Superstar Power Hour: Thomas Rhett
Music has always been a family affair for Thomas Rhett. From spending his childhood on the road with his Dad, Rhett Akins in the 90s, to his own successful music career today with many of his songs centering around his wife and their four daughters — Rhett has proven himself a true family man and his fans love him for it.
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00:00I'm Katie Neal from Odyssey Country and today we are sitting down with
00:03Wonderful company to celebrate the release of his brand new album about a woman ACM Entertainer of the Year Thomas Rhett is here
00:10What's up? I feel like I just saw you a couple weeks ago
00:13I know we've spent a lot of time together lately and we're gonna spend some more time together because you are gonna play our studio
00:18Grand opening. Yes
00:21I'm so excited. We'll talk about that. But first I want to talk about this new album
00:24Yeah, because you played this for us earlier this year. I think it was at CRS
00:29Yeah for sure, and you were joking that the album name was bangers only
00:34That was our that was our joke halfway through the album was like what if we really called it that we would get so much
00:39Crap for saying that
00:40You would be like who cares at that point like own it
00:44I love it because I feel like you delivered like this album top to bottom just I let it rip like four times
00:50Well, thank you very much. I appreciate that. Yeah, I mean that was our mission was to
00:54The first mission was to bring joy like literally that was like at the root of every song we sat down to write was like
01:00Does this put a smile on your face?
01:01And then second it was like I remember the the conversation being so long about how many songs
01:06Makes a record good these days
01:08You know I'm saying because it's all over the place
01:10Some people are putting out EPS
01:11Some people are putting out songs with 40 songs on the project some people are putting
01:15Triple and quadruple albums out and I was like, where do we fit in this?
01:19And so I think at the end of the day
01:20I wanted to make a record that
01:22When you saw it posted on Instagram, you didn't have to scroll down to see all the song titles
01:26You could see it on one screen
01:28In an album that felt digestible something that you feel something you could carve out 36 minutes of your time
01:34To listen to and hopefully it had the repeat ability
01:37You know I'm saying and so I think for this record in particular
01:41I had a lot of time to make this album and I've never really had time has never been on my side
01:46In this in this business and so I feel like I got to take this, you know final
01:51Mixed record into a bunch of different places whether that was to the beach or to the mountains or you know on the bus and play
01:56It for the band and play it for you guys and play it for my friends and and really kind of get to sit with
02:01It in a bunch of different environments and that was kind of my checklist of like does this feel good on a boat?
02:05Does this feel good on a hike does this feel good sitting at the beach?
02:09And it and we finally got to a point where 14 tracks felt like I don't know
02:14I guess just the right amount of a right amount of songs for this project
02:17And I just can't believe that we're finally here because I've been living with it now for nine months
02:22So what was the amount of like how much time was there from like when you?
02:27finalized the track list and turned in the record because I imagine for some reason I have this image of like this vision of you
02:33In my mind like at the very last minute like adding things or taking things off
02:37Or did you feel really certain with the 14 songs?
