Rice grew up in County Kildare, Ireland, and formed his first band, Juniper, with some classmates from secondary school (what Americans would call high school). The band got a record deal with Polygram in 1997, but Rice left the following year, and in 1999 spent six months in Tuscany, where he spent a lot of time growing vegetables before returning to Ireland and resuming his music career as a solo artist. Meanwhile, Juniper morphed into Bell X1, which became one of the most popular bands in Ireland.
While recording his first album, O, he formed a romantic relationship with Lisa Hannigan, a singer from Meath who sang the female vocals on the album. They stayed together on-and-off for a few years, but fell off while they were recording Rice's second album, 9, in 2006. She toured with him in 2007, but it got very contentious and he eventually kicked her off the tour and the couple broke up.
He dated the actress Renée Zellweger for a while in 2005; she married the country singer Kenny Chesney later that year.
See your Spotify stats (with number of plays and minutes listened) and discover new music.
Music data, artist images, album covers, and song previews are provided by Spotify. Spotify is a trademark of Spotify AB.