Thomas Rhett will have another record out in 2024. The country music hitmaker reveals he has spent the last several months working on a new set of tunes, the follow-up to his 2022 Where We Started album.
“We have a new project coming out this year,” Rhett says on Audacy’s Superstar Power Hour, sharing how he whittled down the tracks that would make it onto the project.. “We recorded almost 30 songs for this next project, and we played a game of, ‘Okay. We’re making an 11-song album. Go.’ And you gotta get real, real, real picky. Because you start to cut, even down into the number 15 region, where you’ve already tried to cut from 30. You go, ‘Yeah, but what about that song? But I think this group of people will like this song.’ At the end of the day, it’s really hard to make an 11-song album.”
For Rhett, choosing which songs will make it onto an album, and which will be eliminated, is an arduous task, and one he doesn’t take lightly.
“I feel like at least every year, there’s another 100, 200 songs that are written,” Rhett reveals. “When you make a record, today you get a lot of chances, because a lot of people are making records with 20 and 30 songs on them. But for the longest time in my career, it was like, ‘What are your favorite 15?’ And so you’re writing 200 songs to figure out what 15 things you want to say to the world. It’s pretty wild.”
Rhett’s upcoming, still-untitled record is the product of a lot of hard work, and work he hasn’t fully been able to do, until now. The 30-year-old chose to spend more time off the road, and working on the record, than he has for any of his previous ones.
“I wrapped up my tour in October of last year,” Rhett explains. “I’m doing like 30 shows this year. So this is the most time on purpose that I’ve ever had to actually make an album. Every other record I’ve made has been, ‘Play Thursday, Friday, Saturday, get off the road, cram some vocals in on Monday and Tuesday, go back on the road. Write on the road. Come back, record. Sing vocals. Go back on the road. Write, record, put a record out. Put out a single. Make a video.’ It’s fun, but it’s like this neverending wheel of making and writing and doing the thing. I’ve always been really jealous of people who actually had six months to go make an album, where it was the only thing that they thought about.”
Rhett may not have taken the time to focus on his new record, if he hadn’t celebrated his 20th No. 1 hit in 2022, with “Half of Me,” his collaboration with Riley Green.
“There was something that happened in me after I had my 20th hit,” Rhett reveals. “Maybe it was selfish, but I felt like I deserved a break from the hamster wheel. I got to write without having to think about a show or a tour. I got to go in and be super critical, and I got to change things over and over and over, and I got to resing songs and try new melodies.
“I basically got to do everything that I’ve never really had the time to do, which is a roundabout way of saying we recorded way too many songs,” he continues. “And now we’re in that phase of, ‘Okay, I think it’s done.’ But it’s been the coolest process ever, to be able to take a minute and put your blinders on, and be like, ‘What record do I want to go make?'”
Rhett just celebrated his latest No. 1 hit with “Mamaw’s House,” his collaboration with Morgan Wallen. Find all of his music and upcoming shows at ThomasRhett.com.