Thomas Rhett: A Cause Bigger Than Applause
Thomas Rhett played the Nissan Stadium stage in Nashville during CMA Fest a few weeks ago. He’s played the stage many times in his career. Thomas loves that artists play…
Thomas Rhett played the Nissan Stadium stage in Nashville during CMA Fest a few weeks ago. He's played the stage many times in his career.
Thomas loves that artists play CMA Fest for free, and the money raised from the event is used for music education programs all over the country.
He told us backstage before he performed at CMA Fest, "When I was in high school, we had an okay band room, instruments and stuff. But now that my kids are in school, I love knowing that my kids are gonna have a ton of options to choose from."
Rhett added, "It's just such a huge deal to get to play CMA Fest, knowing how much money they are giving back to music education."
He concluded, "Some kid going through a rough time? To me, music is therapy, and there are a lot of kids out there who may be struggling with something that the piano happens to fix internally. Every year, we get to do CMA Fest, which is kind of in the forefront, not just for me but for other artists; we know that we're playing for a bigger cause than just applause."
The country star is the son of a 1990s country star (Rhett Akins); Thomas has been going to CMA Fest, or what used to be called Fan Fair, all of his life. He told us, "I grew up going to this festival back when it was called Fan Fair. So I've been going to this thing for a long time, and obviously, coming to watch this all four nights at the stadium is a must."
He added, "Now I would say that every artist that you love has their own bar now. So basically, pick your favorite artist and go to their bar."
As a lifer, Rhett has some good advice for fans during CMA Week. "Go watch artists that you love in a different facet other than the stadium. You know, if they're doing a fan club party or if they're doing a writer's round."
He concluded, "That's always interesting to me to watch my favorite artists go play stripped down rather than in here. And we're starting to get some of the best food in America right now, so go eat some Hattie B's, I guess."
