Do you know who Thomas Rhett is? Do you know that his new track “What’s Your Country Song”, that was just released, jumped onto the country music airplay charts with the highest charting debut of his career? Do you that song was created from a simple idea Thomas had in a hotel room in Dallas?
Thomas Rhett arrived on the country music scene a decade ago, and since then he has been one of the hottest rising stars with an amazing resume of hit songs. But don’t tell him that, because he still feels like the new guy, “It’s wild man. Yeah, it really doesn’t even resonate, because I still…even 16 number-ones deep, it’s like I still get on stage and I wonder ‘do people even know who I am? Do people know these songs?’ Because it feels like, even though I started my career in 2010…I’ve been doing this for 10 years, it still feels like I’m kind of the freshman in high school.” Oh, and he said this even after winning ACM Entertainer of the Year back in September.
Thomas knows this is not a job that he tackles alone, he gives credit to his family, his team, on and off the road, his fans and just anyone and everyone who has supported him along this decade-long success run, which he happily says “Hopefully we can continue this trend of having chart toppers because it’s always extremely fun.”
That next step of chart toppers could very well be the latest single that he’s released, “What’s You Country Song.” This week it is the most-added song to country radio with 150 stations, debuting at No. 18 on Billboard’s Country Airplay Chart and No. 25 on the Mediabase/Country Airplay Chart.
The track was written pre-pandemic in a hotel room in Dallas, Texas. Sitting with co-writers Ashley Gorley, Parker Welling, Jesse Frasure, and his dad Rhett Akins, Thomas pondered out loud to the group the idea of “what’s your country or where’s your country or something like that.” Thomas shares that simple question took off, and sparked a creative moment “they were just asking me where that inspiration came from, and I just noticed that whether I was in Los Angeles or New York or Seattle or Nashville or anywhere in between, I just kinda noticed that everybody had some country in ‘em, you know. Whether you lived in the city or wherever you lived, I think everybody has a little bit of country inside their bones.” Thomas says, “We decided to dive in and make the whole song old country song lyrics that tied into a story.”
Now that simple idea that was first mentioned in a Dallas hotel room has transformed into another milestone in a career already drenched in milestones.
Check out the music video for Thomas Rhett’s brand new track, “What’s Your Country Song,” right here…
photo by TCD