August 13, 2024 • 22 mins
TR is all set to hit Vegas for our 2024 iHeartRadio Music Festival but why is he REALLY excited for Vegas?
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'll tell you I haven't been clean. When's the last
time you were clean shaven?
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Dude?
Speaker 3 (00:04):
So about three weeks ago, right before we went on
our trip to Africa, I was like, I'm going to
shave pretty good so I don't have to do it
while I'm over there.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Yeah, and uh, the.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
Day before my kids left, Lily, my two year old,
was playing with my beard trimmer, and she was like
messing with all the different attachments. And I normally just
keep my own, like I have one guard that I
use and I never shave up, always shaved down, yep.
And so I went for it and I just started
right here and went down and I was like, oh no,
I think Lily had like changed the guard for like
(00:34):
one of the real small ones, and like, you know,
I just have a stripe on my face and so
you're not going to rock the strike. So I just
had to get all of it to go and I
FaceTime my wife.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
She's like, what happened to you?
Speaker 3 (00:45):
And I was just like, this is this is the
me you got at least for the next three days
until it starts to go back.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
So I note the double standard is so messed up, dude.
Could you imagine if she went to like the salon
and your and your responsor was what happened?
Speaker 4 (00:59):
What happened?
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Hey, you look awesome, Like what did you do? I
love it?
Speaker 4 (01:04):
It'd be over. You'd have a reason for a whole
new album. It would be over.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Right.
Speaker 4 (01:09):
Listen, I got to ask you.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
One of the biggest things that we get to do
as a company all year is the iHeartRadio Music Festival.
Speaker 4 (01:16):
We're back in Vegas again this year.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
What's the process on an artist on getting invited to
that and what does it mean for you to come
back again this year?
Speaker 3 (01:25):
It's a huge honor, man, Like, you know, I think
to be invited to anything that is all genre, like
as a country artist is a huge deal.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
You know.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
I think I got to do it once like twenty
sixteen maybe, and so it's it's definitely been a minute.
But to be on that bill with that many, you know,
different types of artists is such a huge honor. And so,
you know, for us, I think that process sort of
looks like, hey, how do we make this set list
like the most banging thirty minutes that we got in
our tank? You know, because you're you're kind of playing
(01:54):
for people that some may know who you are, but
more than likely there's a lot of people that don't
know who you are. So it's a great opportunity to,
you know, make new fans, meet some artists that you
might be able to collab with one day, and it's
just it's a huge It's a huge deal for me
in my camp for sure. We're and for it being Vegas. Dude,
I love Vegas at least for forty eight hours, and
so to be there, getting to do that, get to
(02:15):
play some craps at the same time, you get to
play some golf, it it'll be it'll be a great weekend.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
So as fans from all around the globe get ready
to party on music's honestly one of music's biggest forty
eight hours as we take over the Team Obil Arena
thanks to Capital One two nights, one stage tr part
of this year's lineup. What is Thomas Reetz Vegas checklist?
As you're getting ready to go, what are things that
you have to be prepared for and things you want
to hit when you're there?
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Man, I gotta play golf. Like golf in Vegas is
absolute top notch. I've never played Shadow Creek before. So
I'm gonna try to play Shadow Creek at the MGM.
Gott gotta go roll some dice with my wife, Like
I lose money unless my wife is at the table,
if she's like the luckiest human alive.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
So roll some dice. Gotta eat some good sushi.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Uh. There's a place at the Mandalay Bay called Kumi,
and it's kind of become like a a tradition for
me and my band to go eat at Kumi.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
But yeah, dude, I love being in Vegas.
Speaker 4 (03:14):
Man.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
It's it's it's just there's kind of a never ending
list of things to do. I've actually never gotten to
see the Spear either. So I'm gonna go at least
get my picture in front of the sphere and and uh,
yeah dude, it's it's going to be a blast.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
Hey.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
So the whole reason it sounds like this list, the
whole reason tr committed to the iHeart Radio Music Festival
this year is because you.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
Had Vegas stuff to catch up on. Because it's been
a minute.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Yeah, hey, side note, Kumi has have you had the
tuna pizza?
Speaker 2 (03:40):
There? No?
Speaker 3 (03:43):
My favorite one is the pop rock Have you had
that one? It's like this sushi with pop.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Rocks in it. It's unbelievable.
Speaker 4 (03:49):
It's so good.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
Uh when it comes to uh, the iHeart Radio Music
Festival and you're building You're a guy who does shows
of all sizes around the globe. But when it comes
to the iHeart read you a music festival, knowing that
you mentioned some people maybe hearing your name and your
music for the first time, versus people that are buying
a ticket just to see you for sure, how do
you put together a set list to make both those
(04:11):
people happy?
Speaker 3 (04:13):
Bangers bangers only like that. I think that's kind of
been my motto this year.
Speaker 4 (04:18):
Man.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
It's like I kind of have this new hunger inside
of me, which I you know, I think kind of
started in like twenty fifteen. It's like, you know, back
in the day when you had no hits and you're
walking out there into a festival where nobody.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Knows who you are.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
It's like, how do you get these people on their feet?
How do you get them moving you? How do you
get them to want to buy a ticket the next
time you come to town?
Speaker 2 (04:36):
You know?
Speaker 3 (04:37):
So I think for this in particular thing. You know,
I've been doing this for fifteen years now, which is crazy.
