Thomas Rhett Details Struggle With Self Doubt on ‘Today’s Country Radio’
He's overcome it to make the best music of his career on 'Country Again: Side A.'
Thomas Rhett is at the top of his game right now, racking up hits as fast as he can make them and planning the release of his fifth studio album, Country Again: Side A. But even so, he’s not immune to self doubt, and he opened up about it on Apple Music Country.
Speaking on Today’s Country Radio with Kelleigh Bannen about the mental struggle artists put themselves through, the “What’s Your Country Song” star first admitted that his music has definitely been changing in recent years… but that’s a good thing. He’s been focusing more on what he wants, and less on keeping up with his peers, and so far it’s working great. TR is co-reigning ACM Entertainer of the Year (with Carrie Underwood), and he’s doubling down for Country Again.
“This shift in me has been happening since the beginning of 2019,” TR explained. “There were just certain things in my life that I cared about so heavily for the last decade that I just didn’t… I don’t want to say I didn’t care about anymore, but I cared way less about them. There were just bits of success and bits of ways that I measured success that just didn’t matter anymore. It was just like I’ve been doing nothing but grinding and working my butt off and comparing myself, just like we all do, and then there was one day where I was just like, ‘Why do I care? Why do I always chase something? You know, with a lot of these records that I make.’
“The music just started to kind of shift into something that like I was trying to do when I was younger, like as a 19-year-old who had just signed a publishing deal, but I hadn’t lived enough life yet, you know? There are so many things that have happened in this decade that I have never really written songs about. I mean I’ve been nostalgic for sure in my music, but it’s 11 songs that I feel like are just so much more back to what I was doing when I first started out in this business, like back in the day when I was listening to nothing but Eric Church and really wanting just to be him, you know, minus the sunglasses. I don’t think I can pull those off, ever.”
Along with “What’s Your Country Song,” Thomas Rhett has already shared two new songs from Country Again — “Growing Up” and “Want It Again” — and both of those do feature deeper-than-usual themes tied to true life experience. Back on Today’s Country Radio, the signer makes it seem like he’s finally satisfied with his own work, but it’s been a struggle that many fans will probably identify with.
“The day that you tease a record, I start to go into this pit of just like, ‘Good Lord, is anybody going to like it? Is anybody going to like it? What are the comments going to be?'” he said. “And like I told you earlier, for the first time ever, I mean, I want people to like it for sure, but I know that I like it. And that’s kind of what matters to me now if that makes any sense…
“It’s very [freeing.] Yeah. It makes it so much more fun,” he went on on. “I think when you’re stuck in that comparison world, I mean, comparison is the thief of all joy, and you start to put a record out, but then someone the week before you put a bigger one out, and you go, ‘Well, mine doesn’t matter anymore.’ You know? And I think we’ve all been in that position where you’re super excited about something, and then somebody comes out with a history-breaking single or a history-breaking record, and you’re like, ‘Well, maybe we should just can this.’ You know?”
Luckily, Thomas Rhett hasn’t canned anything yet, and a big part of his internal growth is likely due to his happy personal life — as a dad to three daughter and husband to his wife, Lauren. Later in the conversation, he also opened up about some his earliest musical memories with his father, hit songwriter and country artist Rhett Akins, and how singing Moana karaoke with his girls is just about the best thing ever. Thomas Rhett’s Country Again: Side A, is set to arrive on April 30.
Tune into the full conversation on Today’s Country Radio with Kelleigh Bannen on Apple Music Country at apple.co/_TodaysCountry.
