Thomas Rhett, a fearless innovator, is pushing the boundaries and expectations of Country music again on new album, ‘About a Woman.' The son of acclaimed singer-songwriter Rhett Akins, Thomas Rhett was immersed in the music industry from an early age. His breakout came in 2013 with the release of his debut album ‘It Goes Like This' which featured chart-topping hits like ‘It Goes Like This' and ‘Get Me Some of That.' His unique blend of traditional country elements with modern pop influences quickly set him apart, earning him a loyal fan base and critical acclaim.
Over the years, Rhett has continued to evolve as an artist, consistently pushing the boundaries of country music. His subsequent albums, including ‘Tangled Up', ‘Life Changes' and ‘Country Again', have all showcased his versatility and knack for storytelling. With over 20 No. 1 singles, Grammy nominations, and a string of awards from the Country Music Association and Academy of Country Music, Rhett has cemented his status as a leading voice in the genre, giving him the confidence and permission to do what he's done on new album, ‘About a Woman,' which is to write a whole album of songs about his wife, Lauren, throughout the various stages of their lives together. Read our review of the album here. We spoke to him all about it.
Thanks for your time today, Thomas, we know what a busy guy you are. It's always good when you have new music to talk about. Before we get into the music – I did spot a stop over in London on the way over to Kenya on your socials. How was that trip?
Yeah. I think I was in London for about four hours!! That was a quick one. My family were there for about five days before, we were trying to get them all acclimated to the time zone differences before we spent the best part of the next month in Kenya. I flew in from Denver, landed, did the London eye and hopped onto another ten hour flight down to the Kenya. It was my quickest visit to the UK ever! (laughing)
We spent the first half of the trip in Uganda and the back half of the trip in Kenya. It was amazing. I was kinda nervous travelling with four kids under the age of eight but they travelled like champions. It made me and Lauren think that we could go anywhere now! (laughing) It was a big win for mum and dad.
Talking about mum and dad – let's talk about your new album, ‘About a Woman.' Is this a concept album or just an album with a really strong concept?
Wow. I've never heard it put like that before although I would say that it's probably the second of the two descriptions. I don't think I've ever made a true concept album. ‘Country Again Side A' might well be the closest I've come to doing that and I will do one one day, maybe when I turn 40, you know, I'll write an album about middle age based around fishing and the water. (laughing)
I think, right now, my brain is a little too ‘all over the place' to be able to write a singular concept album. Every single song on this record is about my relationship with my wife throughout all the different times of our lives: from high school to now to the end – I wrote fourteen songs about how I feel about all those things and tried to do it in a joyful way too. I wanted this to be my wife's favourite album but I also wanted to be able to make my kids dance too.
If you loved ‘Tangled Up,' ‘Life Changes,' ‘Centrepoint Road' and ‘Country Again (Side A)' you'll love this. It sounds like those albums got together to have a baby, that's what this new record sounds like. It's familiar yet progressive, which is what I'm always trying to do. It's my lucky number 7 album, can't wait to see what happens.
What I've always respected about your music, TR, is that there is always a theme – be it sonically or lyrically – about your albums. You don't just collect 14 random songs and throw them together on an album.
I can't do that, man, I just can't do it. It's something that works for some artists just fine. That to me is not what my heart or my creativity craves. My favourite artists of all time always produced different albums, from the artwork to the merch to the feel of the album to the sounds. For me, this album is, ‘content wise,' very familiar but production wise it's a big step forward. I worked with a couple of new producers on this album that pushed me into spaces that I wouldn't have gone into by myself. I worked with a bunch of songwriters on the writing side that I hadn't worked with before and I was really challenged. You are going to get different stuff when you work with different people. It feels fresh yet familiar. I usually get cold feet before a record comes out but I don't have that this time around.
‘Gone Country' is a number one song in waiting, for sure. Before we dig into the album, given that Lauren is the muse and centre-point (pun intended) of this album, what's her favourite song on it?
Her favourite song is a track called ‘What Could Go Right.' For many reasons. Lauren knows I know how to write a love song about her at this point in our lives, right? (laughing) On this project there really is only one true ballad on this record and it's the last track on the album. Every other album I've done, there has been upwards of five or six ballads about her but I really challenged myself this time round to write a song about her that wasn't just going to be a ballad. We have enough ballads! (laughing) ‘What Could Go Right' is probably my favourite track on the album too because it's so anthemic and it is literally, verbatim, the story of the night that I told my wife I loved her when we were 22 years old.