So I'm sure at least most of the people in
that room have heard us song or two of mine.
But to be able to like give them some some
of my new record and also give them some hits,
I think it'll be a blast. Hopefully I can convince
du Aalipa to come up there and sing one with
me too, that that wouldn't suck. But I think you
(04:58):
just got to You got to just give them for
For me and my band, we just want to bring
as much energy as possible and get people moving.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
So let's say you get on a call with Ihier
Rate and they're like, hey, tr you're gonna help us
sell tickets this year. Tell people why they can't miss
the iHeartRadio Music Festival.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Dude, I just don't know where you're gonna get this many,
this many stars like in this. And I'm not even
calling myself that, I'm just saying, like with the entire lineup, Like,
I don't know there's many places where you're gonna get
a two day festival of this many types of music
packed in forty eight hours. So I think if you're
just like a music lover in general, like I would
(05:36):
if this were me, and I lived in Vegas and
I was just a fan, or if I didn't live
in Vegas and I saw this happening, I would be like,
that's that's a two day experience that I need to
go see because I feel like my ears are just
gonna be open to all kinds of different sounds and
people and and uh yeah, they're just two days of
like music from all all over the all over the globe.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
So plus, if you buy your tickets now, Sushi's on
tr and this crew.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Uh maximum two people though, yeah you.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Go first two people that buy now, Ope it's sold out.
You are getting ready to put out a brand new
album at this point, is it still an exciting I
don't want to say it's not an exciting process, but
like putting out your first album or two versus where
you are now, probably way different feeling pressure.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Wise, right, It's it is, But it's not like it's
not in the fact that like there's so many people
out there that know who I am and and our
fans who are going are going to listen to the
music because they're they're a fan of me and a
fan of my family. But I don't know, like I
said earlier, I've got a different drive today. Like, you know,
I think over the last five years I have I've
been excited, but I've also just been so dag im busy,
(06:44):
you know what I mean. So I think when I
go on the road and do shows, I come home
and I'm immediately into you know, my dad and husband duties,
and so there hasn't been a really big like work
life balance, if you will. And so now that my
kids a little bit older, dude, like I get to
come home and get to actually play with my kids
and hang out with my kids, and go to dinner
with my kids, and you know, see movies with my kids,
(07:05):
and so I have more time to kind of like
relax and like kind of rejuvenate.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
And so this record process was no different.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
Dude.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
It's kind of the most time I've ever had to
make a record, and honestly the most fun I've ever
had making a record because I feel like there was
just no pressure and so me and my producers man
just kind of you know, would go on writing retreats
and get in the studio and just feel like what
feels fun to us, like what brings joy to our
souls and let's put that on the record. You know
my band and I is motto every time we walk
out on stage is like, how do we bring joy
(07:34):
to the people tonight?
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Because that is our job?
Speaker 3 (07:36):
And I've never felt that so deep in my core
like I do this year. So I think the next
five years of my career are going to be some
of the most fun that I've ever gotten to have.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
This is your seventh studio album, So let's say we
hop in a time machine the I'm not gonna use
age or years as a reference, but yeah, the Thomas
rhet we have today who is wiser and more experienced.
What would you go back and tell that young kid
putting on his first album, like, Hey, you're worried about this,
this and this, and I promise you it does not matter.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Man.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
I think I've always been a person that really cares about,
you know, what other people think, you know, like whether
that's somebody in the crowd that's having a miserable time
or you know, your random critic on social media. It's
always gotten really under my skin. And I think when
I turned thirty, I was just like, why have I
(08:30):
wasted so much energy on that? You know, because I
feel like I spent from twenty four to thirty, just
like immediately after a show, just scrolling, just trying to
find the worst comments about my show or the worst
comments about my music, And every now and then I'll
have something clever to say back to somebody.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
But I think, like, as.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
A thirty four year old dude, I'm like, I got
I got bigger fish to fry than worrying about what
somebody thinks about me or not liking a song. And
so I think if I could go back into my
twenty four year old body, I would just ask that
guy to just relax. Just go dude, you're making music
for a living, like freaking enjoy it.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
You know what I'm saying?
Speaker 1 (09:05):
What did you learn from that first album all the
way up to now that helps you be more confident
in the product you're about to put out? The album
is about a woman coming out in August.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Here.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
What makes more confident? I think, just so many years
under my belt, you know what I mean. It's not
a huge like guessing game anymore. Like I know what
my lane is, and I know which ways I can
stretch and which ways I can push. And I think
that when I have pushed, I've seen it be you know,
(09:38):
accepted by you know, for sure of my fans. And
so a lot of this record do was kind of
getting back to like what got me here in the
first place, and that was just kind of taking some
chances and you know, trying some I always love to
try things I've never done before. Like every record, I
feel like all I start always starts off with a
song that is just sonically like pushing the boundary for
what I've done in the past. And and I think, man,
(10:00):
for me, like I just love to have fun. Like
if you've been to one of my shows, it's they're
just joyful, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
There's no other way I can say that.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
And so if I can make joyful music to keep
adding to the joy of our show, then I feel
like my mission has been accomplished.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
When you look at the fourteen songs you put on here,
which is a weird number to me because I feel
like it's either a thousand songs on an album or
it's like six yeah, or like six to eleven. So
why did fourteen make sense for you? Because if I
had to guess, you probably added a couple of spots
(10:35):
I did.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
Okay, you know, I think there was a part of
me that kind of wanted to keep up, you know,
with the trend of you know, Morgan putting thirty six
songs on a record, Luke putting thirty songs on a record.
