- 2 days ago
It goes without saying that it “Ain’t A Bad Life” for Thomas Rhett, who is on the verge of scoring his 25th number one song, and just welcomed his fifth child, Brave, earlier this year. The Country star joined Katie Neal to talk about it all this week during the 'Superstar Power Hour.'
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MusicTranscript
00:00happy belated birthday thank you what did you do to celebrate oh man my girls took me to play putt
00:07putt downtown at putt shack have you been there it's pretty sick i think i've been there that's
00:12where it's like kind of like a video game right not a video game but it's like very gamified
00:17yeah it was very gamified it was also a complete disaster um because my four-year-old and six-year
00:23-old
00:23just could not understand why they couldn't just pick the ball up and drop it in the hole
00:27and so we were like each other yeah we were just holding up everyone behind us and there's
00:31nothing that stresses me out more than making people behind me wait on my children so like
00:36putt putt and the airport are my two most stressful experiences in life trying to get all those kids
00:42through the air i literally don't know how you guys would do that it's unbelievable like i just have to
00:46turn around and be like i'm so sorry you know i don't even have children yet but i dread the
00:51day
00:51of having to do that like i think it's ryan reynolds that says he would rather eat a piping hot
00:56rabies
00:57than fly with his children it's a lot i mean it really is a lot um and like people with
01:03kids
01:03sort of kind of give you one of those like it's like we get it you know and then but
01:07there's people
01:07without kids there's like get your kids in line like you know i mean so you you really hope that
01:13you're in front of and behind some people that like you know at least have like a nephew or something
01:18to understand yeah exactly like a kid thing so amazing also congratulations on baby number five
01:24thank you thank you how are you doing we're good we are we're tired um uh but he he's actually
01:32sleeping he's he's our best sleeping baby that we have had uh but i still think just like having a
01:37newborn you know plus like you know four other um kids schedules with school and and sports and
01:45friends and birthdays like it's we are it this is this is we're in the weeds as my grandmother would
01:50call it so um which is so wild because you were almost totally out of the weeds oh we were
01:54we
01:55were breathing real oxygen and now like half of our nostrils are back under the ocean waves but it's
02:01this season and it's um i'm really trying to not let it slip me by i'm not trying to wish
02:05it away
02:06um so really just trying to you know when i'm home just be extremely present and you know because it
02:12really it kind of dawned on me the other day that like my oldest child she's 10 so you know
02:18i have
02:18eight summers left with her you know and and when you start thinking about it in terms of like
02:23whoa eight years it seems like a long time but it's been six years since covid and it kind of
02:28feels
02:29like it was yesterday in some capacity you know so that's how quick time is moving and so i'm really
02:34trying to you know just be as present as a humanly can while i'm home because i know that you
02:38know
02:38this might this might be the last last infant phase that we go through you know so but it's we're
02:43having a good time and we're just tired but we kind of have learned how to live tired so
02:47right is this the last infant do you think or like are you guys still undecided
02:52dude i mean in my brain i'm done uh but we've seen how far that's that my brain has gotten
02:59me
03:00you know over the last decade or so um i think lauren would keep having kids honestly um but you
03:06know we'll see i mean even even this last go around we had no idea what was going on and
03:10and uh got
03:11pregnant and so god god's timing is is different than ours so we're just kind of keep you know staying
03:16open-handed and you know seeing what comes our way so amen to that tell me about the minute you
03:22realized it was a little boy because you guys didn't find out and i think in lauren's post she
03:25said you kind of like actually helped deliver the baby yeah i mean help deliver is a is a bit
03:30dramatic
03:30you know like i the doctor obviously did it all um but i know i had a buddy of mine
03:36who said that
03:38like he kind of just helped like you know i want this to be a g-rated um interview but
03:43you understand
03:44what i'm trying to say and so yep uh like halfway i kind of got to you know do the
03:49rest and yeah exactly
03:51and um so yeah like i was sort of the first one to see you know boy or girl kind
03:56of got to announce
03:57it to the room um and you know it it was i did not love not knowing the gender because
04:04we have we
04:04have done that with every other child so it's like you kind of get to prepare like oh we're having
04:08another girl or we're doing this we're doing that to not have any idea um was pretty wild like the
04:14only person in our life that knew the gender was one of our best friends who have also happens to
04:19be
04:19an interior designer so lauren told her like sent her the letter of the gender and she was like hey
04:24when y'all go to the hospital text me and i'm gonna switch some wallpaper around you know do some
04:28stuff in in the nursery and so um it looks pretty manly in there now which is nice oh my
04:33god that's
04:34so special i think jordan davis also did that like they had the nursery finished but they couldn't
04:38go in and see it yeah exactly yeah and then last baby question but tell me now where about the
04:44name
04:44how you guys landed on brave yeah honestly it took us forever to think because we just never had a
04:50boy and and i think i've always kind of thought of boy names and like part of me wanted to
04:55go like
04:55really musical or like really rugged outdoor like i had names like canyon or lyric or alarm was like
05:03no you know and and uh but there's one of my favorite wines in the world is called mount brave
05:09and we were drinking it one night at the farm and i don't know for some reason when i passed