02:39I mean I did a lot of subtracting and a lot of adding
02:42But but once I finally landed on the set on the on the track listing and got all the masters in I probably got to
02:47Live with it for three months, which is more than I've ever
02:49Had in my life
02:51So I had plenty of time, you know to take songs off or put songs on or change a second verse rewrite it
02:56You know redo a melody or whatever and it was actually really nice to make a record that way
03:00Yeah, it seems like you had a lot of fun
03:02I feel like when I was listening to it
03:04I was like there's a couple a bunch of these songs. I feel like could have been in a bunch of different
03:10Eras for sure. Yeah, like they just I think what you did with this is you did what you do
03:16so well that I don't think anybody can do like as far as like bringing the amount of joy and the energy and like you
03:21always for me like nail a melody and I just like
03:26Thank you. I mean, I really I'm glad that you said that because I was saying this to somebody yesterday
03:30But um, you know when you work with songwriters in Nashville and then you work with songwriters from LA
03:36first of all
03:37That the time differences of when people work in both genres are very different in Nashville
03:42It is like if you're not there at 10 o'clock and you're not done by 3
03:45It's not a Nashville songwriting session. Whereas when you go to LA you might start getting going at like 8 p.m
03:51And not finished until 4 o'clock in the morning. So
03:54And I did half and half I wrote half of these with Nashville folks and half of these with my buddies out in, California
03:59and um, it was really interesting because I was talking to post Malone about
04:03Some of his like more hip-hop albums and I went back to this song
04:07I don't if you remember the song called candy paint or not, but it was like an old post Malone record and
04:12It's just so melodic and so infectious is like how do you how do you make these melodies that are so infectious and he goes, bro
04:18I literally will sit at a microphone and I will just sing anything that comes to my mind and I will let the track roll
04:25for an hour and
04:26I'll just sit there and come up with melodies and come up with melodies and come up with melodies and then we'll go through and
04:31Hand-pick all the melodies that we love and we'll place them in these sections and then I will sit down to write the song
04:38So he's like sitting there like humming melodies like a brain dump a brain dump of melody and then and then you finally sit down
04:44Okay. So now what I want to say
04:46Which has always been horrific to me because I'm one of those people that's like I got my phone right here and I got
04:526,000 titles or I got you know, 500 different concepts
04:55Let's pick one and then let's start playing some guitar
04:58Let's play some piano and so to kind of have that kind of mixture on this record
05:02I would say that we really led more with melody on this project and then sat down to write more so than
05:08Writing the song and in tweaking melodies if that makes any sense
05:11And so it was it was really challenging for my brain to kind of do it that way
05:15But it but it turned out to be really fun and I feel like we got a lot of like just infectious, you know
05:21Melodious, is that even a word melodious hooks on this album that kind of just keep getting annoyingly stuck in your brain
05:27And I think that's kind of what I was going for
05:29Yeah, I'm telling you like I really have like I've listened to it three or four times now and every time I'm like
05:35Sure, yeah, this one's great. Like I don't know how you're gonna pick what comes next me either
05:38I really don't really really fun
05:40What have you?
05:42said earlier that you wanted like a whole bunch of ear worms that you felt like your daughters couldn't stop singing sure what has been
05:47Like the favorite song for the girls fool. Cool really track and I think just because
05:53Even a four-year-old can listen to that and know exactly how to sing the chorus after it's over
05:57I
05:58remember playing the demo of that for them and will look that was that was like Willa Gray's number one of the whole record like
06:04most requested song
06:05And that that for me was like enough to be like, all right
06:08Well, this is this is your track on the record and we'll put it number one for you
06:11and but you know
06:13we we really went really hard in the paint on trying to work on intros of
06:18songs because like we were mean Julie and my producer were going back through
06:21The 50s in the 60s in the 70s and like why is this song so memorable right off the bat?
06:27they started with choruses or they started with bass hooks like if you listen to a bunch of Michael Michael Jackson tracks a lot of
06:33Them are like, you know 16 bar bass intros
06:36And so we were like even on beautiful as you the intro was not always that Bruce Hornsby
06:41Piano lick it was kind of more just like normal guitar
06:44And I remember he sent me that and I was like, I can't tell if I love it or not
06:47But I can tell you that I know exactly what that song is by that from the first three seconds that I hear it
06:52And so I think that's kind of what I mean by earworm
06:55It's like when you start a song with the chorus, you know
06:57You're gonna hear the chorus at least three times in a song
07:00and so I think my kids definitely inspired that in me because I feel like the music they wanted to listen to was very
07:06easy to
07:07To grasp on to whether they were listening to sucker
07:10By the Jonas Brothers or whether they were listening to I worry about it right now
07:15You know what? I mean?