And I think that's great for those guys because they
stream their faces off. But for me, like I grew
up in a in a radio generation, you know what
I'm saying, Like the radio made me kind of who
(10:58):
I am today. And so my producer and I sort
of played this game along the way where he was like, Hey,
we have fifty songs here. We're not putting fifty songs out,
so let's make it. Let's make a ten song album.
And I was like that's impossible, and he was like,
I know, but just for the sake of this game,
let's just keep making a new ten song record every week.
Let's take songs off, put songs on, and we finally
(11:22):
landed on ten. I was just like, dude, I can't
put ten songs on a record. This is just not
like there's three. There's at least three more that I
have to have on here. And do we just live
in a generation where there's like five thousand songs that
come out every dag on Friday, you know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (11:38):
And even for me as.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
A music lover, when I when I get on my
phone and I'm like, oh, so and So's got a
new EP and so and So's got like I don't.
I don't even have the capacity to listen to all
the new music that I want to listen to. And
so for me, I was like, man in a world
full of content, content, content, song song songs like, how
do we make a record that looks like when you
look at it on your phone?
Speaker 2 (11:59):
How does it? How does it look the most digestible?
I guess?
Speaker 3 (12:03):
And fourteen seem pretty digestible to me. So that's kind
of how we landed on that.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
So I obviously have to ask the obvious question. You
added some spots, what songs had to make? Obviously it
was done right, so these had to be there, But
what are the ones that you're like, this album done
unless it includes you know, this, this, this.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
Well, So about three weeks before the record had to
be turned in, I still couldn't even land on fourteen.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
I landed on like nineteen, and my.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
Producer was like, dude, if you will just like take
six of these and hold on to them. Then after
your album is done and run its course, you got
like six more heaters to be able to put out
there rather than trying to like scramble to just put
a new song out there. So that was the hardest
part to me. So like, I kept six back that
(12:54):
I wanted on the record to be able to drop them,
you know, strategically after the album is done. But there
were two songs in particular that, you know, because it
was going to be a twelve song record, and so
I added this song called what Could Go Right? And
I added this song called Boots because the record just
didn't seem round it out to me without those two.
So yeah, man, my goal is like over the next
two years to not go six months without something new
(13:18):
so that I can continue to do my twenty twenty
five and twenty twenty six tour with momentum. So this
is the most like, you know, I don't even know
what I'm doing. I'm just listening to people smarter than
me and all hoping that it translates.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
So that leads into what I want to ask next. Dude,
you have made money, you have sold out shows, You've
put out successful albums. You got a stack of plaques,
you know, with number one and sales success. So when
you say, hey, here's my nineteen, is any part of
you when you get pushed back from somebody. I mean,
(13:54):
you're the boss at the end of the day, right
or so what makes you not go no, this is
what I want to do. So this is what we're
going to do.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Man.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
I think working with this guy, Julian Benetta, I've been
friends with him for a long time. But he he
produced like all the One Direction albums. He just produced
Sabrina Carpenter's new record. He just produced Teddy Swims's new record,
and so his pulse I think, for like global music
(14:22):
is just better than mine. To be honest with you,
and we have this thing that we do called the
Firing Squad, which me and him and like another guy
will just sit in a room and literally just bash
each other and we'll just play.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
We'll just we'll dig into our phone.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
We'll be like, check this song out and then like
Julian and know the psota and just be like you
know what I'm saying. Like it's the most honest musical
conversation that we can have. And I think when you
don't have those type of people in your life and
you only have yes people in your life, then at
the end of the day, you're only doing what you
want to do and you're not listening to like anyone else,
(14:58):
you know. So me and Julian went back and forth,
and me and Dan Huff went back and forth and
million times on the number of this album, the production
of songs, there were so many nights where Julian was like, dude,
the second verse of whatever is just not right. We
got to come back in and change it. I'm like, dude,
it's perfect. He's like, trust me, we should change it.
And we get back in there, spend six hours writing
against the new second verse, and all of a sudden
(15:19):
you're like, oh, that song will never be the same again,
because that second verse was so worth it. And so
I've never really worked like that. It's always just been like, oh,
that's the record, it's finished. And in this go around, man,
the record was sort of just like never finished until
it finally was. And so it's been the most frustrating
but also challenging project that I've ever made. And I
(15:39):
think doing this for fifteen years, dude, like if I'm
not challenged anymore, Like, what's the point of doing it.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
This record like really made me like fall refall in
love with music again. And I've got I've got this
hunger inside of me that just just ready to go.
So I don't know, dude, I'm in a different headspace
today than I was, you know, eighteen years ago.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
The new album comes out on the twenty third of August,
called About a Woman. I do want to ask you
brought up that the challenges that you had going into
this album. We caught up with Keith Thurman, I want
to say, like six seven months ago. He's another guy
that's going to be at the iHeartRadio Music Festival, and
he said he had a full album done, yeah, and
he turned it into the label. They brought him in
(16:24):
to play it for everybody, and he watched reactions around
the room and he goes just saying it. So we
pulled like two or three albums off. There are two
or three songs off there, junks the rest of it,
and moved on.
