August 23, 2024 • 27 mins
Thomas Rhett's new album, About a Woman, is out now! We talk to him about life, love and where he finds his inspiration in our Mercedes Benz Interview Lounge.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
From the Mercedes Benz Interview Lounge.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
We're so excited Thomas Rhett coming into the studio on
a second. His new album, of Course, just came out
last night. We're going to play you a couple of
cuts because he wants to share the music with you.
This is what this guy does. He loves to share
his music with you. Of course, the album About a
Woman is out right now, and after you hear this interview,
if you haven't been a Thomas Rhet fan, you will
(00:23):
be a t red fan or as Froggy calls him,
my boy t Ratt boy t Rat so funny. Oh, Danielle,
you're a massive fan as well.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
That his music is amazing, right, it's so good.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
And Gandhi, I mean your boyfriend. One of the first
great gestures he gave to you was the gift of music.
A Thomas Rhett song.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Yes, when we first started dating, he sent me a
Thomas rhightt song Look what God gave her and he said,
this song reminds me of you, and now I love
Thomas Rhett just because of that.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Well, we have lost to discuss, of course. He was
on the Tonight Show the other night with Jimmy Fallon,
I'll just bring him in. I know you're a big fan.
Can you let him come in? Please? Hello, Nate's out
there hogging up my time with t Red. I don't
like that. It's so good to see you have a
(01:09):
seat here. You were sitting there and we're on. We're
going the interview began without you here. I'm so glad
you'll have a mini bottle of ten. We always have
to heen sitting around. So Froggy is in Jacksonville, He's
looking right at you. What's up, Thomas? How are you
good man? Good to see you. Likewise, how's your volume
in your headphone? It's perfect? Okay, it would be better
(01:31):
if I had a gold microphone. You know. Well, some
of us need an ego blast. So this is all
I get mine. Welcome to New York City. Thanks d
you look great on the Tonight show. There the night
you Thank you. It was so fun. Jimmy Fallons is
the nicest guy ever.
Speaker 4 (01:44):
Right, he is the nicest and I've you know, I've
hung out with him a couple of times, just like
at the tonight show, but I got to really get
to know him last night. It was really cool. We
talked golf. I'm gonna try to come up here. We're
planning a golf trip together, which is really nice. So
he's he's the best dude. He's just such a good
energy and the whole and just watching the roots that's
the most nerve wracking part of playing Fason.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:04):
They are amazing because they're just kind of sitting there
looking at you, like impress us, and you're sitting on
me and the whole band.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Guys are going, we are not as good as you. Guys. Well,
here's the thing. I know those guys, and they are impressed.
They're so good. So about a woman came out last night. Yeah,
and everyone's talking about everyone's buzzing about it. We're gonna
play a couple of cuts, Yeah, a couple of seconds.
Amazing because you and I was saying this before you
came in, you just have this desire to run around
and just share your music with whoever's going to listen
to it. Yeah, And if you've always been this way,
(02:32):
I've always kind of been that way.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
I love playing songs for people, especially, and I'm excited
about it and I have never to be honest, I've
never been.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
This excited about a project. And I don't know why.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
Maybe it's turning thirty and I care less about what
people think. But like, this was the most freeing album
to make. I didn't look left, didn't look right, and
it was just like if it put a smile on
my face, that that was good for me. And so
spent the last year and a half making this project
and I can't believe that it is finally out in
the world.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
I'm so freaking pumped. Some great things have happened in
the music world since last we spoke, which was years ago.
There is this convention of thought now about how music
is music. Songs are songs, yeah, and to put them
in a corral and saying it, well, that's whatever top
forty song. Yeah, yeah, that stuff is. Those walls are dissolving,
they're yeah, they're dissolving fast. Yeah, because of you. It's
(03:21):
because of me. Okay. This album, for instance, right now,
it's right now about a woman. There is a lot
of different sounds on this music. Sonically, this this album
is covering all sorts of territory. Foundational, yeah, for sure.
That's how I grew up man. You know, I grew
up with a dad that was a country singer. And so,
you know, country music was my very first love.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
I got to tour with him, I got to watch
him write songs, got to watch him perform. But dude,
I mean I remember vividly driving to school with my
dad in like fourth and fifth grade, and every morning
it was something different. One morning it'd be DMX, like, which, yeah,
I was listen to DMX and fourth.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Grade right, all right.
Speaker 4 (03:57):
One morning it was DMX, one morning it was Aretha Franklin.
One more it was bluegrass. One morning it was the
Rolling Stones or the Beatles or whatever it was. And
so my dad has always just been this walking jukebox. Like, honestly,
no one knows more about eighties hair metal than my dad.
There you go, wow yeah, Like, and so I think
when I started making music, country was always the core,
(04:17):
but I loved so many other things, and I always thought, man,
what if I could take that from that and kind
of use a little bit of this from this and
kind of blended into my own little thing. And so
ever since my second album, I've always kind of taken
pride and just kind of pushing, you know, pushing sonically melodically,
but also still just staying authentic to my my songwriting roots, and.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
I was assumed that a lot of traditionalists in the
country world are who grew up with country music or saying, well,
I don't know, this is Thomas Schrett. He really Yeah,
that didn't sound like something I grew up with. What
is that?
Speaker 4 (04:44):
But I think that changes every decade, you know what
I mean saying like, I think I'm sure that there
were people that looked at you know, Riba and Shannai
and Dalli, and they were like, well, that's not that's
not real country, right, you know what I mean. Every
everybody pushes every decade, but it's like when the decade passes,
you go, oh, that's that was real, you.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (05:01):
Like, I remember when I put this song out called
make Me Want. It was my third single off my
first record, and it almost felt like a disco country song.
It was like the Beg's had a baby with like,
you know, a country singer or whatever. And at the time,
it was very weird for country radio. And it sat
at forty for like forty weeks, and then all of
a sudden, it just kind of started climbing thirty eight,
(05:23):
thirty four, twenty eight and all of a sudden it
became a hit, and to me that was like, okay,
if I can do that, that just made a way
for me. It opened up doors for me to be able
to do things that I would have never been on
to do had that song that worked. And so I
always love pushing boundaries. Man, it's fun to not live
in a box.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Am so well in a coral if you want to
keep it on the corral. So here's a great story
about looking at it the other direction. Danielle right here.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Yeah, grew up in the Bronx yep.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
All right, see so you grew up your musical influences
growing up were.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
I listened to a lot of hip hop growing up.
I listened to a lot of Top forty growing up.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
The country did you listen to?
Speaker 1 (05:59):
I didn't listen to country until college.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
And why not.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Pam Tillis, Yeah, stuff like that, And I did a
country show on radio station, fell in love with country
and love Love that was one of the genres of
music that I fell in love with. And then you
you know, listen to yourself. I mean, Center Point Road
is one of my favorite albums.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Serious.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
I actually wrote down when you when you say the
lyric because he talked about his wife all the time.
