Thomas Rhett talks with Scotty Kay at the 'Windy City Smokeout' in Chicago.
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00:00This is your first Windy City Smokeout.
00:02It is, yeah.
00:03You've played everything in Chicago there is to play, and now you get to do Windy City Smokeout.
00:07I know, it feels surreal to be in the parking lot of United Center.
00:10This is literally, like we landed today, and I was just like, I just love this city.
00:14I think if I didn't live in Nashville, this would be like the next choice of big city that I could live in.
00:18Never heard of Nashville.
00:19Me either, actually.
00:20Are there other cities?
00:21There's a couple.
00:22Yeah.
00:23Yeah.
00:24No, but I just, I love it here, man.
00:25I kind of cut my teeth in this town, you know.
00:27I feel like I was playing here early, early on in my career, especially like at Joe's on Weed,
00:32and just, you know, for anybody that would show up.
00:35And to kind of build through the ranks of the places here, it's been a really fun journey.
00:40People showed up.
00:42That's amazing.
00:43You're good.
00:44No, the crowd is incredible.
00:45They're ready for you.
00:46Cool.
00:47And you're ready because you have new music coming out.
00:49Yes.
00:50Dude, your album is getting ready to come out.
00:51Finally.
00:52What, the 23rd, right, of August?
00:5323rd, yeah.
00:54Midnight, tomorrow?
00:55Yeah.
00:56Midnight, whatever it is, we finally get Overdrive, right?
00:58We get Overdrive, yeah.
00:59All right, let's talk about Overdrive, though.
01:00Yeah, for sure.
01:01Because it is, what do we got from Overdrive?
01:02Because we only have the two songs from you off that album so far, which is rude because
01:05we want more.
01:06Yeah, for sure, we put out Beautiful Is You in May and put out Gone Country in June and
01:10just released a song off the Twisters soundtrack.
01:12Like, this is, honestly, this is the most music I've ever released before a record.
01:16I kind of got greedy.
01:17I think I just wanted to just keep pushing stuff out there.
01:20You said this is the most fun music that you've had writing.
01:23I mean, it is, man.
01:24Yeah, I feel like this whole record was sort of made with just a very free mindset of just
01:29like whatever feels good kind of goes.
01:31There was no box, really, on this album, which is how it should be.
01:34This is supposed to be fun.
01:35You know what I'm saying?
01:36There's no rules, yeah.
01:37There's no rules.
01:38And it was a blast.
01:39And so, yeah, I wrote Overdrive on a writing camp in Chattanooga with a couple of buddies
01:43of mine.
01:44And if you know me, I'm a sucker for nostalgia.
01:47And so I think I kind of tapped into my younger high school self.
01:51And basically, this song is just the adrenaline and the feeling of going and picking a girl
01:56up on the first date.
01:57Of just like, no matter what plans you had with your friends, they just get completely
02:01destroyed if a girl calls you.
02:03And it's a banger.
02:05It's up-tempo.
02:06And it just brings me joy.
02:08And I think there's going to be a lot of people out there that can kind of immediately put
02:11themselves back in the driver's seat of whatever they were driving in high school, just hauling
02:16butt to wherever they needed to pick up that person.
02:191995 Green Dodge Neon.
02:21Come on.
02:22I don't know how much overdrive that vehicle had.
02:24Not a lot of any kind of drive, really.
02:27It was more Flintstone-y.
02:28Yeah, yeah, yeah.
02:29I got you.
02:30What was your high school car?
02:32My granddad gave me an old F-150.
02:35He gave it to me at 15.
02:37That's right.
02:38And that was my...
02:39I still have it, actually.
02:40I sold it when I got to college, and then I bought it back from the guy I sold it to
02:44two years ago for more than I sold it to him for previously.
02:48Inflation, man.
02:49Come on.
02:50But it's just cool.
02:51My kids love to sit in it, because I kept all my old CDs and all my black ice air fresheners
02:56on the emergency brake.
02:58Can you still take off the faceplate of the CD player just so nobody steals it?
03:01Oh, 100%.
03:02Yeah, we all did it.
03:03Yeah, I love that truck.
03:04That's amazing.
03:05So, I want to run...
03:06The album feels like, just by the song titles, and we have the three or two songs.
03:10We'll get overdrive tonight.
03:11Yeah.
03:12I'm looking at the song titles, and it feels like a journey through your whole relationship
03:16with your wife.
03:17It kind of is, yeah.
03:18Okay.
03:19But I don't want you to tell me what it is yet.
03:20I'm going to go through the song titles and tell you what I think this journey is like,
03:24and you just tell me if I'm close or not.
