Chase Rice Slams Bachelor Producers After Former Flame and Peter Weber Came to Watch Him Perform
Chase Rice is “really pissed off” about his upcoming appearance on The Bachelor and the way the producers handled his previous relationship with contestant Victoria Fuller.
Rice, 34, opened up about the appearance on the Fitz in the Morning radio show Monday and explained that he and Fuller spent one night together and he thought he was on the reality show to promote his music like other singers have done previously.
“We spent a night together in Charlotte, she’s a cool chick, from what I know of her,” he said. “You know, I got no problem with her. I got no problem with him. You know, I knew she was going on the show.”
In a teaser for Monday night’s episode, Bachelor Peter Weber surprises Fuller with a concert during their one-on-one date. She later reveals to Weber that she “dated” Rice, before telling him, “I can’t do this” and walking away. (Share your thoughts on the awkward encounter in PEOPLE’s exclusive Facebook group for Bachelor Nation’s die-hard fans.)
When the radio hosts asked Rice if he wasn’t blindsided when Weber showed up with Fuller for the date, he quickly clarified that he was “still surprised.”
RELATED: Peter Weber Finds Out Victoria F. Dated Singer Chase Rice — After Country Star Performs for Them!
“No, no, I was still surprised. I was pretty surprised,” he said, adding that he had expressed concern to his manager and publicist before agreeing to appear on The Bachelor, but they assured him not to worry.
“So I told my manager and my publicist, they were like, ‘don’t even worry about that,'” he said. “‘They’re not going to do that to you, that’s a weird coincidence, but they’re not gonna — there’s no way they would do that to you. They’ve never brought somebody else in like that, surprised the guest on the show.'”
But it turned out that Rice had no idea he would end up face to face with Fuller.
“So the fact they did that to me, it’s over the top, it’s unnecessary, I didn’t expect it,” he continued on the radio show. “But at the end of the day, it happened.”
“I don’t know if it’s the producers, or if they just got lucky. I know what I think, but I’ll let everybody else figure out what they think,” he said, admitting that he “was really pissed off” because he agreed to perform on the show for the sake of his music, not to take part in the drama.
“I was just going on there to try to promote ‘Lonely If You Are’ and ‘Eyes on You,'” he said, “and I wanted absolutely nothing — if there’s anything I ever wanted, it’s to have nothing to do with the drama of that show.”
When asked if he’d ever consider being a contestant on a Bachelor Nation show, Rice said there’s “not a shot in hell.”
“I’d do it for a billion dollars,” he joked, adding that while he’s sure people really do find love on the show, that’s not something he’s interested in.
“For one, I’m not looking for love right now. I don’t even want that right now, for my own personal life. So why would I do that?” he explained. “Two, I don’t want to put who I am in the hands of somebody else, which would be a producer, which I did before. I did it with Survivor, and I learned that that’s how that goes. You put who you are and how they make you look in the hands of somebody else.”
Ahead of this season of The Bachelor, Rice told PEOPLE that his appearance on the show involved “an extracurricular activity that I wasn’t expecting.”
“I was involved, and I was involved more than I wanted to be involved with,” Rice said at the time, not giving away details and reiterating that he has no desire to find love on the reality series. “I will not be engaged and I will not be the next Bachelor, I can set that straight right now.”
RELATED: Chase Rice Drops Surprise Album Inspired By a Breakup: ‘All of the Songs Are About One Girl’
Rice did promise in that same interview that he would be “putting out new music in January” — and followed through when he released a seven-song project titled The Album: Part I on Friday.
“I’ve heard a lot of different things about myself,” Rice exclusively told PEOPLE. “I’ve heard that I’m a jock, that I moved to Nashville after reality TV and tried to have a career, but the truth is, music means the world to me, and I think people will hear that on this album. These are the best group of songs I have ever put out.”
The country crooner added that “all of the songs are about one girl.”
“I dated a girl for a year and a half and we broke up and I wrote songs about it. I’m not the first person to do that and I won’t be the last,” he said. “It’s tough s— to go through. It’s not fun, especially when you love somebody. But the coolest part about my job is that I get to tell my side of the story.”
“Every song is 100% me,” he added. “I’ve only got one shot to tell this story of mine and I want that to be with great songs.”
The Bachelor airs Mondays (8 p.m. ET) on ABC.