07:16Because I think kids are very melody driven
07:18and so I think that's where a lot of that inspiration came from on this project in particular and I feel like something like that
07:24is such a good idea because it ends up being really strategic because then at a live show people who have never heard a
07:28Song are singing along by the second chorus. This is the most like if you ask my band
07:33They're probably really frustrated at me because every time we've ever released a record in the past
07:37I always wait until a song at least as a single before I'm ready to put it in the set
07:42I'm terrified to play new music for people and I think because I have I have so many songs in my set that people know
07:49I'm terrified to kill the vibe if that makes any sense
07:53I've never seen a vibe killed at any oh, dude
07:56I mean in space
07:58terrifies me so like if I'm like
07:59We if we end a song and we have a long guitar change before the next song. I'm just like, oh my gosh
08:07What are people saying in the crowd right now?
08:09They are they judging, you know, I'm saying and I'm like, let's just let's go. Let's roll it. Let's roll it and so
08:14But this is the first time on a new project that I have ever
08:18Put all four of our new songs that are that are not singles out in our set and what I have noticed like we played
08:23Overdrive for the first time last week and you could tell that
08:26There was like 10% of the crowd that already knew the words, but then by the third chorus
08:32100% of the crowd at least knew the chorus. Yeah, and that is always such a good good gauge for me
08:39It's like I judge movement
08:40That makes sense. If people are just staring at me like this. I'm like this song ain't connecting at all
08:45This is this is not hitting at all. We're just gonna cut it off at the course and move on
08:51But yeah this record to me like I cannot wait
08:53Honestly for the first time in my career to like put so many of these songs in our live show
08:57So I think like I said to you
08:59I think it's gonna be really hard
09:00Because like so many of them are so fun
09:02I feel like you could do shows where you played it top to bottom and people would be real that would be really fun
09:06Let's do that here, okay, can we do that?
09:09What I was gonna say when you're talking about space is Nate Smith was just in recently we were talking about this because he I
09:14Was asking him what he had learned from Morgan on the tour and the interesting thing was he's like Morgan will like if he needs
09:18To stop and go take a drink. He will just do it and Nate's like I can't handle thing the space
09:22I'm like, I would be the same way. I'd like I will die up here of dehydration before I make anyone wait one second
09:27Yeah, but you know the interesting part about that and I bet Nate would agree with me when I'm a fan
09:33watching a show and
09:34There's 45 seconds of dead space. I'm not sitting there going. What's he doing? Oh, he needs a drink. I'm sitting there going cool
09:43I'll just talk to my buddy for like 20 seconds and then Oh songs back on
09:46Yeah, like when you when you're watching other people's show it doesn't even matter, but there's something about having your ears in
09:53Can't hear what's happening out there. You're turning around. You're taking a sip of water. You're screaming at your band
09:57Like let's go. Let's go. Let's go in reality. Maybe they needed a break. Yeah, that makes sense
10:02Maybe they needed to go to the bathroom or like a breather a breather. Yeah for sure
10:08I always say in radio silence is deafening to me because radio like if it's silent like it's oh, yeah
10:12Something bad has happened. It's like oh did they did they lose their signal from the antenna? Like what's happening?
10:17Yeah, it's always really scary. That's so funny
10:19I want to talk about the single which I just like you were talking about the the piano
10:25Yeah, the beginning of that like it's like you said every time I hear I'm like beautiful as you sure
10:29It's so memorable talk about what else you love about this song or the story behind or like what you really found connecting with it
10:35Yeah
10:36You know when I first heard because I was not a part of writing that song in the initial
10:40Concept of it that song was actually started almost two years ago
10:44But by a group of friends that I know and some people that I don't know
10:47It was actually written ironically for this hip-hop artist
10:50And so when I when I heard the demo for the first time which I'll play for you after this interview
10:55It is wild to see how we got from there to there
10:58But that we were we were almost done with the writing retreat in Chattanooga
11:02And we had like five or six hours left at this place
11:04We were staying and one of the dudes in the room was like yo
11:07We we wrote this song two years ago and for some reason I feel like this chorus could be for you
11:12And so they played it for me, and I was like I cannot sing that cadence like the when I play the demo
11:18It'll it'll make the artist. I don't even know you don't be honest with you
11:21I think it was a guy that had a big moment a couple years back like a tick-tock moment or whatever
11:28And I'll find his name and give it to you
11:30But the way that he's saying these verses I was like I physically don't know how he does that
11:34Like in my mind like I can't copy I can't do that
11:37Mm-hmm
11:38And so we sat there for a few hours and kind of rewrote all the verses and kept the chorus pretty much the same
11:43But when I heard the chorus, I was like man, that is my life to a tee
11:46Like I completely out kicked my coverage as a husband. I
11:50Still to this day and just like man of all the people in the world that you could have dated or married
11:56How did I get so lucky, you know?
