation, but it’s a dangerous place to live, and I don’t wanna live there."

Musically, Rice has tour dates scattered through early November before a break for the holidays. He'll join Kane Brown for the Blessed & Free Tour in January. The North Carolina-raised singer has not yet announced a follow-up single for "Drinkin' Beer. Talkin' God. Amen."

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