Thomas Rhett Wants to Know: What’s Your Country Song?
This week on Backstage Country, Elaina Smith is joined by a man who knows his way around a hit. Thomas Rhett, country superstar and co-host of the week, sat down…
This week on Backstage Country, Elaina Smith is joined by a man who knows his way around a hit. Thomas Rhett, country superstar and co-host of the week, sat down to talk about his chart-topping single, “What’s Your Country Song,” and the number of titles they went through for that song.
Thomas Rhett: “That Song Took Us Three Days to Write”
Rhett told Smith that the number of titles they went through before finally deciding on “What’s Your Country Song” was limitless. He revealed, “It actually started out with titles from all genres. Whether it was 70s rock and roll, or 80s songs, or whatever, and then I think that's when we finally landed on ‘What's Your Country Song’ as the title. The one that kicked it off was ‘That Ain't Your Truck in Her Drive.’”
He chuckled, “I wrote it with my dad, and we said that line as a joke. And we kind of started to be like, ‘Well, what if that's not a joke? What if that's like sort of what all the verses need to be?’ And that song took us three days to write. There are so many country titles. You're trying to use these titles to tie in also this story of how you grew up and what your hometown was like. And when you're feeling good and when you're feeling bad, what's that song that sort of perks you, and what's the song that brings you back to your youth, and when things felt free.”
On Why It Was One of His Favorites to Play
Rhett shared that writing the song with his father has always been super special: “I remember we wrote that song in 2019, and I teased it right when the world was shutting down during COVID. I remember the Instagram videos. I'd been turkey hunting that day in March, and I'm dressed in all camo, and I sang just an acoustic version of the song, and it got over a million views. I was like, ‘Maybe this should be the single.’ And it came out, and to this day, one of my favorites to play live just from the heart of it. From the way it was written to watching people's response to it. I think that song does a lot of different things for a lot of different people.”
Tune in this week to catch Thomas Rhett reminiscing about his greatest hits and maybe inspiring you to listen to his whole catalog, starting off with “What’s Your Country Song.”