Speaker 4 (16:35):
And he said he was honestly.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Probably the hardest thing of his entire career because he
felt like he wasted.
Speaker 4 (16:42):
So obviously you don't feel that way.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
This project is coming out to twenty third, everyone's gonna
be able to wrap their arms around the fourteen songs.
But is there a time Maybe recently now, because you're
more confident than you were at the beginning, where like
you had to take something that you were like passionate
about you thought was done good to go, and once
you kind of let other people water your plans, you realize, now,
this ain't it, dude.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
So many times, I mean, there were there were songs
on this record that obviously aren't on this record anymore,
that I was so sure of, you know what I mean,
And then I would get the band on the bus
one night and I'd be like, yo, check this song
out we wrote last week, and you're kind of seeing
some head bobbing and you're seeing the thing and you finish,
and everybody's like, that's cool man, And I'm like, I
(17:24):
don't want it to be just cool man.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
I want it. I want it.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
I want you to either hate it so bad that
you have to tell me how bad you hate it,
or I want it to be the favorite, your favorite
Thomas Rhett song you've ever heard. Life's too short to
put out, you know, mediocre songs to me and it's like,
and it's fine if you hate it, but I either
want you to hate it or I want you to
love it. I think fine fine does not get anybody
(17:50):
anywhere anymore. And so there were definitely songs where I
was like so sure of this, because like, here's the.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
Thing that fans will never have.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
Fans will never have that moment in the writing room
of like finally landing on the hook of a chorus
or like finally finding that melody that works for a
second verse. That's a feeling that only you and the
songwriters will ever have, and you can only hope that
when that song comes out, the fans feel some kind
of way that even comes close to matching that. So
(18:21):
when you're playing songs for other people, you're thinking that
they experienced the same feeling that you did while you
were writing it. But in reality, they had a bad
Monday and a bad Tuesday and they're just hearing a
random song on a Wednesday and they go, it doesn't
really hit me, bro, And you're like why, Like you
don't understand what we just did. You know what I'm saying,
(18:41):
And I think that's why I'm.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Making records is so hard, because art is subjective.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
Like when you you know, if you're a painter and
you spend six months on a mural and then you
hang it up on the side of the road and
somebody goes, that's terrible. That's they're They're entitled to that opinion,
you know what I'm saying. But it doesn't it shouldn't
make you feel like it sucks because you were the
one that had the time to dive into that painting.
(19:06):
And it's the same with a song, dude. You spend
three weeks writing a song and you put it out
to the world. It is no longer up to you
like it is now up to the masses to decide
if they like it or not. That's what makes making
music so awesome and so frustrating, because not everybody likes
the same thing. You just kind of hope that a
lot of people end up liking what you put out.
So that was a really long way of answering your question.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Last thing I want to ask you, and I apologize,
I'm keeping you a couple of minutes later than I
told you I would. Good, So it's and this song
can be the same for you. But out of the
new album, the New Fourteenth songs, What was the toughest,
what song gave you the most difficulty, what song kind
of wrote itself, and which one is your heart tied
(19:50):
closest to.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
I think my heart is tied closest to a song
called what Could Go Right for many reasons, but it
is like a verbatim story of the night that I
kind of told my wife that I was in love
with her. And I've tried to write that song a
million different ways and it just never really worked. And
it just happened that this group I was with, like
we'd really hit the nail on the head on that one.
(20:15):
So I think my heart was most attached to what
Could Go Right? And then, second of all, on that
same song probably the most difficult because the way that
the guy I wrote it with sang the demo I
had a really hard time copying because I don't have
a great falsett of voice and there was a lot
of falsett up movements in the chorus that my producer
was like, you should just sing it full of voice,
(20:36):
and I was like, I don't know that I can
sing that high. So we spent like four days in
the studio trying to figure out which version of this
and finally landed on one. So I think that was
probably the toughest one to sing vocally.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
And then what was your third question?
Speaker 1 (20:48):
It was what song wrote itself? Like once you sat down,
it just it fell into place, minimal effort.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
I think the song that wrote itself would be the
last track on the record. It's called I Can Spend
Forever Loving You.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
And it was actually the first time that I've ever
written with Ernest, And it was like a random, random
day in Nashville and me and Ernest, right, let's write
something that we think could be in a Yellowstone soundtrack,
and Ernest starts just playing this guitar lick and literally
the lines just kept falling in place, and before we
knew it, like forty five minutes later, the song was
(21:21):
done and the demo was done. That hardly ever happens,
but Ernest is such a great freestyler that like, if
you're lost, you just tell Ernest to start singing and
start saying things, and you're gonna find something that that's amazing.
Speaker 4 (21:34):
So that's so awesome. Man, can't wait for the new album.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
I apologize it took you a little bit longer, but
we can't wait to see it. Can't wait to see
in Vegas, dude, and you're on vacation right now.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Yeah, I'm at the beach with the with the fan.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
So you're like, yeah, so if we could, Like, I'm.
Speaker 4 (21:50):
Trying to get to that break.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
It's a good break for me.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
So dude, it's always great to catch up with you. Man,
I think the world is so thanks for hanging out, brother.
Speaker 4 (21:58):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Yeah, thanks so much. To have a good one.