11:57and I'm always such a sucker for those songs of just like man, I'm genuinely the luckiest dude in the world and
12:02For it to be paired over kind of like an up-tempo
12:05Sort of like melodic love song which which are not easy to write like I I'd rather sit down and write the slowest saddest
12:11Love song in the world, which I've got a lot of those in my in my catalog
12:14But this one felt up and fun to me
12:17Which was a big challenge that my wife gave me before this record started
12:20She was like I love when you write songs about me, but can you make me dance?
12:23Let's go around and so that was kind of my bar
12:25It's sort of my benchmark and so I knew that this song could help do that
12:28And um, you know, I think when you're picking what what can come first? I was talking to kicks Brooks about this earlier
12:33It's like when you're picking your first single it literally is like turning all the lights out and throwing darts
12:37Yeah, the dartboard you don't know unless you've been teasing a bunch of demos and people were like that one
12:44But for some reason this one now that it's been out for a month or two
12:48There was really no other
12:49perfect choice to me besides beautiful as you because I think it really sets up what the rest of this record feels like and what
12:54This what the rest of this record is about so
12:57When you speaking of Lauren you guys have a friendly competition or maybe not so friendly right now with the vinyls for the record
13:05Yeah, you made special prints that are UGA themed and then you've got Tennessee themed, right?
13:10And she's been signing the Tennessee ones. You've been signing the UGA one. Yes competition see who can sell more
13:14Who's gonna win this? Who do you think?
13:18Yeah, she is. She's she's winning by a long shot right now. Really? Yeah
13:23Yeah, and we made we made such a small run of these
13:25I think we made like a thousand of each but I think she's like beating me by like 30 or 40 percent right now
13:31And honestly, I did it out of a very competitive nature with her because that's kind of how we flirt
13:36We're competitive and we make fun of each other
13:39That's kind of our thing and I was like man
13:41I just wanted to prove to her how much loyal how much more loyal my fans were to me than they are to her
13:46And I'm I was quickly reminded that they have no loyalty to me. It is actually all towards her which is really sad
13:55I think it is really sweet. Like how much of a like
13:59Fandom that your family has it's unbelievable. It really is so beautiful
14:03Like I always say I like I don't watch reality TV, but like if you guys had a reality TV show
14:07I think I would watch that. I don't think that's probably anything you're interested in
14:10But like that would be the worst thing our family could ever do
14:12I think it's the worst thing that most people can do but you're probably right like whenever someone says that to me
14:16I'm like, oh my god, you could not there's not enough money in the world
14:19Agreed agreed. Don't think that I would enjoy that at all
14:22Um, you've been playing tons of fairs and festivals this year and you're gonna do a mini residency in Vegas
14:29Yeah
14:29talk about what you're excited about for this because this like Vegas is kind of like you get to
14:33You have a blank canvas. Yeah, exactly crazy stuff with those sets. I think that's what I'm most excited about
14:38We have like a we're basically rehearsing all of November for this show
14:42And it's gonna be really cool that the record comes out in August and people have time to live with it before we get to
14:47Vegas and also it's like also right during NFR
14:50So if you're like a giant like rodeo horse fanatic like like myself and my wife like it's just a fun time
14:56It's gonna be a fun couple weeks to be in Vegas regardless. So
15:00Yeah, four nights at the Fountain Blue
15:03Which I've never been to that hotel until we were there in Vegas last time and it is like the sickest hotel
15:08I've ever been to have you seen it?
