Country singer Chase Rice has lived a diverse life. His resume includes playing Division 1 college football as a linebacker at the University of North Carolina, working as a NASCAR crew member and ultimately rising to fame as a country music star.

In June, Rice will add the 2026 Taylor Summer Festival to his list of accomplishments when he headlines the Friday, June 26 concert in the Sheridan Open Air Pavilion inside Heritage Park.

Tickets will go on sale in the spring.

Rice will be joined by up-and-coming country star Zach John King, along with the Family Tradition Band, a popular local band. Other entertainment commitments are still being worked out for the festival, which is scheduled for June 25-28.

Given the increasing popularity of country music, acts have been difficult to schedule locally. The last country entertainers to play the summer festival were Frankie Ballard and Danielle Bradbery in 2023. In 2022, country heartthrob Dylan Scott killed it on the Sheridan Pavilion stage. Going all the way back to 2021, LoCash and Chris Bandi were huge hits with the crowd. This year, the City of Taylor took a much more aggressive stance and attacked the market early in an effort to sign talented country performers.

Chase Rice was born in Florida. He was raised in Asheville, North Carolina and pursued collegiate football as a linebacker at UNC at Chapel Hill. But his focus shifted to music when as injury derailed his NFL-bound career and he lost his father suddenly, leading him to find solace through his guitar. His career began in earnest upon his arrival in Nashville, where he co-wrote the diamond-certified single “Cruise” for the music group, Florida Georgia Line.

Rice is no longer a stranger to blazing trails. On his newest album Eldora, the singer/songwriter’s instincts point deep into the creative wilderness and untamed authenticity of the American West. Fifteen years into a life-long musical adventure, Rice has seen it all and done most of it twice. Yet there are always mountains left to climb. Written in a Colorado cabin and inspired by a hidden, mountainside town, the 12 songs on Eldora represent the rawest, most unguarded expression of Rice’s talent to date.

Now there’s only one direction he wants to go.

“That’s what I feel like this record is,” Rice says. “For me, it was that absolute freedom I was looking for, that’s what took me out West. It’s been my life the last 10 years and the biggest theme on this album is running towards freedom. I’ve found that almost always means running away from home.”

Eldora does find the star leaving his past work behind – but to be fair, he has never been a fan of staying put. After bursting onto the country scene with “Cruise” Rice went on to become a 10x Platinum artist, with hits like “Drinkin’ Beer. Talkin’ God. Amen.” and “Eyes On You” notching No. 1s on Country Radio. He’s booked sold-out international tours and shared stadium stages with Garth Brooks and Kenny Chesney while racking up more than 3 billion streams in total.

But it was never about the stats. Leaving the major-label system in 2024, the album Go Down Singin’ brought Rice full independence and a new dedication to his storytelling craft. Yet for his eighth studio album, that commitment hits the next level.

“I don’t know many people that have ever gone down the road I’m going down,” he said. “And when you’re this mainstream artist who makes a big shift, it takes a lot to get people to believe. But I think it’s extremely believable because it’s extremely real.”

Attendees of the summer festival will get to see just how real Chase Rice is when he headlines the June 26 concert at the 2026 Taylor Summer Festival.

As accomplished as Rice has become, country followers are keeping an eye on Sony Music Nashville artist and rising star Zach John King. And like Rice, King is pushing his country sound straight toward the truth, no matter where it leads.

Raised in Fayetteville, Georgia, King comes from a family of poets, he grew up old school where his grandmother's kitchen radio of the classics inspired him to write songs. Inspired by a wide range of artists – George Jones and Otis Redding to The Police, Third Eye Blind and Switchfoot – King fronted an Indie-rock band in college before making the move to Nashville in 2021 to explore his country roots as the mainstream genre evolves.

Whether it was through power chords and pounding drums or bare-knuckle balladry, his minimalistic country-meets-rock sound resulted in his first solo track in 2023, an audacious collision of styles titled “Just Missed You,” filled with vivid authenticity. A series of independent singles followed before King’s 2024 breakout single, “Wannabe Cowboy,” which earned 3.4M streams worldwide.

Zach John King kicked off last summer with the release of his EP Slow Down. The project followed the success of its title track, “Slow Down,” which earned 5 million global streams and landed placements on Spotify’s “Hot Country” playlist and Apple Music’s “Today’s Country” playlist, among others. With over 33.5 million global career streams and his track “I Deserve a Heartbreak” playing on The Highway XM, there’s much more on tap.

Opening the country concert at the summer festival will be The Family Tradition Band, which has been making waves on the local scene since their formation in 2015. It features a talented lineup including Randy Badour on lead vocals and acoustic guitar and Kyle Andrew on lead guitar and vocals, among others. It is characterized by a mix of classic country, southern rock and contemporary country. Its authentic sound comes through an incorporation of traditional instruments like the fiddle, banjo and pedal steel guitar.

Family Tradition Band has been awarded “Best Band” by Hour Detroit Magazine and “Best Country Band” by Review Magazine multiple times.

The Taylor Summer Festival offers days of carnivals, concerts, fireworks and more. Concerts will be held on Friday, June 26 and Saturday, June 27. Free fireworks will be held at dusk on Saturday, June 27.

Click on taylorfestival.com for details and ticket information as the event nears.