Speaker 4 (22:00):
You two see you soon. One see
I'll tell you I haven't been clean. When's the last
time you were clean shaven?
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Dude?
Speaker 3 (00:04):
So about three weeks ago, right before we went on
our trip to Africa, I was like, I'm going to
shave pretty good so I don't have to do it
while I'm over there.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Yeah, and uh, the.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
Day before my kids left, Lily, my two year old,
was playing with my beard trimmer, and she was like
messing with all the different attachments. And I normally just
keep my own, like I have one guard that I
use and I never shave up, always shaved down, yep.
And so I went for it and I just started
right here and went down and I was like, oh no,
I think Lily had like changed the guard for like
(00:34):
one of the real small ones, and like, you know,
I just have a stripe on my face and so
you're not going to rock the strike. So I just
had to get all of it to go and I
FaceTime my wife.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
She's like, what happened to you?
Speaker 3 (00:45):
And I was just like, this is this is the
me you got at least for the next three days
until it starts to go back.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
So I note the double standard is so messed up, dude.
Could you imagine if she went to like the salon
and your and your responsor was what happened?
Speaker 4 (00:59):
What happened?
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Hey, you look awesome, Like what did you do? I
love it?
Speaker 4 (01:04):
It'd be over. You'd have a reason for a whole
new album. It would be over.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Right.
Speaker 4 (01:09):
Listen, I got to ask you.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
One of the biggest things that we get to do
as a company all year is the iHeartRadio Music Festival.
Speaker 4 (01:16):
We're back in Vegas again this year.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
What's the process on an artist on getting invited to
that and what does it mean for you to come
back again this year?
Speaker 3 (01:25):
It's a huge honor, man, Like, you know, I think
to be invited to anything that is all genre, like
as a country artist is a huge deal.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
You know.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
I think I got to do it once like twenty
sixteen maybe, and so it's it's definitely been a minute.
But to be on that bill with that many, you know,
different types of artists is such a huge honor. And so,
you know, for us, I think that process sort of
looks like, hey, how do we make this set list
like the most banging thirty minutes that we got in
our tank? You know, because you're you're kind of playing
(01:54):
for people that some may know who you are, but
more than likely there's a lot of people that don't
know who you are. So it's a great opportunity to,
you know, make new fans, meet some artists that you
might be able to collab with one day, and it's
just it's a huge It's a huge deal for me
in my camp for sure. We're and for it being Vegas. Dude,
I love Vegas at least for forty eight hours, and
so to be there, getting to do that, get to
(02:15):
play some craps at the same time, you get to
play some golf, it it'll be it'll be a great weekend.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
So as fans from all around the globe get ready
to party on music's honestly one of music's biggest forty
eight hours as we take over the Team Obil Arena
thanks to Capital One two nights, one stage tr part
of this year's lineup. What is Thomas Reetz Vegas checklist?
As you're getting ready to go, what are things that
you have to be prepared for and things you want
to hit when you're there?
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Man, I gotta play golf. Like golf in Vegas is
absolute top notch. I've never played Shadow Creek before. So
I'm gonna try to play Shadow Creek at the MGM.
Gott gotta go roll some dice with my wife, Like
I lose money unless my wife is at the table,
if she's like the luckiest human alive.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
So roll some dice. Gotta eat some good sushi.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Uh. There's a place at the Mandalay Bay called Kumi,
and it's kind of become like a a tradition for
me and my band to go eat at Kumi.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
But yeah, dude, I love being in Vegas.
Speaker 4 (03:14):
Man.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
It's it's it's just there's kind of a never ending
list of things to do. I've actually never gotten to
see the Spear either. So I'm gonna go at least
get my picture in front of the sphere and and uh,
yeah dude, it's it's going to be a blast.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
Hey.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
So the whole reason it sounds like this list, the
whole reason tr committed to the iHeart Radio Music Festival
this year is because you.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
Had Vegas stuff to catch up on. Because it's been
a minute.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Yeah, hey, side note, Kumi has have you had the
tuna pizza?
Speaker 2 (03:40):
There? No?
Speaker 3 (03:43):
My favorite one is the pop rock Have you had
that one? It's like this sushi with pop.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Rocks in it. It's unbelievable.
Speaker 4 (03:49):
It's so good.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
Uh when it comes to uh, the iHeart Radio Music
Festival and you're building You're a guy who does shows
of all sizes around the globe. But when it comes
to the iHeart read you a music festival, knowing that
you mentioned some people maybe hearing your name and your
music for the first time, versus people that are buying
a ticket just to see you for sure, how do
you put together a set list to make both those
(04:11):
people happy?
Speaker 3 (04:13):
Bangers bangers only like that. I think that's kind of
been my motto this year.
Speaker 4 (04:18):
Man.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
It's like I kind of have this new hunger inside
of me, which I you know, I think kind of
started in like twenty fifteen. It's like, you know, back
in the day when you had no hits and you're
walking out there into a festival where nobody.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Knows who you are.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
It's like, how do you get these people on their feet?
How do you get them moving you? How do you
get them to want to buy a ticket the next
time you come to town?
Speaker 2 (04:36):
You know?
Speaker 3 (04:37):
So I think for this in particular thing. You know,
I've been doing this for fifteen years now, which is crazy.
