Thomas Rhett joins Today’s Country Radio with Kelleigh Bannen for the release of his album ‘About A Woman.’ Rhett talks the importance of being present as an artist, and a father, and tells the story of the all-or-nothing moment that lead to starting a life with his wife, Lauren.

Thomas Rhett Tells Apple Music He Can’t Believe the Success He’s Had in His Career

I cannot believe writing horrible songs in my college dorm room and playing shows at the Hard Rock Cafe and playing fraternity parties for gas money turned into this. It genuinely is unfathomable to be honest with you. And I can’t believe I’ve been doing it this long either. Sometimes I still feel 23, and sometimes I do feel 34 years old. It has been a wild ride, and I’m beyond grateful for the success that I’ve had.

Thomas Rhett Tells Apple Music About the Real Life “Ryan Gosling” Moment that Inspired “What Could Go Right”

I was kind of telling them about this night that I had with Lauren, which was like 21 years old. I basically was just like, I’ve been in love with you since I was 16 years old. Those are the facts. And I realized that this could ultimately ruin our friendship. But I’m at the point in my life where, first of all, I just signed a record deal and I’m about to be gone, and I just had to get this off my chest and let you know. And we went through this whole conversation. She’s like, “You’ve ruined our friendship. I don’t know if I can ever look at you the same again.” And I’m like, “I get it. That’s why I told you that. I don’t really want to be your friend anymore.” And I pulled a Ryan Gosling line, just like, “I dare you to kiss me and just see what happens.”… She was like, “All right, fine. I’m going to kiss you. I’m not going to feel anything, but I’ll kiss you.” And so we did. And then started dating and got engaged six months later.

Thomas Rhett Tells Apple Music About His Tendency to Be the “Negative Nancy”

I’m always the one going, “But what if this happens?” The dumbest thing, it’s like if [Lauren] leaves out of town and I’ve got to get the girls ready for school, which is chaos by the way, I’m like, “Well, what if I don’t do Ada James’ ponytail right? Or what if I forget that so-and-so needed a heart-shaped cut sandwich?” All these things are going through my head. And she’s like, “But what if you crush it?” You know what I mean? I’m like, “You’re right. I’m going to crush it.” You know what I’m saying?… I’m always the negative Nancy.

Thomas Rhett Recalls to Apple Music About Being a Day-One Erich Church Fan

I mean those first, the first three, but really the first two Eric Church records, ‘These Boots’ and ‘Carolina’… I remember getting my first truck at 16 and Eric Church then was like listening to Zach Bryan now. Does that make sense? It was kind of underground… He was the outlaw. He would sing about words that you couldn’t say on mainstream radio, all this stuff. Me and all my buddies, that was our favorite. I was the biggest Eric Church fan that I knew. When I learned how to play guitar it was “Carolina,” it was “Livin’ Part of Life,” it was “Love Your Love The Most,” it was “Two Pink Lines,” it was “Sinners Like Me.” It was all those songs.

Thomas Rhett Tells Apple Music About “Church”

When this song got pitched to me, the original way that it got pitched to me was it ended in heartbreak. Like the guy and the girl never saw each other again, but he always reminisced over that time that they bonded over Eric Church. And so I kind of came in on the back half and just rewrote the bridge and the last chorus because our story ended differently.

Thomas Rhett Tells Apple Music That Bruno Mars is an Artist He’d Go Out of His Way to See Live

Probably Bruno Mars. He’s always been just a dude that just always just sort of set the tone for what music was about to be for the next five years, and ‘24K Magic’ did that for me. I was in Uganda actually during the adoption of my daughter when that record came out and I lost my brain. I was like, what is this? I don’t want to listen to anything else for six months except this record. For me, I guess, inconvenient would be flying to Vegas and watching him in Silk Sonic do a thing at The Pinky Ring, his new club. I think that would be the sickest thing I could go do.

Thomas Rhett Recalls to Apple Music the Time He and His Band Attempted Choreography On Stage

My band and I tried it five years ago. I hired this girl named AJ, and she does a lot of the choreography for Justin Timberlake and his band. And so I was like, “We should try this.” This was like 2018… We had some choreographed moments. I mean mostly just side stepping and that thing. I quickly realized it is not in my DNA to move this way, and it is definitely not in my band’s DNA to move this way. We tried it for a year and we were like, “We should probably not ever do that again.”

Thomas Rhett Tells Apple Music What Inspired “Gone Country”

I think for me, seeing these people at the airport coming in from literally all over the world, it just kind of sparked this idea of, man, once you experience country lifestyle, accent culture, all the things. I met these couple girls at the airport and I was like, “What’s the first thing y’all are going to do when you get here?” And they’re like, “We’re going to Boot Barn.” And I was like, “Really? That’s the first thing you’re going to do?” And they’re like, “Yeah, we’re going to all three get a pair of boots and we’re going to get to cowboy hat and then we’re going to go to Chief’s.”… And I think people have heard about it now. Even people that did not grow up country. They’re just like, “I really like this way of living.”

Tune in and listen to the full interview live for free this Friday, August 23 at 7am PT / 9am CT / 10am ET, or anytime on-demand with an Apple Music subscription at apple.co/_TodaysCountry