Thomas Rhett photo by Justin Nolan Key, courtesy of The Valory Music Co.

When your father is Rhett Akins ^[1], a lot of people assume you want to be just like him. But Thomas Rhett, Rhett’s son, was the exact opposite. He had every intention of taking a different career path.

“My whole life, I’d always loved music,” Thomas said. “My dad taught me to play basic chords on the guitar when I was about thirteen. He never bought me a guitar, I always played all of his hand-me-downs. I told myself I was never going to do music ‘cause my dad did it. I always wanted to do something different.”

Thomas made some half-hearted attempts at being a musician. His tunes were a far cry from his dad’s country lyrics. “I was in a punk rock band in middle school called The High Heeled Flip Flops and I was the drummer,” he said. “We were absolutely terrible. We made a record in my dad’s living room and our singer sang in a British punk accent. We were just stupid, immature preteens.”

Fate intervened, however, and Thomas got serious about songwriting. Soon his songs were being recorded by Jason Aldean ^[2] and Joe Nichols, ^[3] among others. He landed a record deal with The Valory Music Co., the sister label to Big Machine Records, which houses Taylor Swift ^[4] and Rascal Flatts ^[5], among others. Thomas will soon release his debut single, “Something To Do With My Hands,” to country radio.

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