So I'm sure at least most of the people in
that room have heard us song or two of mine.
But to be able to like give them some some
of my new record and also give them some hits,
I think it'll be a blast. Hopefully I can convince
du Aalipa to come up there and sing one with
me too, that that wouldn't suck. But I think you
(04:58):
just got to You got to just give them for
For me and my band, we just want to bring
as much energy as possible and get people moving.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
So let's say you get on a call with Ihier
Rate and they're like, hey, tr you're gonna help us
sell tickets this year. Tell people why they can't miss
the iHeartRadio Music Festival.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Dude, I just don't know where you're gonna get this many,
this many stars like in this. And I'm not even
calling myself that, I'm just saying, like with the entire lineup, Like,
I don't know there's many places where you're gonna get
a two day festival of this many types of music
packed in forty eight hours. So I think if you're
just like a music lover in general, like I would
(05:36):
if this were me, and I lived in Vegas and
I was just a fan, or if I didn't live
in Vegas and I saw this happening, I would be like,
that's that's a two day experience that I need to
go see because I feel like my ears are just
gonna be open to all kinds of different sounds and
people and and uh yeah, they're just two days of
like music from all all over the all over the globe.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
So plus, if you buy your tickets now, Sushi's on
tr and this crew.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Uh maximum two people though, yeah you.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Go first two people that buy now, Ope it's sold out.
You are getting ready to put out a brand new
album at this point, is it still an exciting I
don't want to say it's not an exciting process, but
like putting out your first album or two versus where
you are now, probably way different feeling pressure.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Wise, right, It's it is, But it's not like it's
not in the fact that like there's so many people
out there that know who I am and and our
fans who are going are going to listen to the
music because they're they're a fan of me and a
fan of my family. But I don't know, like I
said earlier, I've got a different drive today. Like, you know,
I think over the last five years I have I've
been excited, but I've also just been so dag im busy,
(06:44):
you know what I mean. So I think when I
go on the road and do shows, I come home
and I'm immediately into you know, my dad and husband duties,
and so there hasn't been a really big like work
life balance, if you will. And so now that my
kids a little bit older, dude, like I get to
come home and get to actually play with my kids
and hang out with my kids, and go to dinner
with my kids, and you know, see movies with my kids,
(07:05):
and so I have more time to kind of like
relax and like kind of rejuvenate.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
And so this record process was no different.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
Dude.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
It's kind of the most time I've ever had to
make a record, and honestly the most fun I've ever
had making a record because I feel like there was
just no pressure and so me and my producers man
just kind of you know, would go on writing retreats
and get in the studio and just feel like what
feels fun to us, like what brings joy to our
souls and let's put that on the record. You know
my band and I is motto every time we walk
out on stage is like, how do we bring joy
(07:34):
to the people tonight?
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Because that is our job?
Speaker 3 (07:36):
And I've never felt that so deep in my core
like I do this year. So I think the next
five years of my career are going to be some
of the most fun that I've ever gotten to have.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
This is your seventh studio album, So let's say we
hop in a time machine the I'm not gonna use
age or years as a reference, but yeah, the Thomas
rhet we have today who is wiser and more experienced.
What would you go back and tell that young kid
putting on his first album, like, Hey, you're worried about this,
this and this, and I promise you it does not matter.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Man.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
I think I've always been a person that really cares about,
you know, what other people think, you know, like whether
that's somebody in the crowd that's having a miserable time
or you know, your random critic on social media. It's
always gotten really under my skin. And I think when
I turned thirty, I was just like, why have I
(08:30):
wasted so much energy on that? You know, because I
feel like I spent from twenty four to thirty, just
like immediately after a show, just scrolling, just trying to
find the worst comments about my show or the worst
comments about my music, And every now and then I'll
have something clever to say back to somebody.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
But I think, like, as.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
A thirty four year old dude, I'm like, I got
I got bigger fish to fry than worrying about what
somebody thinks about me or not liking a song. And
so I think if I could go back into my
twenty four year old body, I would just ask that
guy to just relax. Just go dude, you're making music
for a living, like freaking enjoy it.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
You know what I'm saying?
Speaker 1 (09:05):
What did you learn from that first album all the
way up to now that helps you be more confident
in the product you're about to put out? The album
is about a woman coming out in August.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Here.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
What makes more confident? I think, just so many years
under my belt, you know what I mean. It's not
a huge like guessing game anymore. Like I know what
my lane is, and I know which ways I can
stretch and which ways I can push. And I think
that when I have pushed, I've seen it be you know,
(09:38):
accepted by you know, for sure of my fans. And
so a lot of this record do was kind of
getting back to like what got me here in the
first place, and that was just kind of taking some
chances and you know, trying some I always love to
try things I've never done before. Like every record, I
feel like all I start always starts off with a
song that is just sonically like pushing the boundary for
what I've done in the past. And and I think, man,
(10:00):
for me, like I just love to have fun. Like
if you've been to one of my shows, it's they're
just joyful, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
There's no other way I can say that.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
And so if I can make joyful music to keep
adding to the joy of our show, then I feel
like my mission has been accomplished.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
When you look at the fourteen songs you put on here,
which is a weird number to me because I feel
like it's either a thousand songs on an album or
it's like six yeah, or like six to eleven. So
why did fourteen make sense for you? Because if I
had to guess, you probably added a couple of spots
(10:35):
I did.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
Okay, you know, I think there was a part of
me that kind of wanted to keep up, you know,
with the trend of you know, Morgan putting thirty six
songs on a record, Luke putting thirty songs on a record.