I love the relationship. It's cutest thing ever. Thank you
for living this dream I know you never had.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
It's one of my favorite songs.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Yes, and that's one of I'm like, that is just
I love it.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
I had no idea were to talk about deep country. Yeah, okay, ladies,
move over here to Gandhi. Gandhi grew up listening to
solely music, for instance.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
Much more hip hop.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
Absolutely. However, the first country I was really introduced to.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Was actually, you know this, y'all are are making all this.
You'll got together last night. Y'all did not get together
last night. This is a this is all truth.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
Yeah. So my boyfriend when we first started dating, the
first song that he sent me was look what God
gave her off that album was Yes, and that was
his like, Hey, just so you know, I love you.
This song makes me think about you. And now every
time then I hear that one, I'm like, you.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Know, country music not so bad, coming on.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
You were my first sort of like foot in the
water as far as country music goes.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Dude, Wow, it's amazing as far as you starting starting
playing music on your guitar. What's the first song you
ever learned? How to?
Speaker 4 (07:29):
We were just talking about that two seconds ago. It
was three Am by Matchbox twenty. It was the first
song ever learned, and two weeks ago I got to
sing it with Matchbox twenty.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Okay, in the middle of that performance, was there a
chance you could have just frozen up right there and
were like, what the hell is this? This is pretty amazing?
I literally, I told because me and I'd never met
Rob before. I mean, like so they were actually one
of my first concerts. I saw Matchbox twenty and their
openers were third eyeblind in American Hi Fi Wow. And
I still have the T shirt to this day. So,
(07:59):
like now, I've always been he Mixbox fan.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
So last year on the road, we did this like
decades bit where we went from the fifties to now
and we played like an elvistoon, a James Brown tuon,
a Rolling Stones tune, and in our nineties era we
played three AM, and I remember Rob commented on my
Instagram page and I was like, holy crap, you know,
I'm a giant fan. And so we got put on
the same bill up in Canada at this festival called
Boots and Hearts, and so it was like them opening
(08:22):
for me, and I was like, this is wrong, this
feels very strange. And Rob's management emailed and said, hey,
what you want to sing three AM with us? And
I was like, yes, did they know the story behind
the song?
Speaker 2 (08:33):
No, he didn't know.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
And I met him at catering and I straight up fangirl,
you know, like right there getting brisket, you know.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
So okay, Now let's talk about Froggy for instance. Foggie,
of course is the new face of country radio. What's
up there? He's running awards? You now, Frog? Look at
your Trouba door hat. I know, right? Do you want
to do you want to admit? Do you want to
admit to h Thomas Rhett what you did when you illegally?
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Did I?
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Did I do? Tell him? Right, Thomas?
Speaker 5 (09:00):
If you remember we did the iHeart Country Summit in
Nashville back in February, and you played us five or
six tracks.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Off of this new album.
Speaker 5 (09:07):
Yeah, I put my phone under my seat and recorded
everything for you.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Good for you. There needs to be more of that happening.
Speaker 5 (09:15):
And I'll tell you that I have shared something about
a woman with everybody because it is so different.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
It's a one man thank you.
Speaker 5 (09:22):
Anything else you've done. But I have a little insight
into this. I know there's fourteen songs on the album. Yeah,
how many songs did you write to get to these
fourteen songs about your wife?
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Lauren?
Speaker 4 (09:32):
Man, we started this, the process of picking this record
from I think there was one hundred and fifty songs,
and I'm I'm just a songwriter first and foremost, so
there's never a time when I'm not writing. So like,
I mean, I was literally having dinner with my producers
last night and I was like, we were literally just
talking about what are we doing next? Like the album
hasn't even come out yet, and we're already on to
like what's going to happen next? And so whittling down
(09:53):
from one hundred and fifty songs down to fourteen is
such a brutal, you know, just a brutal thing to
do because you're you're basically getting rid of, you know,
things that you still love. But ultimately, man, yeah it was.
It was a lot of tunes we wheeled down fourteen
and yeah, I'm just pumped about it.
Speaker 5 (10:08):
So how does that process work? And does Lauren have
any say, so whatsoever in these fourteen songs did she?
Speaker 4 (10:14):
I mean her and my kids both had a huge
part in this album because my wife, you know, I
used to player everything that I would write, and now
it's gotten to the point where she gets this thing
called demo ititis. If you know what demoitis is, It's
like it's playing you a song in its most like
raw form, and then you actually go into the studio
and cut it and you can't unhear the demo and
(10:35):
so you're just stuck with not liking the new project,
if that makes any sense. And so I have now
gotten to the point where I will finish albums and
then I will play them for her so that.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
She doesn't even have the chance to get demo itis.
So let's kind of slippery, Yeah, slippery and slimy. Yeah,
yeah for sure.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
So many songs or all of them are about her?
Does she ever hear one and say what the hell
is that? Or I love this? Oh my god.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
I think her biggest thing this record when I found
out that I was gonna call it about a woman
and kind of dedicate this album to her, and she
was like, is this record gonna make me dance? That
was like the one thing because when I that's a
fair question. When I write love songs, they normally come
out in the form of a ballad. They come out slow,
like that's just I don't know why that is. But
thanks to the co writers and my producers really took
(11:19):
even slow ideas and just made them up and made
them fun and made them joyful. And so I think
that this is my wife's favorite record because it is
so just fun and about her. Let's let's play a song, yeah,
come home, okay.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Of course the album out last night, it's it's out
now about a woman. Of course, this is something about
a woman's kind of thought them up. Thomas Redd is
here and we're celebrating, of course, about a woman. Let's
talk about celebrating a new album. Yeah, that must be
like Christmas morning. Here it is it's out. Let's just party. Yeah,
(11:53):
it is how you celebrated the release of this album
so far.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
Man, we've been in New York, okay, and this is
my This is what I favorite places to celebrate.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Like my wife and I like come here.
Speaker 4 (12:02):
We try to come here once a year for sure
during Christmas time because we just love being in New
York during Christmas. But yeah, all my you know, all
my band, all my crew is here. We got together
and had dinner last night, and uh stayed out a
little bit too late.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Tequila involved. There's some tequila champagne.
Speaker 4 (12:17):
I think that was my problem. I mixed a few
different things. It's like a champagne and an old fashioned
then some wine. You know, It's like, I think, after
you're thirty, you can't do that anymore.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Oh no, well I just turned sixteen. I'm doing just
fine or whatever. Whatever you're doing. Gravity is not as good.
I mean, my man, boobs are dragging my kneecaps and
it will happened to you one day.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
Can I ask about the competition you have with your
wife on Instagram? Yeah, that you both designed, like the
album cover. Yeah, and you're like, let's see whose album
is gonna sell faster, her album cover or your album going?
So how's that going?
Speaker 2 (12:52):
What do y'all think?
Speaker 1 (12:53):
I think she's winning?
Speaker 2 (12:54):
She is by a long shot.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
It honestly started. I wanted to do something.
