‘Making Space With Hoda Kotb’: Thomas Rhett

foreign [Music] music and high up on my list of favorites Thomas red baby you know I'm listening to that die a happy man song probably about a gazillion times okay Thomas was born with a passion for music at his very core he and his dad country singer Rhett Akins have worked on music together since Thomas was just a little boy his love of music has carried him all the way to where he is right now Thomas his wife Lauren and I have been friendly for years but recently we've connected on more than just music we're also parents by way of adoption Thomas and Lauren brought their beautiful daughter Willa gray home nearly seven years ago and they've gone on to welcome three more daughters to their family Ada James Lennon love and Lily Carolina between recording touring and parenting it's kind of tough for Thomas to make space for much else but I did catch up with him for a rare moment of quiet from his home in Nashville just as he's getting ready to release his sixth studio album where we started and among the many topics we touched on where he started stories that make me appreciate Thomas and his music even more all right well first of all uh Thomas it's great to see you as always how are you good to see you too I'm doing well I'm doing well so Thomas I I feel like you're you're really going 100 miles an hour and I admire it because we often say this is my moment I gotta catch it it's like lightning in a bottle I don't want to miss it but if you were to have a day that was just for you again Lauren and the kids aside you have an open book a blank slate for one day yeah how does that day play out for you um I think I would first of all have to get on a plane uh I have a hard time finding peace in Nashville but I've I've found a lot of Peace in solitude out west whether it's in Montana or Utah or Colorado and I think a perfect day for me would be to take my fly fishing rod out to the boulder River in Montana and just wait it the entire day just like start at the bottom go to the top uh don't even care if I catch a fish or not just the the simple Act of throwing a rod in and out of the river I think like that that is the epitome of my uh perfect alone day which I have not had an alone day I think in almost five years so at least I need to schedule that so what is it that you get out of being by yourself and throwing that Rod like What feelings do you get from that uh there's no one to compare myself to except for myself um like I think as awesome as social media can be I think I think it ruins a lot of people uh and I'm I'm in that box and I think I mean shoot I guess I've had social media for almost 10 years now and I feel like every time I log on to my Instagram account I get this like really quick little rush of like oh my goodness what did someone say about my song or what did they say about this but then I see one negative thing and like my day is just like ruined you know what I'm saying and so when I do like get to put my phone down for five or six hours I find my anxiety level just going down and down and down and down now I do have four kids so the anxiety does stay at a little right here um but I just feel like the more that I can detach from the overload of information you know what I mean like I just don't feel like we as humans were built to absorb and you absorb more knowledge than anybody that I know every day and like I just don't know that we were meant to know as much as we know I think when I when I am away from anything social or news wise like yeah I'm a better dad I am a better husband I'm a better friend because there is space to give that part of myself when were you your happiest I think I was in a strange way happier at my core when I felt like I wasn't under a microscope if that makes any sense um I know you've I know you can relate to that but like would I change anything that I have for the world no um but there are days where you you do kind of wish you could just be just you at the core no matter what no matter what restaurant you're in no matter if you're at Disney World you know what I'm saying like it's uh it's that that has changed a lot I mean I I have learned how to find Joy a ton like through through quote unquote being famous or being in the spotlight but there just seemed to be something so simple I don't know about being in high school or being being in college um um and so you know I think that's that's something that Lauren and I both try to create in our lives is Simplicity and and normalcy you know a lot of people always ask how are we raising our kids and we're trying to raise them as normal as humanly possible which is really challenging because our lives are anything but normal you know but I think striving for Simplicity has brought Lauren and I and our kids the most joy that we could imagine from the moment I met you whenever that was a long long time ago when you were just getting started to right now you are I mean you seem exactly the same to me I've been still drunk FaceTime you and you'll pick up which is my definitely my litmus test it's my favorite part of my week I'll be honest with you I don't do it every week but I do it often enough no I I don't want people to think I'm a stalker no me and Lauren love it so much um and I would say the same about you no I mean not that this is like a compliment back and forth type thing but I it is very very true like you are one of the most down-to-earth people that I've ever met especially with you're in front of the world every single day um and so when I when I describe my my being under microscope you are a million times more than that but I remember when Lauren and I first got married um we I mean I think I maybe had 500 bucks to my name and my dad had just bought a condo and I told him like we can't pay rent and so he just made us pay the HOA fee which was like 45 a month and even that hurt it was our first Christmas as a married couple I just signed a record deal and uh we lived across the street from a um a Harris Teeter which I don't know if y'all have those up there but it's like a grocery store and like I'm talking about five nights a week we would buy a frozen pizza and the cheapest bottle of wine we could find and like and we'd go to the Christmas tree lot and I remember Lauren I was like why don't we just go to freaking Target and buy you know a nine dollar fake Christmas tree and she was like well because I've always had a real one and Christmas