And I think that's great for those guys because they
stream their faces off. But for me, like I grew
up in a in a radio generation, you know what
I'm saying, Like the radio made me kind of who
(10:58):
I am today. And so my producer and I sort
of played this game along the way where he was like, Hey,
we have fifty songs here. We're not putting fifty songs out,
so let's make it. Let's make a ten song album.
And I was like that's impossible, and he was like,
I know, but just for the sake of this game,
let's just keep making a new ten song record every week.
Let's take songs off, put songs on, and we finally
(11:22):
landed on ten. I was just like, dude, I can't
put ten songs on a record. This is just not
like there's three. There's at least three more that I
have to have on here. And do we just live
in a generation where there's like five thousand songs that
come out every dag on Friday, you know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (11:38):
And even for me as.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
A music lover, when I when I get on my
phone and I'm like, oh, so and So's got a
new EP and so and So's got like I don't.
I don't even have the capacity to listen to all
the new music that I want to listen to. And
so for me, I was like, man in a world
full of content, content, content, song song songs like, how
do we make a record that looks like when you
look at it on your phone?
Speaker 2 (11:59):
How does it? How does it look the most digestible?
I guess?
Speaker 3 (12:03):
And fourteen seem pretty digestible to me. So that's kind
of how we landed on that.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
So I obviously have to ask the obvious question. You
added some spots, what songs had to make? Obviously it
was done right, so these had to be there, But
what are the ones that you're like, this album done
unless it includes you know, this, this, this.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
Well, So about three weeks before the record had to
be turned in, I still couldn't even land on fourteen.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
I landed on like nineteen, and my.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
Producer was like, dude, if you will just like take
six of these and hold on to them. Then after
your album is done and run its course, you got
like six more heaters to be able to put out
there rather than trying to like scramble to just put
a new song out there. So that was the hardest
part to me. So like, I kept six back that
(12:54):
I wanted on the record to be able to drop them,
you know, strategically after the album is done. But there
were two songs in particular that, you know, because it
was going to be a twelve song record, and so
I added this song called what Could Go Right? And
I added this song called Boots because the record just
didn't seem round it out to me without those two.
So yeah, man, my goal is like over the next
two years to not go six months without something new
(13:18):
so that I can continue to do my twenty twenty
five and twenty twenty six tour with momentum. So this
is the most like, you know, I don't even know
what I'm doing. I'm just listening to people smarter than
me and all hoping that it translates.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
So that leads into what I want to ask next. Dude,
you have made money, you have sold out shows, You've
put out successful albums. You got a stack of plaques,
you know, with number one and sales success. So when
you say, hey, here's my nineteen, is any part of
you when you get pushed back from somebody. I mean,
(13:54):
you're the boss at the end of the day, right
or so what makes you not go no, this is
what I want to do. So this is what we're
going to do.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Man.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
I think working with this guy, Julian Benetta, I've been
friends with him for a long time. But he he
produced like all the One Direction albums. He just produced
Sabrina Carpenter's new record. He just produced Teddy Swims's new record,
and so his pulse I think, for like global music
(14:22):
is just better than mine. To be honest with you,
and we have this thing that we do called the
Firing Squad, which me and him and like another guy
will just sit in a room and literally just bash
each other and we'll just play.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
We'll just we'll dig into our phone.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
We'll be like, check this song out and then like
Julian and know the psota and just be like you
know what I'm saying. Like it's the most honest musical
conversation that we can have. And I think when you
don't have those type of people in your life and
you only have yes people in your life, then at
the end of the day, you're only doing what you
want to do and you're not listening to like anyone else,
(14:58):
you know. So me and Julian went back and forth,
and me and Dan Huff went back and forth and
million times on the number of this album, the production
of songs, there were so many nights where Julian was like, dude,
the second verse of whatever is just not right. We
got to come back in and change it. I'm like, dude,
it's perfect. He's like, trust me, we should change it.
And we get back in there, spend six hours writing
against the new second verse, and all of a sudden
(15:19):
you're like, oh, that song will never be the same again,
because that second verse was so worth it. And so
I've never really worked like that. It's always just been like, oh,
that's the record, it's finished. And in this go around, man,
the record was sort of just like never finished until
it finally was. And so it's been the most frustrating
but also challenging project that I've ever made. And I
(15:39):
think doing this for fifteen years, dude, like if I'm
not challenged anymore, Like, what's the point of doing it.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
This record like really made me like fall refall in
love with music again. And I've got I've got this
hunger inside of me that just just ready to go.
So I don't know, dude, I'm in a different headspace
today than I was, you know, eighteen years ago.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
The new album comes out on the twenty third of August,
called About a Woman. I do want to ask you
brought up that the challenges that you had going into
this album. We caught up with Keith Thurman, I want
to say, like six seven months ago. He's another guy
that's going to be at the iHeartRadio Music Festival, and
he said he had a full album done, yeah, and
he turned it into the label. They brought him in
(16:24):
to play it for everybody, and he watched reactions around
the room and he goes just saying it. So we
pulled like two or three albums off. There are two
or three songs off there, junks the rest of it,
and moved on.