Speaker 4 (12:58):
I wanted to see what kind of loyalty people had
for me, and I was quickly I quickly realized that
no one had any loyalty towards me. It was all
towards my wife. But we're huge college football fans. I'm
a diehard Georgia Bulldog fan Goodbye to Heen, and my
wife is a diehard Tennessee Volunteers fan. So we made
literally just like one thousand of each one's got like
a Georgia red cover and one's got the Tennessee orange cover.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
And she's beat me by like sixty percent. Oh wow, Yeah,
something put something to rest right now. I know there
was an article out not too long ago saying that
there was at one point in your in your relationship
with your wife where it was they use the word imploding, right,
And I know for a fact through friends of mine
that you did not truly agree with that that that
(13:42):
writing of that article, which is why I love the
fact that this is live. Sure, So what you say now,
we cannot edit it down there we feel like it
should be. Yeah, No, I mean I get it.
Speaker 4 (13:52):
I get that you have to put things on covers
to make people want to read them. Like I was
actually joking with somewhat one of my friends last night
and he was like, what did you want them to say?
Speaker 2 (14:00):
We've never been better? Like, who's going to buy that,
you know what I mean? And so yeah, I mean
marriage is tough, dude, Likely it's tough. And doing it
with four children while being gone one hundred and eighty
days a year, it's hard. You know, let's talk about that.
You know, you you write all these songs. You said
you had what the possibility of one hundred and fifty
different songs you could have shifted through to put on
(14:21):
this album. Yeah, the process, the creative process. I know
for a fact, all artists, be it painters or musicians
or whatever. Yeah, they're going to come into a point
in their their lives where they just can't find the words,
they can't find the vibe. Sure, what do you do?
What is your advice for all of us who are
totally lost in the world? How do you find the
(14:44):
vibe again and go, Okay, we're back on the road,
road and coastal. Just make this work.
Speaker 4 (14:49):
Yeah, it's it's it's different for every artist, right because
when you're when you're brand new, you're brand new. Like
one thing that I will never be again is brand new,
you know what I'm saying. And so as you continue
to put records out. This is my seventh album, I've
covered so much territory sonically, melodically, lyrically, and so when
you're sitting down and write a new project, it really
for me, I just have to get inspired somehow, and
(15:10):
usually for me that it's going out west, and so
like being in nature, being in the mountains sort of
like refreshes my soul. And also every project, I always
try to work with different people that I've never worked
with before, right, because you're going to get different things
from different people. But I remember me and Julian, my producer,
sat on the bus a year and a half ago.
He's like, what do you want to do on this record?
And I said, I just want it to be full
of bangers. I just want a record full of bangers.
(15:34):
And so when you kind of discover like that's the mission.
Not every album has to have this like crazy deep well,
I saw this wildflower, you know, driving from Austin to
New Mexico, and it sparked this whole Every record doesn't
have to be that way. Sometimes sometimes something that's just
fun can be enough of an inspiration to write a
whole record. And so for me on this album, like
(15:57):
it was really just trying to find new ways to
say I love you, you know, and I've said that
a million times. But I love writing love songs, and
I love trying to find unique ways to kind of,
you know, show that. And I think production helps a
lot too.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
So how much do you love doing what you do?
I mean asking it today? The first freaking love it.
It's the first full day of your album out. Yeah,
so of course you're gonna say that, but you have
love it. Is that also where you find your inspiration.
You have to remind yourself everyone smile, Oh my god,
I'm doing something. God is going to do something. And
a great family, great friends, and this incredible gift. You
(16:31):
gotta love it a million. I mean, it doesn't matter
what job you do.
Speaker 4 (16:34):
There are parts of your job that are not your
favorite part of your job. But dude, it's like the
whole culmination of it, Like the sitting there and grinding
for six hours just to find a second verse or
to find a great bridge melody, and you kind of go, man,
was it worth the six hours? And then it actually
was worth it? And then it goes on the record,
and then it goes on the radio, and then the
(16:55):
full culmination as you walking on stage and watching someone
light up when those first notes come out of your guitar.
You know what I'm saying, There is no feeling like
that because when you are songwriting, there's so many days
where no one has any ideas. When I was talking
about this with a couple of the writers last night,
it's like, it's amazing how it genuinely just miraculously falls
out of you and it didn't come from anywhere. It
might have stemmed from a conversation or someone played a
(17:16):
cool chord on a piano and all of a sudden
a song happened, and all of a sudden it goes
on a record, and all of a sudden, the world
knows the words. You know what I'm saying, Like that
is a miracle, And so I think that's my favorite
part of this job, man, is just walking on stage.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
What I got to see you in Nashville on New
Year's Eve this past New Year's Eve? Oh yeah, there,
Lady was there. Yeah, And that was insane the amount
of people out there just watching and like you said,
faces lighting up, everybody knows the words, screaming the words
back at you. It's just the coolest thing to watch.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
It is so cool.
Speaker 4 (17:47):
And then getting to hear y'all's story, Like that's something
that's been kind of crazy lately. It's like, you will
never like as an artist, whatever you do, you will
never know the impact that your stuff has on people.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Do you know what I'm saying? Like?
Speaker 4 (17:59):
I would have never own that about either of y'all
had you told me that. You know, you listen to
look what God gave her in One of your favorite
tracks was a song that no one's brought up to
me in seven years?
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Do you know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (18:08):
I love it?
Speaker 4 (18:09):
And that that's the beauty of art, is that you
get to make it and then you get to put
it out and then people get to decide how it's
going to impact them, you know, And those stories are
what make it worth it.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
So Frog get your boy t wreck. I know?
Speaker 5 (18:20):
So Thomas, I want to know. So you wrote one
hundred and fifty songs, you're using fourteen of them. There's
one hundred and thirty six songs out there that are waiting. Yeah,
are they been bad?
Speaker 2 (18:28):
One? They didn't make up? They're not really bad, So
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (18:31):
And there's a bartender at the Ritz Carlton that has
the entirety of all those songs.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
Oh my god, seriously last night, Tequila. Last night, I
wanted to hear the record over the speakers, and the
bartender was in control of the U of the Bluetooth,
so I just text them the dropbox link.
Speaker 4 (18:51):
Go my god, did you call your attorneys this morning
to lay it might be the worst? My management's over
here to be like, it's the worst thing you've ever.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Done in the twelve years of your own What could
possibly go wrong? What could go right? You know?
Speaker 5 (19:03):
Is there any chance that any of those other songs
make it on another album? Or do you write specifically
for this project and the next project will be totally different?
Speaker 4 (19:12):
Still figuring that out, Like, I think it was kind
of a mission of mine, this go around to like,
because I really wanted there to be twenty four songs
on this album. But gosh, dude, there's just every every Friday,
there's a million songs that come out, and so I
really wanted this record to be digestible. I wanted you
to go to look at it, like I have time
for that. It makes sense, Like I have time to
(19:33):
sit down for thirty eight minutes and listen to this record.
But I think it's gonna be fun. Over the next
two years, managed to keep sort of just putting music out.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
I think Bob the Bartender might be putting out.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
Yeah, you'll go hit up the ritz. Can you get
the record early? We need you need security to protect
you the world from you.
Speaker 5 (19:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
Say so, I know you travel a lot. You said
one hundred and eighty days a year. Did you just
get back from Kenya not too long ago? I was
looking at Instagram.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Maybe about yeah, a month ago.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
Okay, So when you travel to Kenya, do you have
these same moments where shockingly, out of nowhere, somebody approaches
you and it's like, oh my god, Tom's ratt I'm
listening to your music in Kenya.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
Yes, and it is so wild. It is so wild.
