This Week’s Guest Host: Lee Brice

Lee Brice is this week's guest host on Backstage Country. The country star joins Kelly Ford in the studio to discuss everything from his new "Drinkin' Buddies," Nate Smith and Hailey Whitters, his next album, fatherhood, who his dream collaboration is, and so much more.

Brice released his new country anthem on Friday (4/26) and it will have just about everyone in your circle or at the bar singing along in no time. As for his “Drinkin’ Buddies,” Smith and Whitters, they are two artists he felt that he could connect with that just made it “really fresh and cool.”

“Both of them are obviously great talents and worked hard. We’ve become buddies, literal buddies since the day we met,” Brice said.

Brice is currently finishing up a “big record” coming out this year that is to be announced and there’s one song in particular that is very special to him and his family. His wife, Sara, a former DJ, dancer, and writer of poetry, is also a songwriter on the project with him.

“The biggest one in my life right now is on this record that I'm making right now and it's called 'When the Kingdom Comes.' It was a year-long process for this song,” Brice said.

He continued, “If I had to just pick one song to play for the whole world, and that was the only song they would ever get to hear off the record. That's the song I would play. It's beautiful to be able to say I wrote it with Sara, you know, and we had a big, huge connection over it. And it's spiritual. It really is kind of from my roots and, I love it and it's truthful. It's really everything I wanted in a song.”

To date, Brice has taken nine Country radio singles to No. 1, including “A Woman Like You,” “I Drive Your Truck,” “I Don’t Dance,” “Drinking Class,” “Rumor,” “I Hope You’re Happy Now,” “One Of Them Girls,” and “Memory I Don’t Mess With.”

This summer, fans can catch Brice performing at select festivals including CMA Fest, Carolina Country Music Fest, Country Jam, Windy City Smokeout, and more. He will also join Dierks Bentley out on the road this fall for his 2024 Gravel & Gold Tour.

Five country music couples we adore: when making this list, we have to begin with the fact that country music sings so much about love. We have country couples we all love to watch. They sing about their love and bring their life into the music they share with fans.

George Jones and Tammy Wynette were country music royalty. They sang together in the late 1960s and 1970s, and their marriage was one all fans could talk about. Then, their divorce in the 1970s really gave country fans something to talk about.

No one talks about it much anymore because the two have gone on to marry others, but when Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert got married, it was big news and fun for country fans. A few years later, their divorce shocked everyone, but during their marriage, they were country royalty we admired; now, we just adore them separately and watch their happiness with other spouses on social media.

Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert at the 2014 Grammy Awards in Los Angeles.
Christopher Polk/ Getty Images 

Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood are also true country royalty. Trisha told me about their relationship and how it works so well. The couple has been married for 18 years. She told me it isn't always just roses, "Well, when people go, 'Marriage goals' and 'Relationship goals,' I want to go, 'You know, have your own goals; we're regular people who don't always get along.'"

Yearwood adds, "If people see that we make each other the priority and we really respect and love each other, then I think if people take that from our marriage, then great."

Garth gushed as he looked at Trisha, standing about five feet away and out of earshot, "I think her and anybody's a great combo, I really do. So, I just feel lucky to be there with her."

He continued, "What I love about it is what I try to teach my girls: be yourself, be independent, but also be as strong as you are. Some of the most strength you're gonna have to show is the ability to bend. The ability to flex, the ability to take that pause and think, 'What is this guy really saying,' instead of just jumping, and we do that to each other. So, I think the respect is there."

Brooks told me the relationship was years in the making, "One of the big things was, cause we've known each other since '87, we were friends for thirteen years before we even dated. We toured together, which means you're way too comfortable with each other, so we told ourselves s--- on each other that no married couple would ever say. So, we know everything about each other."

He concluded, "With that, I think you just realize, walls and all, that they're gonna love you, and that's very sweet and hard for me to accept."

Garth and Trisha are performing at the Grammys in 2022.
Kevin Winter/Getty Images 

These two lovebirds are also absolutely country music royalty. The couple also inspires others with their 27-year-old marriage. In the early 2000s, Tim and Faith were all anyone was talking about. The couple even got their own Barbie dolls, which Brad Paisley made fun of later in their career on a CMA Awards show.

Their duets and music videos to go along with them were epic. Their song "It's Your Love" in 1997 became the first duet by a married couple to top the country chart. No such single would top the chart again until almost 26 years later, when Kane and Katelyn Brown's "Thank God" topped the chart in February 2023.

Other country music couples may come and go, but these two will always remain the ones people think of when country music couples are ever mentioned.

Kane and Katelyn scored a huge hit with "Thank God," and ever since, the couple has become who everyone wants to see arm in arm on a red carpet. The "Thank God" music video was filmed in Hawaii and named the CMT Video of the Year in 2023.

When the couple won the award, an emotional Katelyn told the CMT and TV crowd, standing next to her husband Kane, "This is all so new to me, and when we recorded this song a year ago, I never, ever in my life would think that this would ever happen." She then thanked her "amazing husband," saying how special it was that the couple could share this together.

Blake and Gwen became country music royalty when they started recording hit song duets like "Happy Anywhere" and "Nobody But You." Gwen joined Blake for a performance on the Grand Ole Opry and their royal status in country music was complete.

In an interview with People, Gwen said of her husband, "He's changed my life. When I started dating Blake, that's when I felt home, like, 'Oh, this is where I'm supposed to be, with this guy."

Blake often gushes about Gwen. He told People in 2021, "To me, she's my best friend and everything that I need and lean on."

Keith and Nicole are among the most famous couples in the world. The Oscar-winning Nicole often appears on the country music award show Red Carpets. Keith also joins his wife at movie premieres and red carpets, including the Academy Awards and many other acting awards shows.

They often post about each other and share love moments on social media when one of them has a birthday or on Valentine's Day.

In November, after the CMA Awards, Nicole posted photos of him and her hubby on her Instagram; she wrote, "Thank you, # CMA's, for a great night of country music celebration."

In 2017, when Urban released the song, The Fighter," the couple sang it together in their car. The YouTube video has ten millions views.

These guys are precious together. Nicole is always standing beside her Entertainer of the Year-winning man on red carpets and at award shows, cheering him on. Nicole gives little family inside moments and often answers fan questions online, giving us a look inside this country music two-bedroom home.

Luke and Nicole now have two baby boys at home, and Nicole often joins her husband on the tour bus with the family as he travels to sold-out stadium shows all over the country.

We have a feeling we will see a lot more red carpet moments from this couple as Luke continues to dominate country music.