Thomas Rhett on Making His New Record 'About A Woman': 'I Wasn’t Chasing Anything, I Was Just Tryna Chase My Heart'

It’s 6pm in Nashville and Thomas Rhett has tucked himself away in a quiet corner of the house, plaid curtains drawn, as the five people the singer loves most begin to ease into their night-time routine upstairs.

“I’m home in the basement, which is kind of the only place it’s quiet in this house,” he says with a knowing grin. 

Countrytown caught up with Rhett exactly one week until he dropped his seventh full-length album, About A Woman - which is out today (August 23). With over a decade’s worth of tunes and around 40 award nominations, the Die a Happy Man singer weighs in on how it feels to add another project to the discography.

“I’m really good, I'm weirdly calm,” he says. “I feel like I’m always sort of a headcase before records come out; you know, just wondering if they’re gonna do well and all that stuff. Obviously I want them to, but I just feel so confident in the music (with this album).”

Rhett released his last project, 20 Number Ones, in 2023. This compilation showcased all his commercial “greatest hits”, including his third-ever single, It Goes Like This. In less than a year of the compilation’s release, the trailblazer has gone on to receive an additional two chart-toppers, with Angels (Don’t Always Have Wings) and Mamaw’s House (feat. Morgan Wallen) subsequently appearing in the compilation. 

True blue fans may remember Rhett’s earliest solo work with the 2012 singles Something To Do With My Hands and Beer With Jesus. These tracks showcased his wholesomeness and prodigy-like talent from the very beginning, with both songs reaching the Top 30 on the Hot Country Songs Charts. With so much experience making award-winning tunes, it seems the refinement process of his newest album was about more than chasing titles.

“I feel like I got to make the exact record that I wanted to make; I wasn’t chasing anything, I was just tryna chase my heart, and make people smile and bring joy to people. For me, I can’t go wrong doing that.”

Joy is heard through every nook and cranny of this record, as Rhett reveals that About A Woman is about his wife and high school sweetheart Lauren Akins. A philanthropist, podcaster, and New York Times bestseller for her book Live In Love: Growing Together Through Life’s Changes, it’s incredibly easy to love the warm presence that is Mrs Akins. For Rhett, the roots of him and Lauren’s relationship have been growing since they met in kindergarten. 

The singer explained that creating such a raw and personal album definitely created a few tear-jerker songs in the writing process. 

“The last record on the track is called I Could Spend Forever Loving You - I’d say that and What Could Go Right were the two that, I don’t know, even just singing them in the studio I got kind of emotional singing them, because they’re such detailed stories of my life and my relationship with my wife.”

84 was the number that I wore under Friday lights…
Who thinks they’ve listened to overdrive the most times since Friday??? might be me honestly. pic.twitter.com/tjqE84y4qX

— Thomas Rhett (@ThomasRhett) July 15, 2024

“I think just like remembering those songs; how we wrote those songs; how we recorded them; something just stood out in a very powerful way to me.”

Rhett recalls the songwriting process as very different this time around: “The writing approach for this record was a lot different. I wrote with a tonne of people I’d never written with before. I worked with a producer I’d never worked with before, and so there’s a really fun, almost like experimental record for me, trying to find new ways to write; trying new melodies and different things with my voice and it was just a blast.”

The album, which was recorded predominantly at Nashville’s BlackBird Studio, had audio legends Dann Huff and Julian Bunetta (Teddy Swims, Sabrina Carpenter) as producers. Meanwhile, nearly all tracks on the album were co-written with a slew of songwriters to get the perfect earworm melodies. For Thomas Rhett, songwriting is his bread and butter; he’s a chip off the old block to first gen country singer father Rhett Akins. Collectively, the father and son have written records for half of Nashville, including big names like Jason Aldean, Florida Georgia Line, and Luke Bryan. While the pressure is heavily toward singles in the current country climate, Thomas Rhett holds fast to his love for the traditional album format.

“We’re just kind of like in such a season where everything is so singles-based, you know? And a lot of people don’t give a lot of albums the time of day anymore, which is unfortunate, because I just love making albums. I love to hit play, even on a vinyl, and just let it go so I can get lost in it.”

Rhett can’t stress enough how big the focus of the album as a collective listening experience. Not only was About A Woman designed to preserve that magic of a full play-through, but it was also crafted to hit all sorts of moments life throws at you.

“[The songs] just work in so many different capacities of life and that was a big thing for me, was making fourteen tracks that, no matter where you were, they all sort of felt the mood that you were in,” Rhett says, before name dropping Back To Blue, Can’t Love You Anymore, and  Boots as absolute jams. “Don’t Wanna Dance is gonna make you wanna punch through a brick wall,” he says, the excitement palpable through the screen of our Zoom session. 

Rhett’s four daughters have also given some positive feedback about the new album - a small win considering how brutally honest kids can be. 

“Yeah, my kids are old enough now to tell me if they hate something. So, they’ve definitely gotten way more critical about my music over the years because they’re starting to figure out what kind of music they like. And my kids just love to move; they love to dance, they love to sing, they all take hip-hop classes so they’re always dancing to the newest KYGO remix of some Cardi B song. They just love to move. And so, when I started playing this record, they’re like, ‘Dang dad! You have some swag still, I thought you were old. I didn’t know you could make music like this.’ And I’m like, ‘Hey! I’m only 34!’

“But yeah, it’s been a lot of fun for them to really enjoy what I’m doing and my favourite part is that they’re getting to watch their dad have fun at his job and I think that’s one of the most special things in the world.”

Rhett’s kids come to his shows often, though they try to minimise the amount of school skipped.

“With school it’s hard to get them out in the week, but in the summertime they come quite a bit. This year, we did a lot of [performances at] fairs and festivals and they loved that, because they got to go win teddy bears at every frickin’ tour stop. Then they get to watch the show and stay up until midnight.”

The statement conjures up visions of an All-American summer, complete with the smell of barbeque and freshly spun cotton candy; teeny tiny finger characters running along the greenery outside of plane and bus windows; four kids exploring nearly all fifty states with their guitar-slinging dad. 

But kids can only handle so much adventure before wearing themselves out.

“I think my older two are really built for the road, but I think my younger two need still a couple more years before they really start to enjoy it,” he says.

And, as those kids begin to settle in for bed upstairs, Thomas Rhett leaves us with one final piece of advice for listening to his new record.

“Just go hang out with your friends one night - pick a Friday, open a bottle of Bourbon, and sit with it. Listen to the whole thing top to bottom,” he says. “I know that's not a normal thing to do in this day and age, but I would just encourage you to do it, because that’s why we make these records; that’s why we spend so much time sequencing them. Because, you know, we wanna listen from top to bottom and go on this journey, so, come on the journey with us!”

About A Woman is out now on all streaming platforms.