trees are like 70 bucks you know what I mean a tree is 70 and I remember calling my business manager at the time being like hey can I afford this and we went back and put that Christmas tree up and made a frozen pizza and had a bottle of wine and you want to talk about content yet proud that that we had accomplished that well you and Lauren met when you were little and then ended up getting married after you guys have lived a little bit you were you all were both young and people were telling you what are you doing you look like 22 or something yeah we were 22 when we got married for sure yeah did everyone who tried to talk you out of it um I don't think it was like a talking out of it was more of just like make sure make sure you know what I mean which is which is normal you know I think for a parent to say to a kid like I might say the same thing you know if if my daughters were like hey I'm 17 and I found the guy I want to marry I'm like are you sure you know positive but I can also be like you know what if that's your heart that's what you believe like here to support you you know so you were sure and she was sure we were sure but we also knew each other for since like third grade you know what I mean like she knew me as a sixth grader as a 10th grader um as an idiot in college I mean she she was with me through every every up and down phase of life and so when we got married we were already best friends anyway and they you know my parents had always said make sure you marry your best friend you know and I was like well I mean this is uh this is my best friend and she is very attractive and I'm I'm here for it and uh but you know I think like at that time it wasn't super cool to be married and be a uh a country singer you know what I mean and I just thought that was the stupidest thing in the world yeah yeah um and it was kind of weird like at the time I guess this would have been 2012 I mean there were love songs but like there weren't there weren't like a lot of love songs about like from a from a country singer being like y'all know who this is and this is who I'm singing about this is my wife yeah you know her right from the get-go of my career Lauren was just such a part of I mean we were a package deal you know what I mean like she came to she was at every show the fans knew her everybody knew her and so when die a happy man came out like yeah I think the song I think die happy man is good but I think that it was great at the time because it hadn't been done in a while in that way and it was almost like the stars kind of lined up for that song [Music] baby your parents are divorced yeah were you scared getting married did you think are our patterns do they repeat like were you worried um yeah I mean there's a part of me that was just like is is that gonna be me too you know what I'm saying like yeah I remember you know Lauren's dad he flies like uh jets for a living like he owns like a charter company in Nashville and you know in the 90s he would fly you know you name that country artist he flew him around and so he'd been around the business for a while I remember before me and Lauren got married he was like you better keep your head on straight you know what I mean he was like you bet you better not do anything out there on the road because I promise you I've seen it and I will call you out immediately and I was like you don't have anything to worry about you know and um yeah but as I got into it I I quickly realized how easy that could be yeah um without the right boundaries put in place did your parents give you um advice like uh marriage advice uh yeah for sure but you know like you know I think like my dad my mom were different they kind of came from that generation of like you know they got pregnant before they were married um in south Georgia and it was like one of those times in life where it was like well we should probably get married you know what I mean but I think kind of early on you know I think my dad really wanted I think he had more life that he wanted to live and and you know I think him looking back like those are things that he may not be um proud of but like that's that's just life you know we live and we live and we learn and you know um I feel like I got really blessed with um with an amazing family that has that has baggage just like we all do when do you think your dad was proudest of you um I think he may just be proud of how I have approached this career I think he writes with people all the time that go man how'd your son turn out so good you know what I mean and it's it's kind of a joke but but I think he you know he kind of gets like you know my dad was was pretty wild you know back in the day and and I've definitely had my fair share of wild moments but I knew that when I when I got married like this was this was the goal if everything else fell apart this this had to stay together um and that that is that is what I vowed the day I got married and that is what I that is what I plan on you know committing to until the the day that I die well I know having kids was something that was um high on your priority list the way you went about it was obviously very interesting uh Lauren was on a mission trip to Uganda yeah and fell in love basically I mean that's just that's just how it happened so she met Willa what was it about her about that specific child of all the children yeah uh who Lauren met and and you got to know what was it about her yeah you know that was such a crazy time because my wife up to that point had um had traveled with me and me solely you know I mean she kind of she kind of gave up a lot to to be along my side you know during this journey I mean she went to the University of Tennessee uh graduated with a Nursing degree uh nursing school about killed her um as I'm sure many many nurses out there it's freaking hard um but she finished that and we went into marriage counseling and our marriage counselor said I think y'all need to be fully together your first year on the road because the year that she graduated I went on this thing called radio tour which is where you're gone for like eight months and you're literally visiting every country radio station in the country so if she had gone and worked in the hospital and I'd gone to do that our first year of marriage would have been completely just split apart and so she decided to come with me that whole first year and that led into the next you know five years of our marriage um I don't