We take you behind the scenes and explore the making of one of our favorite tunes with The Song Remembers When…
In July 2019, Lee Brice landed his fifth career number one with “Rumor.” The song was one he wrote with Kyle Jacobs and Ashley Gorley, and Lee initially came up with the groove as he recovered from vocal surgery. He had been dealing with a polyp on his vocal chords and that really forced him to sing differently during that time. Lee didn’t want to write a song that had too much range vocally, so he came up with the bluesy, Motown feel for “Rumor.”
Lee was of the mindset that the song would be soulful, fun, and real. And, coming from a small town in South Carolina, there was always gossip. He gives a nod to Bonnie Raitt’s “Something To Talk About” with this song in the lyric, “You could lay one on me right now, we could really give them something to talk about.”
Post-vocal surgery, Lee is back to belting them out, but he says that he’ll look back on this song as a time that forced him to get a little creative with his sound. That push to find something different paid off in a chart-topping hit and an ACM Awards nomination for Single of the Year.