“Longtime.” That’s the adjective that keeps coming up when longtime friends Lee Brice and Jerrod Niemann are together. The guys have known each other since 2001, when both were aspiring country stars that had recently moved to Nashville.
“We met when we first came to town in 2001, just kind of playing our own shows in the bars, and we ended up playing some stuff together,” says Lee, during a sit-down with NCD with Jerrod by his side. “You just kind of randomly do that in Nashville a good bit—hanging out together, drinking together. We became pretty tight a couple of years into that, getting to know each other, and now it’s 15 years later.”
After 15 years, the longtime friends have finally collaborated in the studio for the first time with the song “A Little More Love.” The new single dropped on April 29 and will appear on Jerrod’s upcoming album that’s tentatively scheduled for the fall.
“[With your friends], there’s so many trials and tribulations that you help each other through,” says Jerrod. “You share some good time, some bad times, some happy times, some sad times, definitely some fun times. But one of the funest times is this [single] right now. Being able to record a song with Lee and put it out—we’ve talked about it for years and it’s just very, very exciting.”
Written by Shane McAnally, Ross Copperman, Natalie Hemby and Kristi Neumann, the tune’s upbeat, feel-good, reggae-infused groove has it primed for success as a summer anthem.
“We recorded [“A Little More Love”] just like back in the day the way you’re supposed to record collaborations—same room, same time, just singing,” says Jerrod. “It was fun to be in the same room at the same time to make this song happen. I’d say [the new album is coming] by the end of the fall. To be honest, we don’t have a date. I still have three more songs to go in and record, so there’s not a date, but I definitely feel like it would be the end of the fall.”
Like his cohort, Lee is also busy working on his upcoming album, his first since 2014’s I Don’t Dance.
“I’ve been deep into a new record myself, and I’ll probably have the first single off of it in late fall,” says Lee. “We’ll probably have a record early next year.”
Both Lee and Jerrod have busy summers planned, with numerous festivals and outdoor shows on the tour docket. After that, the buddies hinted at possibly joining forces for an upcoming tour.
“Heck, you never know, come the fall, we might hop on a tour together, who knows?” says Lee, as he cracks a coy smile.
“We definitely like hanging out . . . so we are definitely going to try to make that happen,” says Jerrod.
Listen to “A Little More Love” below.
– NASH Country Daily