think my wife ever planned on marrying someone that was doing what I'm doing like I think that if she could have picked at that age she probably would have picked someone that was gonna be home at five o'clock you know what I mean um and she probably would have lived a whole lot simpler of a life had she done that um but there was just no denying you know our love for each other and to this day I mean I I just I literally just look at her and say thank you thank you for marrying me because I I would be a total disaster I I wrote a song last year called I'd be a nightmare single um and it is very true um anyway back to your question that was when she had met a few people that were already doing work in Uganda and I think my wife at that point had felt a little bit um passionless if you will I think she felt like her passions had to be my passions um and so we had a that was like a year of like a long conversation of like well what you know what what is your passion and she was like well I still want to help people medically you know I mean like I wanna I wanna use the skill that I trained so hard for and I was like well that is 100 understandable let's figure that out you know and kind of a God thing that she met uh this woman named Suzanne who uh was already doing Ministry and and um Mission work in in Uganda and Lauren went with her and I was still back in America you know doing shows and I remember she sent me a picture of this little girl and uh in Uganda they had they named her blessing that was that was the name that they gave her she didn't have any parents and uh and no no siblings um that we knew of and she sent me a picture of her holding blessing and she said we have got to help you know find her family or find find her a home and uh you know they did a ton of research on you know where where she was found all this kind of stuff and and it was just it was heartbreaking you know like I can't imagine I don't know what like one of my children just not not having a family to call to call home you know and so I just it just can't I don't remember saying it but it came out of my mouth I was like we'll we'll we will we'll bring her home you know and my wife was like are you serious and yeah next thing you know you know we're what why were you so sure what was it about that image I've just never seen my wife glow the way that she was glowing like yeah I can't I can't describe it but it already felt like it was a thing I don't remember saying it it just erupted out of my state just like happened and uh and then I you know we hung up the phone and I was like what did I just say like and um because I don't know that I was ready to be a dad yet I don't think anyone's ready to be a parent until you are you know what I'm saying um that kind of makes me um like I I feel like whenever the truth is told like I get this weird wave of emotion like I get chills and I feel it and you that statement you just made there was like a was like a a tidal wave for me it was a God moment you said yeah that's really really big so you got Willa gray and and then Lauren gets pregnant then y'all are off and running you got four girls now yeah do you want a boy I think I've passed that point to be honest with you I think that's like the most question I get asked is like when are you trying again I mean Lauren's whole dream she wanted to have five kids like that's five since the day we got married she's like I wanna have five and I'm sitting there going that's fine you know five would be great but we sit there and we go you know they're all in such different phases of life we're having a hard time figuring out how do we make one-on-one time for like all of our kids you know so not now so I told Lauren I was like I mean let's have five but let's let's take a let's take a four-year deep breath so yeah exactly she'll get her five eventually but for sure sometimes you need a minute because you know I adopted two children and a lot of questions come up at which I'm already getting from Haley and I will get from Hope too what questions is Willa gray asking or are your other daughters asking and how have you guys navigated that because I've got two kids from different countries and you know for sure they're questions and pop yeah it's hard you know because I think I think when you become a parent you you're like well I'm a dad I have all the answers you know or I'm a mom I have all the answers um and like adoption is is one of the most beautiful things in the world and I don't think at the beginning of it you I don't think you go Oh in like six years I'm gonna start answering some like really yes really intense questions you know and and I think I don't know if you felt this at all but it's kind of like you go well what age like what age is the right age you know what I mean because the world is moving so fast that it's like you know to have a conversation with a six-year-old about that maybe I'm too old school to think that way but I go maybe we need to wait till she's 10. and I love the Innocence that they have because they don't have any they haven't been tainted yet yeah by the world they haven't been Jaded by the world like they don't they don't see things like adults see things and so in in your parent brain you're like well how do I keep this innocence alive as long as I possibly can as long as possible yeah you know because I mean I feel like I read the Bible and God's like well you if if you're not if you don't have the heart of a child you're not you ain't doing it right and I'm like well how could I have the heart of a child when we're at War and we're at we're this is happening and that's happening in like they don't they don't know any of that stuff yet you know and so we really just try to we try to be as honest as we can without the confusion and how has Thomas having four daughters impacted you as a husband to Lauren I just had to sit back and like re prioritize my life yeah you know what I'm saying like if music was number one for the last eight years music is now like number three you know what I'm saying like I love it and I want to be great at it but like if me being great at music makes my parenting and my husband roll suffer yeah what's it worth when I'm 50. what's it worth yeah you know what I mean right you're right I remember interviewing you when you hadn't won an award and it was all brand new and now you're just such a staple and such a name what what is it like now when you stand up on a stage and