In a feat of summertime nostalgia that country artists always seem to sing about, Chase Rice released his music video for "Carolina Can," a soon-to-be hit single from his 2014 album Ignite the Night.
Rice was a linebacker on the UNC football team from 2005 to 2008, a role near and dear to his heart as video of his games are shown in scenes of the music video.
"It was the best experience of my life," he told The Daily Tar Heel in 2014. "I probably learned more all those five years than I’ve ever learned about myself. We had our ups and we had our downs, which probably prepared me for the music business pretty good."
Football aside, classic UNC images such as the Bell Tower, the Dean Smith Center, a blue He's Not cup, and, of course, the Kenan Memorial Stadium make special appearances.
This isn't just a music video — it's a love song to an experience that made a profound impact on Rice, and if the song itself doesn't touch some of your UNC heartstrings, the video definitely will.
Rice hoped this song would be a hit. In 2014, when his record came out, he told the DTH there was "one song in particular Carolina can really appreciate."
"One of the lines in it says, 'In a state of blue denim on Franklin Street, a He’s Not buzz, a house band beat. It was summer heat dragging me to a fifth-year fall.' And that’s my time at Carolina. That’s not beating around the bush, that’s talking about Chapel Hill," he said.
"My life’s just so crazy now that every now and then, I just gotta go back. That’s what this song is all about. When I need someone to remind me who I am, Carolina can. And Chapel Hill is home to me, it always will be."
In a nod to one of the most well known North Carolina anthems, "Carolina in my Mind," Rice sings, "Well, hey Mr. Taylor, she ain't only on your mind."
Get ready, y'all — this is going to be the song that we hear at all of the football games for the next four years, and, all things considered, that's pretty beautiful.
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