Thomas Rhett heads into this week’s CMA Awards with three nominations for Male Vocalist of the Year and Vocal Event and Video of the Year for “Craving You,” his collaboration with Maren Morris. Thomas credits his dad, Rhett Akins with shaping him into the vocalist he is today. He says, “When I think about who taught me to sing in the first place it was my dad… I feel like dad has been the main influence on me vocally and me as a songwriter and as a performer, and so I owe dad a lot of credit for being here today.”
As for “Craving You,” Thomas is almost grateful that he got sick the day the song was written. He explains, “A guy named Julian Bunetta and a guy named Dave Barnes were in Nashville and I was supposed to actually join this co-write one day but I got sick. And so Julian and Dave happened to write ‘Craving You’.”
As soon as Thomas heard the song, he was blown away. He says, “(I was) blown away by the longingness of the story of how this guy is just craving this girl and every time they leave each other they just they can’t wait to get back together with each other. And I think I just loved the 80s kind of vibe that it has rocking through the whole thing. It’s an up tempo, a little bit emotional, a little bit tense and I just love this song. So who knows if I’d been in the room that day if we would have written this song.”
In addition to being nominated for three awards, Thomas will be performing his #1 song, “Unforgettable” on Wednesday night’s CMA Awards at 8/7c on ABC.
Thomas Rhett – second generation singer :22
“You know, when I think about who taught me to sing in the first place it was my dad. And still to this day I think my dad is one of the best songwriters, best performers that I’ve ever gotten to witness. And so being able to just kind of watch him write songs at eight years old and go on the road with him at 9 years old and get to go sing in his encores on the road, I feel like dad has been the main influence on me vocally and me as a songwriter and as a performer, and so I owe dad a lot of credit for being here today.”
Thomas Rhett – story behind Craving You :36
“A funny story about ‘Craving You’ is actually a guy named Julian Bunetta and a guy named Dave Barnes were in Nashville and I was supposed to actually join this co-write one day but I got sick. And so Julian and Dave happened to write ‘Craving You,’ and I remember Julian sent me the track and just immediately being blown away by the song – blown away by the longingness of the story of how this guy is just craving this girl and every time they leave each other they just they can’t wait to get back together with each other. And I think I just loved the 80s kind of vibe that it has rocking through the whole thing. It’s an up tempo, a little bit emotional, a little bit tense and I just love this song. So who knows if I’d been in the room that day if we would have written this song.”