My writers and I got the lyrics and the melody down perfectly, which doesn't happen every time. When I played her that song, she loved it but she also loved the fact that she could dance along to it as well.
‘Boots' is the album's ‘honky tonk' moment. Please tell me there's a demo out there where you've gone full Elvis on the vocals because I can hear his influence all over that one.
Man, I think you might be hearing that in the final version! (laughing) When we wrote it it so infectious but all the writers looked at each other and were, like, ‘what is this song even about?' I guess it's just about shoes, right? We tried for three days to put some meat on it and maybe work out if there was something deeper we could add to it but then we finally settled for it being just about the person that you love liking you better wearing cowboy boots.
The melody is so infectious and when I went into the studio to sing it my producer said I should try and sing it differently. He was, like, can you have a go at singing this like Elvis or Dwight Yoakam? I knew, full well, at that point that this song wasn't going to make the project and my producer tracked it all down and sent me the MP3 and said I should just live with it for a week. By the end of the week I didn't want to listen to the original version anymore, I loved this version – it's got bags of character and personality. I'm a giant Elvis and Dwight Yoakam fan so it felt right to honour them in this way. It was such a fun song to be part of.
‘Church' is also a great and original song. Has Eric managed to hear that one yet?
Yeah, man, I sent it over to him the day we finished it, actually. He loved it. He responded in true Eric Church fashion by just texting me back the word, ‘awesome.' (laughing)
When you write a song like that and a song like ‘What's Your Country Song?' where you are using song titles to build up and build out the lyrics is it harder to do than just a straight down the line original song?
It is hard. In this case I am an Eric Church nerd so I probably know more songs than the average casual fan. I go deep with him. I had to buy 5 or 6 copies of ‘Chief' because I just wore out copy after copy in my truck. I had to work out how we used titles that people were going to know and hear rather than going super deep into the weeds. I played it for my producer and he loved it so I asked him if he got all the references and he was, like, ‘what references?' (laughing) That was the coolest part of the song because if you are a massive Eric Church fan you are going to love catching all the song titles but if you aren't, you are still going to enjoy the melody and the nostalgia of the tune. It translates to people who are not fans of Eric Church as well, so it's a win-win.
I'm a big Eagles, West Coast, Laurel Canyon fan and you've captured the sound and feel of that era and style perfectly on ‘Country for California.'
When I first heard that demo I was reminded of the Eagles right away. I don't do many songs that end in heartbreak but the melody and the feel of this song were so intoxicating that it made me want to dip into my own version of ‘Yacht Rock,' right? (laughing)
I love the ‘Yacht Rock' playlists when I'm on the boat or at the beach. The song is strong lyrically but I really fell in love with the feel and the sound of it more, which is something different and unusual for me. It's a sad song that makes me feel really happy and those songs don't come around too often. It was one of the few songs I didn't write on this record but, god, when I heard it I just couldn't stop listening to it.
I can't end the interview without talking about ‘Don't Wanna Dance' which I suspect everyone will be wanting to talk to you about. How hard was it to get permission to use such an iconic song like that? (The song is built around the chorus to Whitney Houston's ‘Dance With Somebody')
Dude. When this song was sent to me by Ryan Hurd all he put in the text was one word, ‘Whitney.' I got the MP3 and one word and I was, like, ‘what the crap does that mean?' (laughing) I'm listening to the verse and was kinda of vibing but the moment the chorus kicked in I, literally, had to pull over onto the side of the road. It's so familiar and arguably one of the biggest and most recognisable songs of all time and my immediate text back was ‘how are we ever going to get permission to do this?' and he said he would have his team reach out to Whitney's team.
Within 24 hours we'd got a message back to say that Whitney's team loved it and they also agreed to a normal 50/50 split on the deal too! Thank god there is only two writers on that song, right? (laughing) It was the most easiest process that I've ever been involved with which makes me know that the song was supposed to happen in the way that it has.
Thomas Rhett's ‘About a Woman' album is out today Friday 23rd August. Check it out on all the usual platforms or order a physical copy right here.
