Thomas Rhett is opening up about his current single, “Be a Light.” The song was written last year, long before the coronavirus pandemic began, but is especially timely for right now.
“I wrote this song last year,” Thomas told his record label. “I’d had this title written in my phone, ‘In a world full of hate be the light,’ and I think it came a little bit from the Bible verse talking about ‘a lamp on a hill should not be hidden’ – just being a light in a dark place. And for some reason I just was looking at Instagram and Twitter and all this stuff, just seeing so much hatred and people commenting on people’s stuff, just being super negative, and it drove me nuts.
“And I think at this point in time, I was like, ‘Man instead of addressing the meanness and the negativity, why don’t we just address for people just to be kind,'” he added. “That’s really where this inspiration of this song came from.”
Thomas decided to release “Be a Light” after Nashville was hit by the deadly tornadoes, just as the coronavirus outbreak was beginning to impact the country and beyond.
“I’ve been wanting to release ‘Be A Light’ since the day that I wrote it, and when all this stuff happened – I mean from the tornadoes in Nashville now to the COVID-19 / coronavirus – I feel like now there is no better time to release a song like ‘Be A Light,'” Thomas acknowledged. “I just feel like the world was in darkness for a minute, and so I think a song like this can be really encouraging for people.
“And then when I had asked some of my buddies to get on the song, it was an immediate yes, which was so cool – Reba, Keith Urban, Chris Tomlin and Hillary Scott from Lady Antebellum,” he continued. “And when they jumped on the song, man, it just took it to a whole different level, and I am so proud of this song and really hope that this song can be an encouragement to people who are really going through kind of a tough time right now.”
Thomas is so inspired by the song’s message that he is donating some of the proceeds to help those in need, especially now.
“One cool thing that we’re gonna do with this song, is that some of the proceeds are gonna go to the MusiCares COVID-19 relief fund, which is gonna help music industry professionals who’ve been financially affected by the shutdown of our touring industry, help get them some compensation,” Rhett said. “So, not only is this song kind of a light in a little bit of a dark time, but it’s also kinda helping the people that have been directly affected in my world.”
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Sunshine Sachs / Getty Images for CMT / Viacom