03:26Okay, cool.
03:27Yeah, yeah.
03:28Okay, so let's run down.
03:29Fool.
03:30You were a stupid guy, and she wasn't giving you any attention.
03:32Mm-hmm.
03:33Okay?
03:34Overdrive.
03:35I said you were obsessed, and you knew you needed to impress her, so you went a little
03:37double time on that.
03:38Okay.
03:39Even though you just talked about overdrive.
03:42You finally won her over, and she's not going back.
03:44Yeah.
03:45Beautiful is you.
03:46You can't believe you got this girl.
03:47That's right.
03:48Wow.
03:49Can't love you anymore.
03:50You hit the point in the relationship where you're feeling like, hey, everything is perfect
03:54right now.
03:55Yeah.
03:56Aw.
03:57And all bars are closed.
03:58When the party's over, the real joy is being with her.
04:00Is that close?
04:01Do you want me to answer in real time?
04:02No, no, no.
04:03I'm looking at your reactions.
04:04Okay, gotcha.
04:05Church, the wedding.
04:06Yeah.
04:07Back to blue, she probably had to bail you out of jail for something.
04:09Maybe.
04:11Country to California.
04:12Fame and Hollywood are the industry, but she's still with you.
04:15Yeah.
04:16Country to California.
04:17Something about a woman.
04:18You admit that women confuse you, finally.
04:22And boots is probably you reinvigorate that romance by telling her to put on her boots
04:27because you're going out.
04:28Yeah.
04:29Am I close on any of that?
04:31Not really.
04:33Like, at all.
04:34But that's okay.
04:35I think that's the good thing about a song title.
04:37You know what I mean?
04:38It can really mean just about anything.
04:41You were close on a couple.
04:42Okay.
04:43A couple of the first ones you were close on.
04:44The ones you already put out that I got to actually hear?
04:46Yeah.
04:47No, dude, I'm so jacked.
04:48Yeah.
04:49Yeah, I'm so jacked.
04:50I still, to this day, listen all the way through the album at least once a day.
04:54And that has really never happened to me.
04:57I always kind of burn out a little bit of just overplaying and overplaying.
05:01But the funnest part to me is I feel like every couple of weeks I find a new favorite
05:06on the record.
05:07And so, yes, I do listen to my own songs in my truck.
05:09Do you have a favorite right now?
05:10Do what?
05:11Do you have a favorite?
05:12What's your favorite right now?
05:13My favorite right now is a song called What Could Go Right.
05:15Okay.
05:16Yeah.
05:17I think that would, today, it's my favorite track on the record.
05:19Are you going to play something from the new record tonight?
05:22We are.
05:23Yeah.
05:24What song are you most excited to play from the new record for people tonight?
05:27Gone Country has been one that I have just really been looking forward to playing.
05:33And now that Beautiful Is You has been out for a minute, it's been really awesome to,
05:38it's always really nice to play a new song and you see people singing back to you,
05:42especially after a song is so new.
05:45And we're going to play this song called Feeling Country that we released on this
05:48Twisters record because it's just so freaking fun to play.
05:51So I kind of don't care if anybody doesn't know it because me and the band have to.
05:54This is for me.
05:55This is for me.
05:56Not you.
05:57Me and the band have too much of a blast playing it.
05:58That's awesome.
05:59Well, we're excited for your first Windy City Smokeout, man.
06:01Thanks, bro.
06:02This is so cool.
06:03Congratulations.
06:04Thomas Wright.
06:05It's freezing in here for anyone who's, that's why my hands are in my armpits.
06:07Here's what, you can't complain about both.
06:09So it's going to be hot out there.
06:11So it's going to be cold.
06:12So that's what, if you're in Chicago, you either complain about the winters or the summers.
06:16You can't complain about both.
06:17Yeah.
06:18That's kind of the rule.
06:19Yeah.
06:20So.
06:21My dad would want me to put a beanie on right now.
06:22Can we get a parka for Tyler?
06:23I just got out of the shower.
06:24You know, did y'all's parents get mad at you for like walking into the cold with wet hair?
06:27Anyway.
06:28Yeah, they always said you're going to get sick, but there's no proof of that.
06:31They lie to us.
06:32Yeah, they lie.
06:33I mean, you probably lie to your kids too.
06:34We have to, right?
06:35You don't say that.
06:36I don't lie to my kids.
06:37He doesn't lie to his kids.
06:38Uh-uh.
06:45I thought you were going to say something else.
06:47Nope.
06:48Just like that.
06:49That's it.
06:50That is the end.
06:51That's the out.
06:52That's the phone.