05:14that
05:15bottle i saw the name brave and i was like man i've never i don't know anybody named brave and
05:19i love
05:19you know what that name means and sounds like a strong name and and uh so we kind of landed
05:24on brave
05:24but didn't didn't pick elijah literally until we had to fill out the uh birth certificate like they kept
05:32coming back in being like are y'all done we're like no we're we're still we're still deciding
05:38um but yeah brave elijah uh akins um but it took us a minute but but now i didn't know
05:44how brave was
05:45gonna roll off my lips and now it just comes off just as natural as all my other kids so
05:49do you ever
05:49look at lauren and you're like how do we have five children every day every day so wild how are
05:55the
05:55girls handling it are they like because now they're all no they're like we have a baby doll
05:59yeah i mean they're it's almost like like willow gray and ada james my older two they are in they're
06:05all in you know i have to like fight to hold my child that's how much they want to hold
06:10him you know
06:11so um it's really cool to have a baby uh and also to have you know a 10 and 8
06:17year old um because they
06:18do really help out a ton and and um you know early in the mornings they love to feed brave
06:23like on the
06:23couch and before we head out to school and so it's been really sweet to watch them uh with a
06:28baby
06:28brother so i saw that you took the older girls on their first turkey hunt that had to have just
06:33like
06:33filled your heart up so much it was awesome you know i mean before before we had brave there were
06:38so many people that were like man i just wish y'all had a boy so you could have a
06:40hunting buddy
06:41you know and and uh i have them you know and like willow gray has shown interest for quite a
06:47while
06:47and so has ada james and got to take him down to mississippi um you know on the season opener
06:52and
06:52willow gray got her first bird ada james i think is still a couple years away from
06:57being able to sit remotely still in the woods but uh it's hard willow gray was was awesome and she
07:02loved it and um it was just cool to get them outside and you know teach them kind of how
07:07i grew
07:07up and just about hunting and conservation and and all those type of things but it was it was a
07:11really really special day for me as a dad that's amazing let's talk music because you've got your
07:1620 what will be your 25th number one hopefully yeah i when ashley from your record label just
07:22said that and i literally i swore out loud because i was like no 25 like that's that seems like
07:28i was
07:28i don't know why but that just like hit me i was like that's like what a like monumental moment
07:33yeah it's it it doesn't it doesn't add up in my brain you know i mean we've talked enough and
07:38i
07:38probably shared this a million times but there are some days i wake up and i still feel like a
07:42new
07:42artist and then there are some days i wake up and i'm like gosh i've been doing this for a
07:46long time
07:46you know there's really no in between for me um because like i was i've been going through this
07:52phase where i've been like slowly just going through pictures from like 2010 to now just like swiping
07:58watching old videos waiting for him to upload from the cloud to see like what in the world were we
08:02watching back then and i don't even remember that dude like i don't remember being 21 and 22 um i
08:11think
08:11because there's just so much life that has been lived but when i think about 25 number ones like
08:15you know i think if i were to tell my 19 year old self that i'd be talking to you
08:19today talking about
08:20that i would have called you a complete liar you know so i feel i feel grateful i feel blessed
08:25um
08:26i don't know just just feel undeserving for the people that have helped helped me get here honestly
08:31um and and also just to have that number one hopefully with jordan uh is really special because
08:36he's gotten to become one of my one of my best buddies in this industry and uh to have that
08:41with
08:41him is really cool is this gonna be like where do we go from here are we on to new
08:46projects from this
08:48like i know you're always working on new music yeah i've been in the studio this whole week um it's
08:52first time i've been back in the studio in about a year um you know i wrote all summer did
08:57a bunch of
08:58really cool camps last year um and so yeah we're working on a record now um i would love to
09:04say we'll have
09:05like a like a single or a new song come out like in early may um but yeah i mean
09:11it's like every time
09:13i start a record i'm like what else is there to say you know and then you kind of realize
09:16dang look
09:17at all the life that got lived in the last couple years and so um it's been a blast um
09:22you know
09:23working with uh my buddy julian producing the record i've actually got a bunch of my band guys
09:26playing on this record um trying to record this album like a real band you know and and that's
09:32something that i have not done in a very long time um but yeah it all feels new and it
09:37all feels
09:38fresh and these songs to me that i'm recording now just feel they feel mature i think that's kind
09:45of the word that i'm going for mature and hopefully and hopefully timeless so we'll see that's amazing
09:50i'm really excited you know i'm always such a fan of everything you put out like i still listening to
09:54about a woman like it's been the best and i when you talk about you've done some really cool camps
09:59the camp that i have been the most fascinated to see what comes out of is the camp that everyone
10:03did with brandon lake oh you were also out there yeah talk about that a little bit it was amazing
10:10you know brandon like he came to nashville rented out a studio for like two weeks and invited a ton
10:17of different artists um a ton of different nashville songwriters and i think a lot of people thought are we
10:22making a country record for brandon and it really it's amazing how much christian music and country
10:28music are blending today um you know brandon doing stuff with jelly roll and and uh you know