Speaker 4 (20:13):
It actually happened a lot in the airports too well.
We had a labor in Dubai and there was someone
that came up to me while I was getting a
coffee and they were like, you know, we I love
your music. And I was like, where do you live
and they're like here. I was like, are you serious?
Like that's the wildest compliment in the world. Not so
much in Kenya. We have we haven't made our to
the airwaves in Nairobi yet but maybe maybe at some point.
(20:35):
But yeah, but no, that was uh, that was literally
a trip of a lifetime.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
It was yeah, Sofari, Sofari, I've been on five five.
Speaker 4 (20:44):
Yeah, it's amazing. Everything can kill you over there.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
Oh yeah, absolutely, And it's good to know that you
were so unimportant, yes, as compared it's like going to
see the Grand Canyon. So you see the Grand Canyon
like we are nothing of that big hole. Yeah, But
to be able to go and open your mind to
a whole other universe and that must help in songwriting
(21:08):
as well. Did you ever find yourself in the tent
while the wildebeest were trying to eat you writing something
down going? I don't know what this is. This could
be a song next year.
Speaker 4 (21:16):
The very first night that we were there, this did
not lead to a song. I just think this is
a crazy story. But the very first night we were there,
we were staying in these it's not camping, it's glamping,
you know what I'm saying. And so me and my
whole family are in this tent and they encourage you
that anytime you walk out of the tent to keep
your They call it a torch, which is a flashlight,
and they're like, bring your torch with you wherever you go.
(21:37):
And I walked out. It was like ten pm and
I'm literally from me to you of two hyenas.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
Oh, and they will crunch your head off. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (21:47):
And so I've started flashing my light and I was like,
this is how I'm gonna die. I'm gonna get killed
by hyenas flashing a light. And I flashed a light
and they took off. They ran off. Gosh, man, when
you're up close to something like that, I've never in
my life been that close to a hyena or a lion,
or being that close even to an elephant.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
Like it's just gnarly.
Speaker 4 (22:06):
It's different seeing it at a zoo than it is
like when they're at there.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
You're in their territory. Go back and you will do
it again, That's right. I love that. Sitting at the
mess ten at night and it is clamping and you
see the eyeballs out, oh dude. And we had we
had hyenas laughing in front of you, we had lions
roaring behind us, and we stayed on the river.
Speaker 4 (22:26):
So the entire night it's just hippos going crazy and
there's crocs.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
Everywhere, like like sixteen foot cross we're talking shoes. We're
talking yeah, not shoes.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
How do they protect you from that? Like the crocs getting.
Speaker 4 (22:39):
Well, there's like a there's like the place and then
there's like a huge drop off like a like almost
like a concrete wall. So they can't maybe they could,
And then I chose to tell myself that it was impossible.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
During the day, that's where the wild debes rolled roll
down and some of them will not make it. But
but it's just it's there's nothing like going nothing like that,
you know, And people say, well, that's something I could
never do, and no, it's not true. We have friends
who are guides there and they make it very affordable
for you can actually do it pretty cheap actually, but
I would encourage it for sure. It's an awesome trip.
I love the fact that Thomas Rhett is here with
(23:13):
us today and it's a special day. The fact that
you're here with us makes us feel sort of important.
You guys are my favorite to come to us. I mean,
it's like literally one of my favorite things to do
when I'm in New York. So thank y'all for having me.
Your spirit is just on the top of the of
the flagpole. Well, it's waving. The feeling is very mutual.
I got to play another song from the album, and
of course Thomas Rhet's album came out last night about
(23:34):
a Woman, and I'm gonna giving you two cuts today
because you got to pay for the rest. Yeah, download
it or the rits.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
You'll get bonus tracks if you go there.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
This is Thomas Rhett and of course beautiful dos you
way girl? You can?
Speaker 1 (23:53):
I ask a question about why artists do that thing
with the dropping ahead of time, So you dropped four
songs before the album came out. Now, Lady Wilson has
an album out today. She did the same thing. A
lot of the artists do that, now is there? What
is the reason is that? Just like to let us,
you know, taste it a little bit.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
You know?
Speaker 4 (24:12):
I still ask myself that question, to be honest, because
I think the goal probably is to build hype, right like,
because if you really love the first three that come out,
then you hope that someone's going to be like I
bet the rest of the record is just amazing, you know.
But there's also this part of me that wonders, like,
when are we going to get back to the mystique,
you know what I'm saying, Like, there's so much teasing,
(24:32):
and there's so much like check this version out, and
check this version out, and watch me sing this in
a bathroom, and you know what I mean, and like
all these things, and it's kind of sort of in
my opinion.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
What culture sort of says we have to do.
Speaker 4 (24:44):
But man, like in the seventies and stuff, it was
just like, wonder what Tom Petty's been doing for the
last year and a half, and all of a sudden, bam.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
It was the whole album. Whole album. There was no
maybe we'll get back to that one day, who knows.
And now we have an artist that just produced song
by some they don't even think about album, right, Yeah,
for sure. There's so many different ways to get there.
Speaker 4 (25:03):
So yeah, there's so many It's like music business is
the wild West today. Like when I when I first started,
it was it was so I'm not going to say
it was easier, but it was like you had kind
of one or two outlets to put your music out.
And now there's so many ways to get your music heard,
you know. So, I mean, you could be an artist
that lives in Nebraska and you're seventeen years old and
(25:23):
one day your mom just thinks you're great, and next
day you're opening for Zach Bryan.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
You know what I'm saying, Like, it's like weird, it's wild. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
And now if you do disappear for a year, people
are going to say, oh, his marriage is imploding.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Yeah, yeah, this is the implosion period. And uh, look
at this list. The iHeartRadio Music Festival in Las Vegas.
Dua Lipa, Halsey, Big Sean, Comita, Kabeo, Doja Cat, Gwen Stefani, Hosier, Keith, Urban, New,
Kids on the Block, Paramore, Shaboozie, The Black Crows, Victoria Monet,
Thomas Rhett. What a what a lineup? He's got a
(25:59):
funny and a Friday of music on our show. In
thirty minutes, we're gonna talk to Chris Martin. Holy wonder
what that tie in about? Yeah, I wonder why he's
on with us. Anyway. I'm such a super fan of Coldplayer,
Young Me too. Gosh, can you imagine if they could
show up at the iHeart Music Festival.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
That would be would be amazing.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Thank you so much for coming in, Thank you man
and sharing the music pleasure, and it's the gift. It's
the gift you gave us, and we do appreciate it.
And we've made it very clear to you that every
single person on this show loves what you do so much,
loves the fact that you do love what you do.
That's what makes it so great. Well, y'all are a
blast to talk to you. Thank you for your time
this morning. About a woman out right now, Thomas Red,
(26:44):
It's Froggies boy T Red, Lizzos in here, the Mercedes
sho We say good morning to the Jonas Brothers and
the Mercedes Benz. Dream Days are here with exceptional offers
on this c l E Coop, E Class Siedan, C
Class Sidan and c L E Cabriolet. It's going on
(27:05):
through September third. Learn more at mbusa dot com. Slash
Dream Elvis Duran in the Morning Show
From the Mercedes Benz Interview Lounge.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
We're so excited Thomas Rhett coming into the studio on
a second. His new album, of Course, just came out
last night. We're going to play you a couple of
cuts because he wants to share the music with you.
