Thomas Rhett Reveals The Mission Behind ‘About A Woman’ Album [Exclusive]

Even with all the heartfelt songs Thomas Rhett has written for his wife, Lauren, throughout his career, he continues to find fresh ways to say, “I Love You.” In the past, the majority of his tender messages have come in the form of a ballad, but this time he’s switching things up with a lively new album dubbed, About A Woman. 

Rhett isn’t known for heartbreak songs, so he sticks to his strength of expressing love and nostalgia in his music while staying true to his authentic self.

He kicks off the project on an upbeat note with “Fool,” and continues with three previously released tracks “Overdrive,” “Gone Country,” and his current single, “Beautiful As You.” Throughout the remainder of the project, listeners are taken back to the early days of his and Lauren’s relationship as he recalls special moments where some of their best memories were made with songs like “Church,” “After All The Bars Are Closed,” “Back To Blue” and more. At the very end, he slips back into his beloved slow-tempo ballad ways to drive home his powerful message in “I Could Spend Forever Loving You.”

Two Outside Cuts

The Georgia native is a co-writer on each track except for “Country California” and “Don’t Wanna Dance,” which was built around the Whitney Houston hit “I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me).” 

“These two songs felt like they just needed to be a part of this project, and I feel like they rounded out this project really well. I know the people that wrote these songs, and so I always love cutting outside songs for those reasons, just to keep getting songwriters engaged on artist projects. ‘Cause I know how tough it is out there for a songwriter today. These songs just hit me in the feels and I really couldn’t live without them.”

Honing In On Songs That Spread Joy And Elevate His Live Shows

While thinking about what he wanted his seventh studio album to look like, Rhett found himself also considering the kind of music that will evoke a joyful, carefree feeling during his concerts. 

“I think on this record, I wanted it to be full of songs that I really wanted to play live because if you’ve been to our live show, it is very high energy. We encourage screaming, jumping and dancing and all the things. I genuinely like spreading joy. It’s kind of just my main mission,” Rhett told Country Now. 

The result is a 14-track collection that exudes raw emotions from top to bottom and offers upbeat tunes that will not only make his fans get up and dance in live shows, but also his wife and kids at home. 

“I’ve written a million songs about my wife, but a lot of them end up in ballad form so I think on this project, it was like, how do I say ‘I love you’ in a way that can also make you want to move? That was kind of my wife’s commission to me for this project. She was like, ‘I love that you write songs about me, but also make me dance too.’”

Keeping Feedback From Family And Friends

He added, “It really all stemmed from one conversation about a year and a half ago, like ‘what do you want the mission of this record to be and how do you want it to feel and what do you want people to take away from it?’”

With his mission locked down, Rhett moved into the next stage of determining the track list. After letting his family, friends, and peers live with the songs for a period of time, he received feedback that proved this project was something to be proud of. 

“The common thing that keeps coming back is, ‘this is a Thomas Rhett record through and through. You’re not trying to be anybody that you’re not. We can tell that you made this project out of a very free heart space and head space,’” he shared proudly. “I think that is probably the best compliment I could receive when someone looks at me and says, ‘I feel like this is very authentically just who you are as an artist and as a person.’”

Having The Time To Fine Tune The Project

The difference in Rhett’s creative process for About A Woman was that he had time on his side. Instead of releasing a record in between a heavy tour schedule, he took a lot of a year to finish off the project without extra distractions. So when he landed on these 14 tracks, he got to play them in every setting he wanted to, from the beach to the mountains, before a show and after, and had a lot of extra ears on them. 

“I feel like I got the most validation that I’ve ever gotten to receive before putting my stamp on it and saying, ‘let’s roll it.’ I think time can be a blessing and a curse. I mean, every artist is an overthinker in their own right, but for me, mostly this was a blessing to be able to go in and fine-tune in a way that I’ve never really had the time or the capacity to do in the past. So it’s been a lot of fun.”

From top to bottom, About A Woman, showcases Thomas Rhett’s cutting-edge sound while celebrating some of the best parts of life and acknowledging his privilege of getting to share it all with his other half. These 14 songs are guaranteed to elevate his live performances and have fans singing and dancing along to every word, proving that Rhett has not lost his ability to command a crowd. 

Thomas Rhett Is Heading To Las Vegas

Later this year, the country star will bring his high-energy sets to Sin City for a “mini-residency” dubbed THOMAS RHETT: Live in Las Vegas. The four-night run is set to take place at BleauLive Theater inside Fontainebleau Las Vegas this December 6, 7, 13, and 14 during the popular NFR Week. 

“It’s awesome to be able to have this record come out in August and to be able to kind of hone in on Nashville for like three weeks and almost completely rebuild our show to make this a very special four-night experience.”

He went onto say share plans to “go hard” on production and figure out how to tell a story among the crowd that includes both die-hard fans and those who might have never been to a Thomas Rhett show before. 

“It’s a work in progress, but a challenge that I’m very excited to undertake,” Rhett added.