10:34bailey zimmerman um that's how he grew up you know i mean he grew up very country uh listening to
10:40country radio um and as an as an amazing of a worship leader he as he is he's got that
10:46like kind of pull
10:47to to kind of want to mix um you know worship music and country music and i think that country
10:51music was
10:52really founded on family faith and freedom you know and so it blends really well and so we wrote
10:58like four songs in a day um had so much fun uh recording them i felt like very very small
11:06vocally
11:07singing next to him on a microphone it's almost like singing next to teddy swims or chris stapleton
11:12in some capacity um but we had a great time and brandon has become uh not only just a friend
11:18but
11:18honestly a guy to you know seek advice from uh you know family family advice marriage advice um
11:26it's just it's just one of the most solid people that i have ever met um and so to kind
11:29of watch
11:30someone like him want to come into our world and and really see what it's about like i think he
11:34had a
11:35great time as well that's so fun and then we were talking a little bit about the masters at the
11:38beginning of this but i do want to touch on you getting to record your version of georgia on my
11:42mind
11:43talk about like what an honor that was and how excited you were when that came through
11:46i mean a huge honor i mean uh being being from georgia uh being you know such a fan of
11:52that
11:52state uh being a bulldog fan uh growing up watching the masters like there's not many cooler things
11:59than maybe getting to play like in a practice round with scotty scheffler you know like this is this is
12:04sort of the tip top for me manifest that yeah we'll manifest that um but no it was uh it
12:10was cool and
12:10scary at the same time you know i know that ray charles didn't write the song it wasn't his like
12:14original but his is arguably the most you know worldwide known version of that song and i think
12:21for me when you're covering someone like ray charles or i've gotten a you know i did like a tom
12:26petty tribute it's like when you cover songs from artists that are that iconic it's just like gosh
12:31don't mess it up you know i mean like don't try to do something cool and trendy like make it
12:36classic
12:36make it timeless and i think that's what we did and uh got to record it with my band at
12:41a studio
12:41downtown got to do a cool piece with espn um so it'll be really really neat getting to watch like
12:46the opening ceremony with with jim nance you know and and my voice being played over the commercial
12:50it's gonna be awesome that's incredible and then i want to touch on you are going out on the
12:54soundtrack to life tour july through october talk about what you're excited about for that
12:58man this is kind of the first year that we have um you know a lot of artists have done
13:02it to where
13:02you know a bunch of different weekends or a bunch of different openers um but we have never done that
13:06and this year we have so many amazing in my opinion up-and-coming talent cassius culpepper
13:12uh zach john king who i've gotten to know really well uh emily ann roberts um i think is going
13:18to
13:18be a huge superstar in our genre um yeah it's just it's going to be neat earnest is out there
13:23with us
13:23a few times so i think that you know if you're a fan that i've got a lot of fans
13:26that come to a lot
13:27of different shows in a lot of different towns and so i think it'll be really cool for
13:30them to see us in you know kansas city and see one one opener and go see us in austin
13:35and get to
13:36catch another act and so uh so getting to pair that along with doing a couple of those stadiums
13:40with my buddy niall horn um she's gonna be a different year for us and and uh i think she's
13:45gonna make it extra special talk about niall because from what i heard like he reached out
13:49to you and was like because i know that you guys did the song together and then it was like
13:52why
13:52don't we play shows talk about that a little bit yeah i've known now for about a decade our
13:56my producer julian uh kind of was the producer for all the old like the one direction stuff and
14:02obviously niall being a part of 1d back in the day i got to know niall through julian and
14:09uh he's just become a dear buddy i don't really know how i don't really know why um but we
14:14are
14:14very similar in our mindsets and very similar and you know we we both love country music we both love
14:20all kinds of music and i've always been a fan of his and so once we did the song together
14:23it kind of
14:24organically morphed into a conversation of like we should we should do a couple shows together and so
14:28doing geodes park in nashville um never played there went to my first game there the night it
14:33was awesome uh and then a place i've played a few times um but hershey park stadium and in
14:39hershey pennsylvania um it's always been such a lit audience um and so i think to add him to that
14:44bill
14:45it's just gonna it's just something that people i think are gonna go we should go we need to see
14:49that you know um if i learned anything from last year you know doing something like doing fenway
14:54part with teddy i think it was just such a draw because it was so unusual um and i kind
14:59of and
15:00i hope that's what it is with niall this year um and it's always just fun to play shows with
15:04your
15:04friends and so that's what we're gonna do it sounds like it's gonna be a very fun summer i can't
15:08wait
15:08to see i literally am like walking distance from geodes so i'm excited for that well there you go
15:12it'll be a blast then heck yeah awesome listen i tell everyone this but like you are my favorite
15:17person to interview because you always show up you are like ready to go and we always have such a
15:20blast so thank you for the time this morning because i know that you have a lot going on in
15:24your
15:24life and we're no i appreciate you thank you very much thanks for the time yeah no problem
15:28congratulations on the song we'll see you soon thank you have a good one see you bye
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