This is what this guy does. He loves to share
his music with you. Of course, the album About a
Woman is out right now, and after you hear this interview,
if you haven't been a Thomas Rhet fan, you will
(00:23):
be a t red fan or as Froggy calls him,
my boy t Ratt boy t Rat so funny. Oh, Danielle,
you're a massive fan as well.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
That his music is amazing, right, it's so good.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
And Gandhi, I mean your boyfriend. One of the first
great gestures he gave to you was the gift of music.
A Thomas Rhett song.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Yes, when we first started dating, he sent me a
Thomas rhightt song Look what God gave her and he said,
this song reminds me of you, and now I love
Thomas Rhett just because of that.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Well, we have lost to discuss, of course. He was
on the Tonight Show the other night with Jimmy Fallon,
I'll just bring him in. I know you're a big fan.
Can you let him come in? Please? Hello, Nate's out
there hogging up my time with t Red. I don't
like that. It's so good to see you have a
(01:09):
seat here. You were sitting there and we're on. We're
going the interview began without you here. I'm so glad
you'll have a mini bottle of ten. We always have
to heen sitting around. So Froggy is in Jacksonville, He's
looking right at you. What's up, Thomas? How are you
good man? Good to see you. Likewise, how's your volume
in your headphone? It's perfect? Okay, it would be better
(01:31):
if I had a gold microphone. You know. Well, some
of us need an ego blast. So this is all
I get mine. Welcome to New York City. Thanks d
you look great on the Tonight show. There the night
you Thank you. It was so fun. Jimmy Fallons is
the nicest guy ever.
Speaker 4 (01:44):
Right, he is the nicest and I've you know, I've
hung out with him a couple of times, just like
at the tonight show, but I got to really get
to know him last night. It was really cool. We
talked golf. I'm gonna try to come up here. We're
planning a golf trip together, which is really nice. So
he's he's the best dude. He's just such a good
energy and the whole and just watching the roots that's
the most nerve wracking part of playing Fason.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:04):
They are amazing because they're just kind of sitting there
looking at you, like impress us, and you're sitting on
me and the whole band.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Guys are going, we are not as good as you. Guys. Well,
here's the thing. I know those guys, and they are impressed.
They're so good. So about a woman came out last night. Yeah,
and everyone's talking about everyone's buzzing about it. We're gonna
play a couple of cuts, Yeah, a couple of seconds.
Amazing because you and I was saying this before you
came in, you just have this desire to run around
and just share your music with whoever's going to listen
to it. Yeah, And if you've always been this way,
(02:32):
I've always kind of been that way.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
I love playing songs for people, especially, and I'm excited
about it and I have never to be honest, I've
never been.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
This excited about a project. And I don't know why.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
Maybe it's turning thirty and I care less about what
people think. But like, this was the most freeing album
to make. I didn't look left, didn't look right, and
it was just like if it put a smile on
my face, that that was good for me. And so
spent the last year and a half making this project
and I can't believe that it is finally out in
the world.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
I'm so freaking pumped. Some great things have happened in
the music world since last we spoke, which was years ago.
There is this convention of thought now about how music
is music. Songs are songs, yeah, and to put them
in a corral and saying it, well, that's whatever top
forty song. Yeah, yeah, that stuff is. Those walls are dissolving,
they're yeah, they're dissolving fast. Yeah, because of you. It's
(03:21):
because of me. Okay. This album, for instance, right now,
it's right now about a woman. There is a lot
of different sounds on this music. Sonically, this this album
is covering all sorts of territory. Foundational, yeah, for sure.
That's how I grew up man. You know, I grew
up with a dad that was a country singer. And so,
you know, country music was my very first love.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
I got to tour with him, I got to watch
him write songs, got to watch him perform. But dude,
I mean I remember vividly driving to school with my
dad in like fourth and fifth grade, and every morning
it was something different. One morning it'd be DMX, like, which, yeah,
I was listen to DMX and fourth.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Grade right, all right.
Speaker 4 (03:57):
One morning it was DMX, one morning it was Aretha Franklin.
One more it was bluegrass. One morning it was the
Rolling Stones or the Beatles or whatever it was. And
so my dad has always just been this walking jukebox. Like, honestly,
no one knows more about eighties hair metal than my dad.
There you go, wow yeah, Like, and so I think
when I started making music, country was always the core,
(04:17):
but I loved so many other things, and I always thought, man,
what if I could take that from that and kind
of use a little bit of this from this and
kind of blended into my own little thing. And so
ever since my second album, I've always kind of taken
pride and just kind of pushing, you know, pushing sonically melodically,
but also still just staying authentic to my my songwriting roots, and.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
I was assumed that a lot of traditionalists in the
country world are who grew up with country music or saying, well,
I don't know, this is Thomas Schrett. He really Yeah,
that didn't sound like something I grew up with. What
is that?
Speaker 4 (04:44):
But I think that changes every decade, you know what
I mean saying like, I think I'm sure that there
were people that looked at you know, Riba and Shannai
and Dalli, and they were like, well, that's not that's
not real country, right, you know what I mean. Every
everybody pushes every decade, but it's like when the decade passes,
you go, oh, that's that was real, you.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (05:01):
Like, I remember when I put this song out called
make Me Want. It was my third single off my
first record, and it almost felt like a disco country song.
It was like the Beg's had a baby with like,
you know, a country singer or whatever. And at the time,
it was very weird for country radio. And it sat
at forty for like forty weeks, and then all of
a sudden, it just kind of started climbing thirty eight,
(05:23):
thirty four, twenty eight and all of a sudden it
became a hit, and to me that was like, okay,
if I can do that, that just made a way
for me. It opened up doors for me to be able
to do things that I would have never been on
to do had that song that worked. And so I
always love pushing boundaries. Man, it's fun to not live
in a box.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Am so well in a coral if you want to
keep it on the corral. So here's a great story
about looking at it the other direction. Danielle right here.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Yeah, grew up in the Bronx yep.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
All right, see so you grew up your musical influences
growing up were.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
I listened to a lot of hip hop growing up.
I listened to a lot of Top forty growing up.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
The country did you listen to?
Speaker 1 (05:59):
I didn't listen to country until college.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
And why not.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Pam Tillis, Yeah, stuff like that, And I did a
country show on radio station, fell in love with country
and love Love that was one of the genres of
music that I fell in love with. And then you
you know, listen to yourself. I mean, Center Point Road
is one of my favorite albums.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Serious.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
I actually wrote down when you when you say the
lyric because he talked about his wife all the time.
I love the relationship. It's cutest thing ever. Thank you
for living this dream I know you never had.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
It's one of my favorite songs.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Yes, and that's one of I'm like, that is just
I love it.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
I had no idea were to talk about deep country. Yeah, okay, ladies,
move over here to Gandhi. Gandhi grew up listening to
solely music, for instance.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
Much more hip hop.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
Absolutely. However, the first country I was really introduced to.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Was actually, you know this, y'all are are making all this.