the stadium is full is it like what it was before what does it feel like for you I still pinch myself um and I'm also I'm also a perfectionist I think in some good ways but mostly a fault um which maybe maybe leads back to my comparison issue because I I walk out there and I go gosh this place holds 15 000 people but there's there's 14 900 here like like where's the other hundred at you know what I mean like but but then I walk out there and I go Kylie it feels like yesterday that I was 21 years old you know opening for who whoever it was were you competitive about everything like did you play sports when you were a kid yeah yeah so you always wanted to win very competitive yeah with everything that's just your in your DNA yeah like I have this weird fear of just like not not being the best and I don't know where that comes from but it but it happens in every area of my life like I can go back and remember playing I was playing Monopoly with Lauren when we were 16 years old and she's really good at math and I'm real like I just learned how to tip three years ago um and she beat me and I was like I don't want to play Monopoly Monopoly with you anymore you're so crazy and even with my hobbies like when I when I get into a hobby yeah I go hard like what give me a hobby fly fishing skiing yeah like I gotta have the best equipment I gotta watch a million YouTubes I gotta hire a trainer we need to get into this what is this no this is deep in your psyche yeah you're a kid yeah and like I think I'm about to go on a kind of a weird tangent when I'm getting to a point I I think the reason I hate hate so bad and like Instagram hatred or just even posting a song and someone being like this sucks yeah like that should be able to roll off my back yeah but it doesn't like it sticks with me for weeks yeah and I go back into my sixth grade self and like I was kind of a I won't say an outcast but I was uh I just wanted to be different than everybody else you know what I mean like if it was cool to play football I wanted to start a lacrosse team if it was cool if it was cool to listen to The Backstreet Boys I wanted to listen to The Ramones and I was in sixth grade and me and somebody started a punk rock band and on the night of prom we scheduled our first concert because we were like anti-prom you know what I mean probably because we didn't get asked or no one wanted to go with us that was probably the real reason but I remember we put these flyers up in the hallway like come to see the High Hill flip-flops at whoever's house yeah and there was somebody on the football team that went through the hallway and ripped all of our Flyers down and just started shredding them in half and that was the first moment that I said I will be better than that I will always be a bigger person than that I'm about to cry and talk about it but I I don't know if that was where my uh desire to prove people wrong so much came into play but I I can I can go back in my brain and see that so vividly and so anytime anyone does something unique or weird or different in country music and pop music and sports and whatever when someone wants to tear somebody down for something like you need to sit down sit down because you don't know I know we we've been talking about life and it makes me so happy but let me just get to your music because I feel like it's evolving too you were writing songs before you were singing them up publicly yeah and you still had like I was surprised at such a young age you had so much stuff to say like I didn't even know you lived enough life to say those things and now they're getting deeper even yet but I feel like you must have lived a lot of Life uh even when when you were young yeah I feel like I did you know like I mean I think you know our life every bit of trauma in our lives shapes us in a way you know whether and you get to choose for the worse or the better you know um you know divorce is not a fun thing to go through through you know as a kid and for a long time I didn't think it affected me until I started to become an adult and I started to pull out little bits of pieces of how that did affect me and you know uh knowing Lauren and knowing certain people in our lives that had passed away way too early like you kind of go well that's just life but then you go no like that sucks that sucks that affected you you know and yeah I think I've always just been a really old soul um like I think I've always been an overthinker and thought about my future probably way more than your average 18 or 19 year old kid you know um and so at a young age like I really was trying to be older than my my driver's license said yeah yeah which is a good song title we'll write that together yeah that's a good one I've always just wanted to make sure that whatever I said I mean I've definitely released songs that were just for fun and just for you to dance to but for the most part if you hand me a guitar I do want to write something uh meaningful you know and something that someone across the world can hear by accident and be like man I've I've felt that I've been there I've had that heartbreak I've had that Joy you know um and so a lot of people ask like well I get so personal in my songs and it's like really the only way I know how to do it you know like I've tried to write a quote unquote just like I hit you know like oh this would sound good on the radio and I've definitely had a few of those but for the most part if I can write my honest truth and it be a hit that is uh that's the mecca right there so well uh Thomas I just want to say it's always such a treat to visit and talk with you likewise I love your music we're going to be just it's my happy place man I hit Thomas Rhett radio with Thomas Rhett on Spotify and um I just can't wait to to see you soon well likewise I hope you have a great day thank you so much for talking with me thanks again hey thanks for watching our YouTube channel find your favorite recipes celebrity interviews uplifting stories shop our favorite deals and so much more with the Today app download it now

Channel: TODAY

Views: 7,454

Keywords: Today, Today Show, Savannah Guthrie, Al Roker, Natalie Morales, domestic news, international news, weather, interviews, politics, money, media, entertainment, sports, breaking news, food, health, home, parents, style, concerts, pets, shopping, Hoda Kotb

Id: rl0gVHcqhPg

Length: 25min 18sec (1518 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 21 2022