Lee Brice‘s latest chart-topper, “I Don’t Dance,” had some pretty big shoes to fill, coming after ACM Song of the Year winner “I Drive Your Truck.” And although of course Lee is proud of his latest hit, which is self-penned, “I Drive Your Truck,” which he didn’t write, remains a life-changing song for him.
“I mean, it’s obviously, a defining thing in my career, and it will always be,” he reflects. “And obviously, I hear stories all the time from other folks and how it impacts their life. And I’ve heard so many of those, and they’ve meant so much to me.”
Lee says it was actually an adolescent fan who really brought the meaning of the song home for him.
“I met this little girl, and she was 12 or 13, and she was, like, terminally ill. And it just hit me really, really on a very real level,” he remembers. “I guess, maybe it’s because I got kids. If you close your eyes — I just started to try to do this — put yourself in her shoes or put yourself in her parents’ shoes, and how does it make you really feel? And, like, imagine that.”
The little girl’s situation touched Lee so much, it made it hard for him to sing his hit.
“I think about her, and I’m like, ‘Oh God, how do you do that?’ It made a positive impact on my life to make me appreciate every day that I got, every minute I got with my family, ’cause that’s why I’m enjoying it so much,” he says. “That’s why I’m happier than I’ve ever been.”
Lee’s new album, I Don’t Dance , arrives September 9.
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