15:10Like honestly since the ACM's were there
15:12It is such an amazing spot and the venue is brand new like state-of-the-art
15:17technology sound system all the stuff and so
15:19we're already kind of in the works of building what that set is gonna look like and then also trying to figure out what the
15:24Set list and like, you know, how old do we go? How new do we go?
15:29It's gonna be a really fun time to be in Vegas
15:30I think it's gonna be great and what I feel like it's been so fun is like watching, you know
15:33Adele or Brian like Luke set to me in Vegas
15:37I think is like 90 minutes of stand-up and he plays some music and yeah
15:40I mean like you get so much more interaction now at those Vegas shows
15:44I think will be really like fun and different for you
15:46It will be and and also knowing how diverse that crowd is gonna be, you know
15:51I feel like that's gonna become like a destination show, which I've never done before
15:55You know because every time you play in st. Louis, it's like most people are there from st
15:59Louis I play in Chicago who are from Chicago when you play in Vegas is genuinely people from all over the world
16:05Half fans some people that literally were just playing blackjack in the casino and we're like, oh, there's a concert going on
16:11I think I'm gonna go so it'll be fun to kind of like be able to play to some of our people
16:15but also hopefully, you know, you know gain some new people that love our music which will be a blast and
16:20Also get to you know, play some craps and eat some good food
16:23Yeah, I'm good in Vegas for like 48 hours that that's kind of my time limit there
16:29But it is a really fun time. If you never been it's it's a blast and you should come
16:35You should go in December and now like NFR is there so we will yeah, you can get some chaps
16:39Yeah, and get some spurs right get some horse bits. Yeah, and go see a concert, you know, that's awesome
16:46I wanted to ask you there were two things that you posted recently that I thought were just like really heartfelt and so sweet
16:51One of them was the really cute video you posted the other day
16:54Yeah, how Lauren is that to you will agree only has nine more summers before she would leave for college
16:59Which I like reading that for you. I know
17:02That had to be when you see it when you see it on paper
17:05Mm-hmm. It's really it's terrifying
17:07Yeah, because that means that I've got just as many years as I've been a dad
17:11That's how many years I have left with her in my house, which is crazy
17:16And also that was you know, not to pat my own back, but that was the first real that I ever made by myself and
17:22Took me an hour and a half to make that crap. It takes so how I don't know how people do this on the fly
17:28Did it crash for you like 19? Yes. Oh my god
17:31I can't even I had to delete and keep redoing the text and the music and all the
17:36And then one thing moves it doesn't save it doesn't draft. I can't even tell you like how many times
17:42Yeah, I know but when it when I was finally done I was like, okay that feels really rewarding it does but dude
17:47Yeah, I mean I kind of saw that that trend on on Instagram of a dad that was like, you know
17:52You're not they're not gonna want you to tuck them in one day. They're not gonna want you to
17:55scream I love you out the window when they walk into school and I was like
17:59freaking wept like a baby when I saw that and I was like
18:02Man, I mean it really at time is just moving by so fast and I thought the busier you get with school
18:08Sports and career it just every year just keeps going faster and faster
18:11So yeah trying to really just soak it in you know, they started into like sports and stuff yet. Oh, yeah
18:18They're into everything this year we kind of laid the law down a little bit
18:23We're like can we pick two things?
