When Thomas Rhett was putting together his Life Changes Tour, which is named after his current album and brand new single, he decided to choose Brett Young and Midland as his main supporting acts, but then he wanted to rotate some newer acts in the first opening slot because he says, “When I was, I guess 20 years old, dying to get on tours, I look back at people like Toby Keith was my first tour, Brantley Gilbert, Luke Bryan, Aldean, FGL all these people that really took a chance on me when I had barely a Top 30 hit on the radio. So that’s not what I’m doing with someone like Brett Young. Brett Young is super established. But I love in the opening slot, giving people a chance that have never even played in an arena before, who maybe this is their first legitimate tour schedule, Thursday, Friday, Saturday for a while.”
Besides wanting to pick young artists that he feels are really about to make a splash, Thomas also wants to like who he’s on tour with. He says, “I love bringing people on the road that I feel like we’d be good friends first of all, and second of all I’m just really digging their music. So Russell Dickerson’s one of my best friends and just had his first number one. Carly Pearce, fellow label mate, sweet girl, just had a big, big hit. Jillian Jacqueline, Lauren Alaina, a lot of really great people who I think are about to start thriving and I hope that I can be somewhat of a platform for them to play in front of my fans and gain some new fans.”
You can get a complete list of Thomas’ tour dates, which he recently extended into the fall, on ThomasRhett.com.
Thomas Rhett – picking openers :49
“When I was, I guess 20 years old, dying to get on tours, I look back at people like Toby Keith was my first tour, Brantley Gilbert, Luke Bryan, Aldean, FGL all these people that really took a chance on me when I had barely a Top 30 hit on the radio. So that’s not what I’m doing with someone like Brett Young. Brett Young is super established. But I love in the opening slot, giving people a chance that have never even played in an arena before, who maybe this is their first legitimate tour schedule, Thursday, Friday, Saturday for a while. And I love bringing people on the road that I feel like we’d be good friends first of all, and second of all I’m just really digging their music. So Russell Dickerson’s one of my best friends and just had his first number one. Carly Pearce, fellow label mate, sweet girl, just had a big, big hit. Jillian Jacqueline, Lauren Alaina, a lot of really great people who I think are about to start thriving and I hope that I can be somewhat of a platform for them to play in front of my fans and gain some new fans.”