Lee Brice‘s new single, “Save the Roses,” is a tribute to his late friend, songwriter Kyle Jacobs. It was Jacobs, husband of Kellie Pickler, who wrote the song with Joe Leathers, inspired by the loss of Brice’s cousin. But after Jacobs passed away, due to an apparent suicide, Brice knew he wanted to share “Save the Roses” with the rest of the world.
“I told my two best friends — Kyle Jacobs and Joe Leathers — I have this idea/title, it’s about my cousin,” Brice told Audacy‘s Katie Neal. “We wrote it, and there ended up being a bigger part of that whole story.”
“Save the Roses” is the final single from Brice’s 2020 Hey World album. Prior to Jacobs’ passing, Brice was ready to release something from a new project. But after the unexpected loss of his close friend, the South Carolina native knew he wanted — and needed — to release “Save the Roses” first.
“This song was special to me,” Brice says. “I had already had a couple hits off this record and I was like, ‘I really need to move onto some new stuff,’ so that’s where I was going … I was going to move forward, but then Kyle left us, and I could just not get past the fact that I just wanted to put this song on the radio. I wanted people to hear it, because now it had a whole new meaning to me, and still does. I just wanted to keep him around a little bit longer.”
Now, with “Save the Roses” at radio, Brice’s biggest goal for the song isn’t for him, but for Jacobs and the legacy he leaves behind.
“I want as many people to hear it as can,” Brice explains. “And if it ends up being a No. 1 song, I would love for it to be that. And he would have loved for it to be that. And it may be, who knows. But it was really just, I wanted to keep him around for as long as I could, ’cause I still struggle with why he’s not here.”
Brice also wants to keep Jacobs, and his unmatched talent as a songwriter and producer, in people’s minds and memories, hopefully for years to come.
“The biggest thing about Kyle, and probably the saddest thing about Kyle is the people who never got to meet him,” Brice says. “They are unlucky souls if they never get to meet Kyle Jacobs, because he was the light of the world, all the time. He just was. And honestly still is. … I just thought, if I can do anything in this world for my brother, my friend, I want him to live on a little bit longer, right here with us, and I want people to hear this song that he would say, ‘Man, you should all be fishing. Don’t worry about me.’ That’s the whole point.
“I think that’s maybe why he went down the road he went down,” he adds. “It’s because he was worried about everybody else. He wanted to make sure everybody else was okay, and he didn’t put enough emphasis on if he was okay or not.”
“Save the Roses” is available at LeeBrice.com.