Bice was born in Huntsville, Alabama to Nancy and Harold Elwin Bice. Music is in his family; his mother was a gospel singer (as were his grandmother, great-grandmother, and aunts). His father played guitar. Bice's birth name was Harold Elwin Bice, Jr., but he was nicknamed "Bogart" as a newborn by his grandmother ("Granny Madge") because she thought he had "Humphrey Bogart eyes". His family continued to call him Bogart, but when Bice was in kindergarten he shortened it to "Bo" because he didn't think Bogart was cool.