You'll got together last night. Y'all did not get together
last night. This is a this is all truth.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
Yeah. So my boyfriend when we first started dating, the
first song that he sent me was look what God
gave her off that album was Yes, and that was
his like, Hey, just so you know, I love you.
This song makes me think about you. And now every
time then I hear that one, I'm like, you.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Know, country music not so bad, coming on.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
You were my first sort of like foot in the
water as far as country music goes.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Dude, Wow, it's amazing as far as you starting starting
playing music on your guitar. What's the first song you
ever learned? How to?
Speaker 4 (07:29):
We were just talking about that two seconds ago. It
was three Am by Matchbox twenty. It was the first
song ever learned, and two weeks ago I got to
sing it with Matchbox twenty.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Okay, in the middle of that performance, was there a
chance you could have just frozen up right there and
were like, what the hell is this? This is pretty amazing?
I literally, I told because me and I'd never met
Rob before. I mean, like so they were actually one
of my first concerts. I saw Matchbox twenty and their
openers were third eyeblind in American Hi Fi Wow. And
I still have the T shirt to this day. So,
(07:59):
like now, I've always been he Mixbox fan.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
So last year on the road, we did this like
decades bit where we went from the fifties to now
and we played like an elvistoon, a James Brown tuon,
a Rolling Stones tune, and in our nineties era we
played three AM, and I remember Rob commented on my
Instagram page and I was like, holy crap, you know,
I'm a giant fan. And so we got put on
the same bill up in Canada at this festival called
Boots and Hearts, and so it was like them opening
(08:22):
for me, and I was like, this is wrong, this
feels very strange. And Rob's management emailed and said, hey,
what you want to sing three AM with us? And
I was like, yes, did they know the story behind
the song?
Speaker 2 (08:33):
No, he didn't know.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
And I met him at catering and I straight up fangirl,
you know, like right there getting brisket, you know.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
So okay, Now let's talk about Froggy for instance. Foggie,
of course is the new face of country radio. What's
up there? He's running awards? You now, Frog? Look at
your Trouba door hat. I know, right? Do you want
to do you want to admit? Do you want to
admit to h Thomas Rhett what you did when you illegally?
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Did I?
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Did I do? Tell him? Right, Thomas?
Speaker 5 (09:00):
If you remember we did the iHeart Country Summit in
Nashville back in February, and you played us five or
six tracks.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Off of this new album.
Speaker 5 (09:07):
Yeah, I put my phone under my seat and recorded
everything for you.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Good for you. There needs to be more of that happening.
Speaker 5 (09:15):
And I'll tell you that I have shared something about
a woman with everybody because it is so different.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
It's a one man thank you.
Speaker 5 (09:22):
Anything else you've done. But I have a little insight
into this. I know there's fourteen songs on the album. Yeah,
how many songs did you write to get to these
fourteen songs about your wife?
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Lauren?
Speaker 4 (09:32):
Man, we started this, the process of picking this record
from I think there was one hundred and fifty songs,
and I'm I'm just a songwriter first and foremost, so
there's never a time when I'm not writing. So like,
I mean, I was literally having dinner with my producers
last night and I was like, we were literally just
talking about what are we doing next? Like the album
hasn't even come out yet, and we're already on to
like what's going to happen next? And so whittling down
(09:53):
from one hundred and fifty songs down to fourteen is
such a brutal, you know, just a brutal thing to
do because you're you're basically getting rid of, you know,
things that you still love. But ultimately, man, yeah it was.
It was a lot of tunes we wheeled down fourteen
and yeah, I'm just pumped about it.
Speaker 5 (10:08):
So how does that process work? And does Lauren have
any say, so whatsoever in these fourteen songs did she?
Speaker 4 (10:14):
I mean her and my kids both had a huge
part in this album because my wife, you know, I
used to player everything that I would write, and now
it's gotten to the point where she gets this thing
called demo ititis. If you know what demoitis is, It's
like it's playing you a song in its most like
raw form, and then you actually go into the studio
and cut it and you can't unhear the demo and
(10:35):
so you're just stuck with not liking the new project,
if that makes any sense. And so I have now
gotten to the point where I will finish albums and
then I will play them for her so that.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
She doesn't even have the chance to get demo itis.
So let's kind of slippery, Yeah, slippery and slimy. Yeah,
yeah for sure.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
So many songs or all of them are about her?
Does she ever hear one and say what the hell
is that? Or I love this? Oh my god.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
I think her biggest thing this record when I found
out that I was gonna call it about a woman
and kind of dedicate this album to her, and she
was like, is this record gonna make me dance? That
was like the one thing because when I that's a
fair question. When I write love songs, they normally come
out in the form of a ballad. They come out slow,
like that's just I don't know why that is. But
thanks to the co writers and my producers really took
(11:19):
even slow ideas and just made them up and made
them fun and made them joyful. And so I think
that this is my wife's favorite record because it is
so just fun and about her. Let's let's play a song, yeah,
come home, okay.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Of course the album out last night, it's it's out
now about a woman. Of course, this is something about
a woman's kind of thought them up. Thomas Redd is
here and we're celebrating, of course, about a woman. Let's
talk about celebrating a new album. Yeah, that must be
like Christmas morning. Here it is it's out. Let's just party. Yeah,
(11:53):
it is how you celebrated the release of this album
so far.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
Man, we've been in New York, okay, and this is
my This is what I favorite places to celebrate.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Like my wife and I like come here.
Speaker 4 (12:02):
We try to come here once a year for sure
during Christmas time because we just love being in New
York during Christmas. But yeah, all my you know, all
my band, all my crew is here. We got together
and had dinner last night, and uh stayed out a
little bit too late.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Tequila involved. There's some tequila champagne.
Speaker 4 (12:17):
I think that was my problem. I mixed a few
different things. It's like a champagne and an old fashioned
then some wine. You know, It's like, I think, after
you're thirty, you can't do that anymore.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Oh no, well I just turned sixteen. I'm doing just
fine or whatever. Whatever you're doing. Gravity is not as good.
I mean, my man, boobs are dragging my kneecaps and
it will happened to you one day.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
Can I ask about the competition you have with your
wife on Instagram? Yeah, that you both designed, like the
album cover. Yeah, and you're like, let's see whose album
is gonna sell faster, her album cover or your album going?
So how's that going?
Speaker 2 (12:52):
What do y'all think?
Speaker 1 (12:53):
I think she's winning?
Speaker 2 (12:54):
She is by a long shot.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
It honestly started. I wanted to do something.
Speaker 4 (12:58):
I wanted to see what kind of loyalty people had
for me, and I was quickly I quickly realized that
no one had any loyalty towards me. It was all
towards my wife. But we're huge college football fans. I'm
a diehard Georgia Bulldog fan Goodbye to Heen, and my
wife is a diehard Tennessee Volunteers fan. So we made
literally just like one thousand of each one's got like
a Georgia red cover and one's got the Tennessee orange cover.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
And she's beat me by like sixty percent. Oh wow, Yeah,
something put something to rest right now. I know there
was an article out not too long ago saying that
there was at one point in your in your relationship
with your wife where it was they use the word imploding, right,
And I know for a fact through friends of mine
that you did not truly agree with that that that
(13:42):
writing of that article, which is why I love the
fact that this is live. Sure, So what you say now,
we cannot edit it down there we feel like it
should be. Yeah, No, I mean I get it.
