Lee Brice loves the rhythm of his deceptive new hit

Lee Brice‘s longtime friend and frequent collaborator Jerrod Niemann is one of the producers on his latest hit, “Cry.”

Lee says the first time he heard it, the rhythm got him.

“I started beating on drums with my thumb — no sticks or nothing — and beating on guitars with my fingers,” he recalls. “And, like, Jerrod singing. … And I really wanted it to be a ’50s doo-wop, like a true homage to that.”

With the addition of a little “hip stuff,” “Cry” was soon finished and ready to surprise listeners. 

“They hear it and they’re like, ‘Whoa! This is way different than what I thought the title was,'” Lee tells ABC Audio. “And so it’s been going over well, and it’s just so fun to listen to, and so fun to sing and play it live.”  

You can check out the “Cry” video now as Lee prepares to release another collaboration with Jerrod, Randy Houser and Jamey Johnson.