18:25And you all play the same tooth and you all play the same two things because this whole like all each of you doing six
18:30Different sports. I mean me and Lauren are just chauffeurs at this point. Yeah, so it's funny Tim McGraw talked about that
18:35Piling all the girls in the car. Oh, yeah driving them around forever. That's so funny
18:39The other thing you posted that I thought was really it was just so fun to see is you were talking about how you know
18:44Years ago you were sitting in your college dorm room and you were like, what am I gonna do? Yeah with my life
18:49What were you majoring in in college? Like what was your like alternate plan? It doesn't matter
18:56It was communications, all right, that's what we all do right? Yeah, and that was honestly, you know
19:00I was just dumb and like wanted to find the quickest route
19:04Out of college and arguably the easiest maybe one of the easiest majors that I could have taken
19:10But I posted that because my little brother
19:14Just graduated from high school and he's gonna be going. He's going to college like in five days
19:19and
19:20I feel like I've gotten to know so many of his buddies, you know
19:24They they all come over to my house during the week and work out at my house and they leave it a wreck and they
19:29Drink all my protein drinks need all of my food
19:32And as annoying as that has been it is something I'm really going to miss and I think talk
19:37You know, some are going to play division one football
19:40Some are going to wherever and they don't know what they're gonna do
19:42and I just I was kind of transported back in time of like going to college been like what am I here because I know
19:48What I'm doing or am I here because this is just what the world says is the next step in life. Yeah, you know I'm saying and
19:54Freshman year is freshman year. It's just kind of like that's your year to just kind of be an idiot
19:59And yep, you know take your gen eds and you know, make a B in math, you know
20:04But as you start going I think you start to watch some of your friends. Okay, he's gonna be a doctor and
20:09she's gonna be a lawyer and
20:11He's gonna go he's majoring in neuroscience and I'm sitting here. What am I doing?
20:16Yeah, and I think when you turn like 20 you kind of go. Oh, this is perhaps getting real
20:21You know I'm saying um, and I just remember
20:25Just being in college at 20 years old being like God, what am I supposed to do? You know what I mean?
20:29I was like whatever doors you have for me
20:32Like make them so noticeably open that I can't miss it because if you make it if you just crack it
20:37Yeah, I will not walk through that door
20:40And I look back at my life and you know, I probably walk through a lot of wrong doors
20:44But there was a couple right ones that I walked through that kind of led me to where I'm at today
20:47And so it was just kind of just an encouraging post for for young kids. I've got I've got such a heart for
20:54not mentoring but just kind of being a an
20:57Advice giver to people that are just kind of getting into college and getting into the workforce because it's crazy out there right now
21:03Yeah
21:05But yeah
21:05I love kind of helping you know speak into young kids lives because I've been through a lot of stuff and
21:11Me and Lauren both have and so yeah, that's that's kind of where that that post came from when you mentioned your brother
21:16I meant to ask you this earlier with overdrive, which is also
21:20Thank you. You put your brother in the music video. How did that happen? Did he ask to be in it?
21:23Did you ask him I asked him you did?
21:25Okay
21:26Yeah
21:26Because we were we were you know kind of on the fence of like, you know
21:29Who do we who do we get to play young me?
21:32young Lauren or whatever and there was like this whole we were gonna do this whole casting thing to kind of figure out who he
21:38wanted to be in the video and I
21:39Kind of just thought about my little brother and I was like we can't act
21:42But then I was like, but then I was like, I don't need somebody to act
21:45Yeah, I need somebody to be extremely awkward because
21:49Love at 16 is love at 16 is awkward. You know what I mean? And I feel like him
21:55And the girl that did the Lauren part or whatever was so amazingly awkward to watch that
22:01I feel like that kind of I kind of make that kind of made overdrive what it was supposed to be
22:05Yeah, and since then he's gained, you know, like a hundred thousand like Instagram followers and like all the thing
22:10He's going off to there's girls that are like, what's your name?
22:13You know and I was like, you're welcome. You're welcome brother. You really set him up. Yeah
22:19That's so awesome. Well, I wanted to say thank you again for coming in to talk about this album
22:22Cuz I really do I love it
22:23I think it's so much fun and thank you for being the person who is going to help us
22:28Person this brand-new studio that we have and the grand opening in a couple weeks
22:32I'm very excited. There's gonna be a ribbon. We're gonna have big scissors. We get to cut it
22:36So it should be a very fun time
22:37I just want to tell you that like
22:39Really I'm excited that it's you like whoever would wanted to play that I would have been like so honored but I was like
22:44I loved you are like I always enjoy sitting down with you. And so that feels very special. Well, I'm more than honored
22:49I appreciate it and I appreciate the time today because always good to see you likewise