Speaker 4 (13:52):
I get that you have to put things on covers
to make people want to read them. Like I was
actually joking with somewhat one of my friends last night
and he was like, what did you want them to say?
Speaker 2 (14:00):
We've never been better? Like, who's going to buy that,
you know what I mean? And so yeah, I mean
marriage is tough, dude, Likely it's tough. And doing it
with four children while being gone one hundred and eighty
days a year, it's hard. You know, let's talk about that.
You know, you you write all these songs. You said
you had what the possibility of one hundred and fifty
different songs you could have shifted through to put on
(14:21):
this album. Yeah, the process, the creative process. I know
for a fact, all artists, be it painters or musicians
or whatever. Yeah, they're going to come into a point
in their their lives where they just can't find the words,
they can't find the vibe. Sure, what do you do?
What is your advice for all of us who are
totally lost in the world? How do you find the
(14:44):
vibe again and go, Okay, we're back on the road,
road and coastal. Just make this work.
Speaker 4 (14:49):
Yeah, it's it's it's different for every artist, right because
when you're when you're brand new, you're brand new. Like
one thing that I will never be again is brand new,
you know what I'm saying. And so as you continue
to put records out. This is my seventh album, I've
covered so much territory sonically, melodically, lyrically, and so when
you're sitting down and write a new project, it really
for me, I just have to get inspired somehow, and
(15:10):
usually for me that it's going out west, and so
like being in nature, being in the mountains sort of
like refreshes my soul. And also every project, I always
try to work with different people that I've never worked
with before, right, because you're going to get different things
from different people. But I remember me and Julian, my producer,
sat on the bus a year and a half ago.
He's like, what do you want to do on this record?
And I said, I just want it to be full
of bangers. I just want a record full of bangers.
(15:34):
And so when you kind of discover like that's the mission.
Not every album has to have this like crazy deep well,
I saw this wildflower, you know, driving from Austin to
New Mexico, and it sparked this whole Every record doesn't
have to be that way. Sometimes sometimes something that's just
fun can be enough of an inspiration to write a
whole record. And so for me on this album, like
(15:57):
it was really just trying to find new ways to
say I love you, you know, and I've said that
a million times. But I love writing love songs, and
I love trying to find unique ways to kind of,
you know, show that. And I think production helps a
lot too.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
So how much do you love doing what you do?
I mean asking it today? The first freaking love it.
It's the first full day of your album out. Yeah,
so of course you're gonna say that, but you have
love it. Is that also where you find your inspiration.
You have to remind yourself everyone smile, Oh my god,
I'm doing something. God is going to do something. And
a great family, great friends, and this incredible gift. You
(16:31):
gotta love it a million. I mean, it doesn't matter
what job you do.
Speaker 4 (16:34):
There are parts of your job that are not your
favorite part of your job. But dude, it's like the
whole culmination of it, Like the sitting there and grinding
for six hours just to find a second verse or
to find a great bridge melody, and you kind of go, man,
was it worth the six hours? And then it actually
was worth it? And then it goes on the record,
and then it goes on the radio, and then the
(16:55):
full culmination as you walking on stage and watching someone
light up when those first notes come out of your guitar.
You know what I'm saying, There is no feeling like
that because when you are songwriting, there's so many days
where no one has any ideas. When I was talking
about this with a couple of the writers last night,
it's like, it's amazing how it genuinely just miraculously falls
out of you and it didn't come from anywhere. It
might have stemmed from a conversation or someone played a
(17:16):
cool chord on a piano and all of a sudden
a song happened, and all of a sudden it goes
on a record, and all of a sudden, the world
knows the words. You know what I'm saying, Like that
is a miracle, And so I think that's my favorite
part of this job, man, is just walking on stage.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
What I got to see you in Nashville on New
Year's Eve this past New Year's Eve? Oh yeah, there,
Lady was there. Yeah, And that was insane the amount
of people out there just watching and like you said,
faces lighting up, everybody knows the words, screaming the words
back at you. It's just the coolest thing to watch.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
It is so cool.
Speaker 4 (17:47):
And then getting to hear y'all's story, Like that's something
that's been kind of crazy lately. It's like, you will
never like as an artist, whatever you do, you will
never know the impact that your stuff has on people.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Do you know what I'm saying? Like?
Speaker 4 (17:59):
I would have never own that about either of y'all
had you told me that. You know, you listen to
look what God gave her in One of your favorite
tracks was a song that no one's brought up to
me in seven years?
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Do you know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (18:08):
I love it?
Speaker 4 (18:09):
And that that's the beauty of art, is that you
get to make it and then you get to put
it out and then people get to decide how it's
going to impact them, you know, And those stories are
what make it worth it.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
So Frog get your boy t wreck. I know?
Speaker 5 (18:20):
So Thomas, I want to know. So you wrote one
hundred and fifty songs, you're using fourteen of them. There's
one hundred and thirty six songs out there that are waiting. Yeah,
are they been bad?
Speaker 2 (18:28):
One? They didn't make up? They're not really bad, So
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (18:31):
And there's a bartender at the Ritz Carlton that has
the entirety of all those songs.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
Oh my god, seriously last night, Tequila. Last night, I
wanted to hear the record over the speakers, and the
bartender was in control of the U of the Bluetooth,
so I just text them the dropbox link.
Speaker 4 (18:51):
Go my god, did you call your attorneys this morning
to lay it might be the worst? My management's over
here to be like, it's the worst thing you've ever.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Done in the twelve years of your own What could
possibly go wrong? What could go right? You know?
Speaker 5 (19:03):
Is there any chance that any of those other songs
make it on another album? Or do you write specifically
for this project and the next project will be totally different?
Speaker 4 (19:12):
Still figuring that out, Like, I think it was kind
of a mission of mine, this go around to like,
because I really wanted there to be twenty four songs
on this album. But gosh, dude, there's just every every Friday,
there's a million songs that come out, and so I
really wanted this record to be digestible. I wanted you
to go to look at it, like I have time
for that. It makes sense, Like I have time to
(19:33):
sit down for thirty eight minutes and listen to this record.
But I think it's gonna be fun. Over the next
two years, managed to keep sort of just putting music out.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
I think Bob the Bartender might be putting out.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
Yeah, you'll go hit up the ritz. Can you get
the record early? We need you need security to protect
you the world from you.
Speaker 5 (19:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
Say so, I know you travel a lot. You said
one hundred and eighty days a year. Did you just
get back from Kenya not too long ago? I was
looking at Instagram.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Maybe about yeah, a month ago.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
Okay, So when you travel to Kenya, do you have
these same moments where shockingly, out of nowhere, somebody approaches
you and it's like, oh my god, Tom's ratt I'm
listening to your music in Kenya.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
Yes, and it is so wild. It is so wild.
