Over the course of his career, he played alongside J. D. Crowe and the New South, David Grisman (during the formation of Dawg Music) and Jerry Garcia, led his own band, the Tony Rice Unit, collaborated with Norman Blake, recorded with his brothers Wyatt, Ron, and Larry, and co-founded the Bluegrass Album Band.

In search of work, his family moved around a lot living in several states including Florida, Georgia, Texas, and North Carolina.

Tony and his brothers learned the fundamentals of bluegrass and country music from L.A. musicians like the Kentucky Colonels, led by Roland and Clarence White.

When the Rice family moved to California, Herb joined the Golden State Boys, which was a group inspired by the Kentucky Colonels.

Crossing paths with fellow enthusiasts like Ry Cooder, Herb Pedersen and Chris Hillman reinforced the strength of the music he had learned from his father.

[8] Mandolinist and fiddler, Sam Bush tells the story about first hearing Rice in 1970 at a campfire at Carlton Haney's bluegrass festival in Reidsville, North Carolina.

Bush, who at the time was playing guitar in the Bluegrass Alliance after Dan Crary left, brought Tony to the group.

The New South was known as one of the best and most progressive bluegrass groups eventually adding drums and electric instruments to Rice's displeasure.

[8] Grisman played with Red Allen and the Kentuckians during the 1960s after Frank Wakefield left and who was now working on original material that blended jazz, bluegrass, and classical music.

In order to broaden his expertise and make himself more marketable, Rice studied chord theory, learned to read charts, and began to expand his playing beyond bluegrass.

Following that with the Tony Rice Unit, he pursued experimental "spacegrass" music on the Mar West, Still Inside, and Backwaters albums.

In 1994, Rice and Grisman recorded Tone Poems, an original collection of material where they used historical, vintage mandolins and guitars, different ones for each track.

I am not going to risk going out there and performing in front of people again until I can entertain them in a way that takes away from them the rigors and the dust, the bumps in the road of everyday life.

"[18] David Grisman called Rice "a complete musician of the highest caliber"[19] and Ricky Skaggs said he was "the single most influential acoustic guitar player in the last 50 years.

[20] In a lesson exploring Rice's style, guitarist Molly Tuttle said "the beauty of Tony's playing is that there's something for everyone to learn from.