Chase Rice’s sixth studio album is not so much a reinvention as it is a reveal, as the Asheville-born singer-songwriter serves up 13 tracks that offer a deeper glimpse into his life and artistry than on any previous release. That newfound vulnerability is hard-earned for Rice, who confronted some personal demons during the pandemic. Accordingly, he tells Apple Music, he believes I Hate Cowboys & All Dogs Go to Hell to be his best work yet. “I would put my stuff up against anybody now,” he says. “And if it’s not as good as theirs, then at least I know it was the best that I could do.” Opener “Walk That Easy” celebrates the kind of love that sticks around when the chips are down, with a spacious, midtempo arrangement that mirrors the track’s optimism. “Bench Seat” tells a heart-wrenching story about a man and his dog, inspired by a real-life tragedy close to Rice’s heart. The Boy Named Banjo collaboration “Goodnight Nancy” is lush and melodic, heavy on harmonies and accented by a touch of ’90s influence. And title track “All Dogs Go to Hell,” on which Rice’s vocal recalls Eric Church’s more tender moments, isn’t what it seems, expressing the feeling of heartbreak after a breakup with a string of hard-to-believe one-liners. Below, Rice shares insight into several key tracks on I Hate Cowboys & All Dogs Go to Hell. “Way Down Yonder” “‘Way Down Yonder,’ that’s the title that would’ve belonged on one of my popular records or ‘bro country’ records. But then you hear the song, and you’re like, ‘Oh, it’s not that at all.’ First of all, it’s not that topic. I was adamant about that. I was like, ‘We’re not doing the truck, the dirt road, the girl, the moon, the stars, all the bullshit,’ which I think is hilarious because I just heard HARDY’s song ‘RADIO SONG.’ God. He kind of scares the shit out of me, but also, I’m very charmed. It’s just so good.” “Bench Seat” “[A friend] came to see me in 2018, maybe. I think it was around ’18 or ’19. I was able to recognize where he was [emotionally]. I was like, ‘Oh, I’ve been here before.’ I never tried to take my own life or even hurt myself, but I wrote in a journal, like 2012, ’13, I wrote, ‘I no longer want to be alive.’ That’s it. That’s all I wrote. It’s like, ‘Oh, that’s a bad place to be.’ So, I started getting help in 2013, and then, when I saw him, I was like, ‘Oh, God. This ain’t my friend. This is a different thing, a different version of him.’ I wrote a lot of myself into the song, into the video. And then it was all kind of based off of his story. And the story of it really is in the video. The guy does end up dying in the video, but more of the reason I wanted to do that was because I wanted to show, ‘This is what’s going to happen if you do that. You’re going to miss out on all this good stuff.’” “Oklahoma” (feat. Read Southall Band) “It was a true story. I was in Oklahoma, duck hunting, bird hunting. Cody from Whiskey Myers was there, and we just had a good time. I stayed for six extra days because I was just having so much fun. I couldn’t leave Oklahoma, which was a place that I never even went to before, almost on purpose. I was like, ‘Man, the Oklahoma red-dirt thing. I don’t know if those people like me very much, and a lot of them probably still don’t, but I had the best time of my life in Oklahoma, so I’m going to sing about it.’” “I Walk Alone” “For me, it was about my career and my life. It’s all a lot of self-sabotage, which sucks, but I do it all the time. It’s like, ‘Stop trying to make a point with your music, for me, and just make great music.’ And so, I was trying to be this guy that was a recluse, that just stayed away from the mainstream thing, but also stayed away from the artistic thing. What was that? Then where are you? And I self-sabotaged my way into this guy that just doesn’t know anybody in the music industry, and nobody knows him, but that’s not me. Now I have a bunch of buddies in the industry, and we’re all just cool, having fun together.” “Sorry Momma” “She raised three boys, so it’s like, ‘Dang, Mom.’ Now, I got my niece, who’s easy. Then my nephew, Danny, who’s an absolute train wreck in the most fun way. Walker’s going to be the same way with my middle brother. I don’t have any kids yet, but it’s like, now that I see them and what they have to put up with, three boys would be a lot.”