Speaker 4 (20:13):
It actually happened a lot in the airports too well.
We had a labor in Dubai and there was someone
that came up to me while I was getting a
coffee and they were like, you know, we I love
your music. And I was like, where do you live
and they're like here. I was like, are you serious?
Like that's the wildest compliment in the world. Not so
much in Kenya. We have we haven't made our to
the airwaves in Nairobi yet but maybe maybe at some point.
(20:35):
But yeah, but no, that was uh, that was literally
a trip of a lifetime.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
It was yeah, Sofari, Sofari, I've been on five five.
Speaker 4 (20:44):
Yeah, it's amazing. Everything can kill you over there.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
Oh yeah, absolutely, And it's good to know that you
were so unimportant, yes, as compared it's like going to
see the Grand Canyon. So you see the Grand Canyon
like we are nothing of that big hole. Yeah, But
to be able to go and open your mind to
a whole other universe and that must help in songwriting
(21:08):
as well. Did you ever find yourself in the tent
while the wildebeest were trying to eat you writing something
down going? I don't know what this is. This could
be a song next year.
Speaker 4 (21:16):
The very first night that we were there, this did
not lead to a song. I just think this is
a crazy story. But the very first night we were there,
we were staying in these it's not camping, it's glamping,
you know what I'm saying. And so me and my
whole family are in this tent and they encourage you
that anytime you walk out of the tent to keep
your They call it a torch, which is a flashlight,
and they're like, bring your torch with you wherever you go.
(21:37):
And I walked out. It was like ten pm and
I'm literally from me to you of two hyenas.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
Oh, and they will crunch your head off. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (21:47):
And so I've started flashing my light and I was like,
this is how I'm gonna die. I'm gonna get killed
by hyenas flashing a light. And I flashed a light
and they took off. They ran off. Gosh, man, when
you're up close to something like that, I've never in
my life been that close to a hyena or a lion,
or being that close even to an elephant.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
Like it's just gnarly.
Speaker 4 (22:06):
It's different seeing it at a zoo than it is
like when they're at there.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
You're in their territory. Go back and you will do
it again, That's right. I love that. Sitting at the
mess ten at night and it is clamping and you
see the eyeballs out, oh dude. And we had we
had hyenas laughing in front of you, we had lions
roaring behind us, and we stayed on the river.
Speaker 4 (22:26):
So the entire night it's just hippos going crazy and
there's crocs.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
Everywhere, like like sixteen foot cross we're talking shoes. We're
talking yeah, not shoes.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
How do they protect you from that? Like the crocs getting.
Speaker 4 (22:39):
Well, there's like a there's like the place and then
there's like a huge drop off like a like almost
like a concrete wall. So they can't maybe they could,
And then I chose to tell myself that it was impossible.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
During the day, that's where the wild debes rolled roll
down and some of them will not make it. But
but it's just it's there's nothing like going nothing like that,
you know, And people say, well, that's something I could
never do, and no, it's not true. We have friends
who are guides there and they make it very affordable
for you can actually do it pretty cheap actually, but
I would encourage it for sure. It's an awesome trip.
I love the fact that Thomas Rhett is here with
(23:13):
us today and it's a special day. The fact that
you're here with us makes us feel sort of important.
You guys are my favorite to come to us. I mean,
it's like literally one of my favorite things to do
when I'm in New York. So thank y'all for having me.
Your spirit is just on the top of the of
the flagpole. Well, it's waving. The feeling is very mutual.
I got to play another song from the album, and
of course Thomas Rhet's album came out last night about
(23:34):
a Woman, and I'm gonna giving you two cuts today
because you got to pay for the rest. Yeah, download
it or the rits.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
You'll get bonus tracks if you go there.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
This is Thomas Rhett and of course beautiful dos you
way girl? You can?
Speaker 1 (23:53):
I ask a question about why artists do that thing
with the dropping ahead of time, So you dropped four
songs before the album came out. Now, Lady Wilson has
an album out today. She did the same thing. A
lot of the artists do that, now is there? What
is the reason is that? Just like to let us,
you know, taste it a little bit.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
You know?
Speaker 4 (24:12):
I still ask myself that question, to be honest, because
I think the goal probably is to build hype, right like,
because if you really love the first three that come out,
then you hope that someone's going to be like I
bet the rest of the record is just amazing, you know.
But there's also this part of me that wonders, like,
when are we going to get back to the mystique,
you know what I'm saying, Like, there's so much teasing,
(24:32):
and there's so much like check this version out, and
check this version out, and watch me sing this in
a bathroom, and you know what I mean, and like
all these things, and it's kind of sort of in
my opinion.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
What culture sort of says we have to do.
Speaker 4 (24:44):
But man, like in the seventies and stuff, it was
just like, wonder what Tom Petty's been doing for the
last year and a half, and all of a sudden, bam.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
It was the whole album. Whole album. There was no
maybe we'll get back to that one day, who knows.
And now we have an artist that just produced song
by some they don't even think about album, right, Yeah,
for sure. There's so many different ways to get there.
Speaker 4 (25:03):
So yeah, there's so many It's like music business is
the wild West today. Like when I when I first started,
it was it was so I'm not going to say
it was easier, but it was like you had kind
of one or two outlets to put your music out.
And now there's so many ways to get your music heard,
you know. So, I mean, you could be an artist
that lives in Nebraska and you're seventeen years old and
(25:23):
one day your mom just thinks you're great, and next
day you're opening for Zach Bryan.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
You know what I'm saying, Like, it's like weird, it's wild. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
And now if you do disappear for a year, people
are going to say, oh, his marriage is imploding.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Yeah, yeah, this is the implosion period. And uh, look
at this list. The iHeartRadio Music Festival in Las Vegas.
Dua Lipa, Halsey, Big Sean, Comita, Kabeo, Doja Cat, Gwen Stefani, Hosier, Keith, Urban, New,
Kids on the Block, Paramore, Shaboozie, The Black Crows, Victoria Monet,
Thomas Rhett. What a what a lineup? He's got a
(25:59):
funny and a Friday of music on our show. In
thirty minutes, we're gonna talk to Chris Martin. Holy wonder
what that tie in about? Yeah, I wonder why he's
on with us. Anyway. I'm such a super fan of Coldplayer,
Young Me too. Gosh, can you imagine if they could
show up at the iHeart Music Festival.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
That would be would be amazing.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Thank you so much for coming in, Thank you man
and sharing the music pleasure, and it's the gift. It's
the gift you gave us, and we do appreciate it.
And we've made it very clear to you that every
single person on this show loves what you do so much,
loves the fact that you do love what you do.
That's what makes it so great. Well, y'all are a
blast to talk to you. Thank you for your time
this morning. About a woman out right now, Thomas Red,
(26:44):
It's Froggies boy T Red, Lizzos in here, the Mercedes
sho We say good morning to the Jonas Brothers and
the Mercedes Benz. Dream Days are here with exceptional offers
on this c l E Coop, E Class Siedan, C
Class Sidan and c L E Cabriolet. It's going on
(27:05):
through September third. Learn more at mbusa dot com. Slash
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