Lee Brice tied the knot with his longtime girlfriend, Sarah Reevely about three and a half weeks ago.  The two have known each other and dated off and on for over a dozen years and they have a three year old son together named Takoda, but even with so much history, Lee says something has changed now that they are officially married.  “After saying ‘I do,’ it was like a relief for me because I had been getting to a point in my life where I was like so ready for that… This last year I’ve just been so anxious… So to know now that we’re here and we’re ready and we can now take steps forward to start this whole new adventure it’s like a relief.  It’s like, ‘Alright, we got here.  Now we can start.  We can really, really start.’”  They were engaged for about 16 months but Lee confesses, “As a man, when you ask a woman to marry you, like I was ready then.  I could have married her the next day and I would have been ready.”

Originally published in our March 11, 2013 issue featuring Luke Bryan on the cover. The article is published here in its entirety.

As songwriter Connie Harrington will gladly relate, it sometimes pays to listen to the radio. In her particular case, an episode on the Here And Now program on National Public Radio provided the scenario for Lee Brice’s current hit, “I Drive Your Truck,” which Connie wrote with her good friends Jessi Alexander and Jimmy Yeary.

 

“It was around Memorial Day [2011] and I was driving home and they announced that up next would be some Memorial Day stories,” Connie begins. “A very sweet story came on about a couple in Massachusetts. They had lost one of their sons in Afghanistan, I believe, and they were asked how they coped with the loss. They said, ‘We drive his truck,’ and they went on to describe the stuff that was still in it. They would take the truck out on Sundays. The story really moved me.”

Lee Brice celebrated the success of his No. 1 single "I Drive Your Truck" Monday (May 13) at the CMA building in Nashville, with the usual array of plaques and praise that mark No. 1 parties. But this celebration also featured a special guest who provided several emotional, touching moments at the proceedings.

The song was written by Connie Harrington, Jessi Alexander and Jimmy Yeary, and was inspired by an NPR program that Connie heard while driving on Memorial Day weekend of 2011. The program centered around a man who had lost a son, who had been serving in the military in Afghanistan. When asked how he coped with the loss, the man answered that he drove his son's truck around their property to remember him. Connie believed that the story should be put into a song.

Lee Brice celebrated his #1 song, I Drive Your Truck, with a party in Nashville yesterday afternoon with some very special guests. The song was written by Connie Harrington, Jessi Alexander and Jimmy Yeary, inspired by a story that Connie read about a family who lost their son Jared, who was killed in Afghanistan while trying to save a fellow soldier. When they asked the dad how he coped with the loss of his son he said he drove his truck. The writers had never met the family and weren’t sure if they’d ever be able to track them down, but just recently they did. They called Jared’s father, Paul Monti, and recorded the conversation, which Lee heard later. When they called they introduced themselves and told Paul about the song they had written. He was very familiar with the song and told them, “We feel like this song is just right out of our story.” That’s when they revealed to him, “Well, it is you. It’s your son.” Lee says it was such a powerful moment, just to hear the father realize that the song was his story. The family had connected with the song on such a personal level but they had no idea it was written about them.

Lee Brice has just released “Parking Lot Party” as the follow up to his third No. 1 single in a row, “I Drive Your Truck” which was recently certified Gold. Lee’s latest album, Hard 2 Love, featuring all three No. 1 hits as well “Parking Lot Party,” has sold more than 730,000 units to date. “Parking Lot Party” honors the tailgater in all of us and pays tribute to fans who like to party and have a good time in the parking lot before a big show!

Sometimes the best songs come from absolutely nowhere, which is exactly what happened the day Lee Brice's new single, "Parking Lot Party," was born. Rhett Akins, his singer-songwriter star son Thomas Rhett and BMI's 2012 Songwriter of the Year Luke Laird all got together to hash out another hit not that long ago, but things just weren't clicking the way they'd hope. Roughstock had Akins tell us the whole story!

"That song was not even supposed to be written," Akins tells Roughstock. "I was writing with Luke Laird and Thomas Rhett. Lee wasn’t even scheduled to write with us. It was just one of those miracle days where Thomas Rhett just wasn’t feeling anything we were writing. We started two or three songs, and Thomas Rhett was like, ‘Naw, I don’t like that’ or ‘I don’t feel like writing that.’ His head just wasn’t into it that day. He said, ‘Why don’t we go get something to eat, and maybe when we come back, we can find something.’

Curb Records and Lee Brice light things up with his new summer anthem, "Parking Lot Party" which will be released today, May 13th, 2013 and comes on the heels of his third #1 single in a row, "I Drive Your Truck" which was recently certified Gold by the RIAA. Lee Brice's latest album continues to impress as TEA (track equivalent album) sales for the current album, Hard 2 Loveare currently in excess of 730,000 units. *

Also recently announced, Zippo Encore, with the company's first partnership in the country music market, will be releasing two custom Lee Brice designed Zippo lighters available for sale on the road this summer when Lee joins Brad Paisley's Beat This Summer Tour presented by Cracker Barrel Old Country Store.

Zippo Encore will hit the road with breakout country artist Lee Brice from May 4 through August 24, 2013 when Lee joins Brad Paisley as special guest on the Beat This Summer Tour presented by Cracker Barrel Old Country Store®.

This marks Zippo Encore’s first partnership in the country music market, as part of their efforts to continue to engage all genres of music fans.

Lee proclaims, “I'm ready to get the "Beat This Summer" tour started and welcome Zippo Lighters out on the road! The Zippo Encore program is a great way to bring some extra time to meet those fans. I had a lot of fun designing my custom lighter and can't wait to see them flickering in the crowd every night.”

Taste of Country - Megan Pacella

Anyone who has been through a breakup knows that it takes a village to recover from a broken heart. That’s why Tyler Farr called on his country music buddies Colt Ford and Lee Brice and ‘Duck Dynasty’s’ Willie Robertson to join him for his music video for ‘Redneck Crazy.’ Moral of the story: Don’t mess with country boys.

‘Redneck Crazy’ is a song about heartbreak — so you wouldn’t expect the video to be worthy of a few chuckles. But when you put together three fun-loving country music singers and one heir of the ‘Duck Dynasty’ family, that’s exactly what you get.

When the slow, sad song starts out the video cuts to a shot of Farr looking heartbroken. He’s playing with a silver ring crafted from two hearts, while his buddies try to comfort him. But the ‘Hot Mess’ hitmaker doesn’t stay down and out for long.

To read full article and watch the video click here

By Grady Smith - EW.com

Country music fans that tune in to A&E’s cable smash Duck Dynasty have every reason to be happy, happy, happy lately.

Willie, Si, and the rest of the crew have made a point of inserting themselves into the country music scene. Not only did the boys show up in the clip for Darius Rucker’s hit single “Wagon Wheel” last month, but Willie gets rough and muddy with singers Lee Brice and Colt Ford in the music video for Tyler Farr‘s new single “Redneck Crazy,” which EW can exclusively preview below. Click here to watch the preview.