Speaker 4 (16:35):
And he said he was honestly.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Probably the hardest thing of his entire career because he
felt like he wasted.
Speaker 4 (16:42):
So obviously you don't feel that way.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
This project is coming out to twenty third, everyone's gonna
be able to wrap their arms around the fourteen songs.
But is there a time Maybe recently now, because you're
more confident than you were at the beginning, where like
you had to take something that you were like passionate
about you thought was done good to go, and once
you kind of let other people water your plans, you realize, now,
this ain't it, dude.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
So many times, I mean, there were there were songs
on this record that obviously aren't on this record anymore,
that I was so sure of, you know what I mean,
And then I would get the band on the bus
one night and I'd be like, yo, check this song
out we wrote last week, and you're kind of seeing
some head bobbing and you're seeing the thing and you finish,
and everybody's like, that's cool man, And I'm like, I
(17:24):
don't want it to be just cool man.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
I want it. I want it.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
I want you to either hate it so bad that
you have to tell me how bad you hate it,
or I want it to be the favorite, your favorite
Thomas Rhett song you've ever heard. Life's too short to
put out, you know, mediocre songs to me and it's like,
and it's fine if you hate it, but I either
want you to hate it or I want you to
love it. I think fine fine does not get anybody
(17:50):
anywhere anymore. And so there were definitely songs where I
was like so sure of this, because like, here's the.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
Thing that fans will never have.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
Fans will never have that moment in the writing room
of like finally landing on the hook of a chorus
or like finally finding that melody that works for a
second verse. That's a feeling that only you and the
songwriters will ever have, and you can only hope that
when that song comes out, the fans feel some kind
of way that even comes close to matching that. So
(18:21):
when you're playing songs for other people, you're thinking that
they experienced the same feeling that you did while you
were writing it. But in reality, they had a bad
Monday and a bad Tuesday and they're just hearing a
random song on a Wednesday and they go, it doesn't
really hit me, bro, And you're like why, Like you
don't understand what we just did. You know what I'm saying,
(18:41):
And I think that's why I'm.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Making records is so hard, because art is subjective.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
Like when you you know, if you're a painter and
you spend six months on a mural and then you
hang it up on the side of the road and
somebody goes, that's terrible. That's they're They're entitled to that opinion,
you know what I'm saying. But it doesn't it shouldn't
make you feel like it sucks because you were the
one that had the time to dive into that painting.
(19:06):
And it's the same with a song, dude. You spend
three weeks writing a song and you put it out
to the world. It is no longer up to you
like it is now up to the masses to decide
if they like it or not. That's what makes making
music so awesome and so frustrating, because not everybody likes
the same thing. You just kind of hope that a
lot of people end up liking what you put out.
So that was a really long way of answering your question.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Last thing I want to ask you, and I apologize,
I'm keeping you a couple of minutes later than I
told you I would. Good, So it's and this song
can be the same for you. But out of the
new album, the New Fourteenth songs, What was the toughest,
what song gave you the most difficulty, what song kind
of wrote itself, and which one is your heart tied
(19:50):
closest to.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
I think my heart is tied closest to a song
called what Could Go Right for many reasons, but it
is like a verbatim story of the night that I
kind of told my wife that I was in love
with her. And I've tried to write that song a
million different ways and it just never really worked. And
it just happened that this group I was with, like
we'd really hit the nail on the head on that one.
(20:15):
So I think my heart was most attached to what
Could Go Right? And then, second of all, on that
same song probably the most difficult because the way that
the guy I wrote it with sang the demo I
had a really hard time copying because I don't have
a great falsett of voice and there was a lot
of falsett up movements in the chorus that my producer
was like, you should just sing it full of voice,
(20:36):
and I was like, I don't know that I can
sing that high. So we spent like four days in
the studio trying to figure out which version of this
and finally landed on one. So I think that was
probably the toughest one to sing vocally.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
And then what was your third question?
Speaker 1 (20:48):
It was what song wrote itself? Like once you sat down,
it just it fell into place, minimal effort.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
I think the song that wrote itself would be the
last track on the record. It's called I Can Spend
Forever Loving You.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
And it was actually the first time that I've ever
written with Ernest, And it was like a random, random
day in Nashville and me and Ernest, right, let's write
something that we think could be in a Yellowstone soundtrack,
and Ernest starts just playing this guitar lick and literally
the lines just kept falling in place, and before we
knew it, like forty five minutes later, the song was
(21:21):
done and the demo was done. That hardly ever happens,
but Ernest is such a great freestyler that like, if
you're lost, you just tell Ernest to start singing and
start saying things, and you're gonna find something that that's amazing.
Speaker 4 (21:34):
So that's so awesome. Man, can't wait for the new album.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
I apologize it took you a little bit longer, but
we can't wait to see it. Can't wait to see
in Vegas, dude, and you're on vacation right now.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Yeah, I'm at the beach with the with the fan.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
So you're like, yeah, so if we could, Like, I'm.
Speaker 4 (21:50):
Trying to get to that break.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
It's a good break for me.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
So dude, it's always great to catch up with you. Man,
I think the world is so thanks for hanging out, brother.
Speaker 4 (21:58):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Yeah, thanks so much. To have a good one.
Speaker 4 (22:00):
You two see you soon. One see
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