Thomas Rhett’s highly anticipated new album, Center Point Road, will be available this Friday, and Thomas explains, “Center Point Road is a little street that I grew up on and when we wrote the song ‘Center Point Road,’ it was kind of this this looking back song of like all the things that you cared about when you’re growin’ up and now the things that you don’t care about, your successes, your failures, all your firsts, all your lasts, and all that kind of happened in this little town.”
Thomas certainly didn’t have a lack of songs to choose from for his new album, revealing that he wrote about 150 songs for this new project. And he says, “Then you kinda have to take those 150 and go, ‘Okay, you can’t put 150 songs on a record.’ And so then you have a bunch of preliminary meetings kinda talking about what our favorite 40? And then what our favorite 20? And then actually how many are we gonna go in the studio and cut? And so for this record in particular, we went in and cut 18 tracks, which is a step up from the last record that we cut 22 on.”
Of the 18 songs Thomas recorded, 16 of them made the final cut, and it wasn’t until Thomas was almost finished with the album that he chose Center Point Road as the title, because he says, “As we started closing the record out it just seemed like it represented so much of the content on this record – the nostalgia of it, the looking back of it. And so much of that road, in a crazy way, shaped who I am today and it made a lot of sense to name our fourth record Center Point Road.”
Like many of his previous albums, the sounds on Center Point Road run the gamut from more traditional sounding country to heavily pop leaning to a church revival, but Thomas says, “One thing that has remained the same is the storytelling. I got into songwriting because I loved the way that Merle Haggard told a story. I loved the way that Eric Church told a story. And those two guys single handedly were the people that made me want to write songs in the first place. And although our sounds are way different from each other, the story always remains the same – a true honest story about something that I’ve actually experienced.”
Thomas was excited to collaborate with some of his good friends on Center Point Road – Little Big Town, Jon Pardi and Kelsea Ballerini – because he says, “I’ve always been a huge fan of like if you’re going to have somebody guest on your album you should know them, first of all. You should have a good relationship with them.” Karen Fairchild of LBT was a co-writer on “Don’t Threaten Me with a Good Time,” which the group guests on. As soon as “Beer Can’t Fix” was written, Thomas knew Jon Pardi was the guy he wanted to sing it with him, and TR and Kelsea have been waiting for the right opportunity to collaborate, and it finally came along with “Center Point Road.”
Thomas has already been incorporating several of the new songs into the set list on his Very Hot Summer Tour, including his latest single, “Look What God Gave Her,” and he says the fan reaction has been incredible, which makes him even more excited to finally have the whole album out this Friday.
Thomas Rhett – name of album :52
“Yeah, Center Point Road, basically, is the street I grew up on 20 minutes north of Nashville in a little town called Hendersonville. A lot of people think that I’m from Georgia because my dad’s from Georgia, and technically I was born in Georgia, but we moved to San Antonio when I was two and then moved to Nashville when I was three, cause my dad signed a record deal in Nashville in ’95. But Center Point Road is a little street that I grew up on and when we wrote the song ‘Center Point Road,’ it was kind of this looking back song of like all the things that you cared about when you’re growin’ up and now the things that you don’t care about, your successes, your failures, all your firsts, all your lasts, and all that kind of happened in this little town. So when we were writing Center Point Road I didn’t think it was going to be the name of the album but I just wanted to write a song about it. And as we started closing the record out it just seemed like it represented so much of the content on this record – the nostalgia of it, the looking back of it. And so much of that road, in a crazy way, shaped who I am today and it made a lot of sense to name our fourth record Center Point Road.”
Thomas Rhett – created own sound :44
“Just like any artist finding their sound, it’s a bunch of trial and error. From the first record to now, as much as we’ve expanded with our sound, you know, going from the first record now to Center Point Road it couldn’t be more opposite from each other, at least from a production standpoint. But I think it’s really cool that one thing that has remained the same is the storytelling. I got into songwriting because I loved the way that Merle Haggard told a story. I loved the way that Eric Church told a story. And those two guys single handedly were the people that made me want to write songs in the first place. And although our sounds are way different from each other, the story always remains the same – a true honest story about something that I’ve actually experienced. And so it’s been really fun just to work with a million different people: songwriters from Nashville, songwriters from L.A., friends of mine now I’m writing with, like on the road, and it’s been a really, really fun experience.”
Thomas Rhett – high school imprint :29
“The music you listen to, the people you hang out with, the sports that you play – not that I loved any certain subject – but the subjects that you loved in high school … I liked PE. But yeah, all those different things, you wonder who am I going to be when I’m 30? And it really is just an extension of who you were when you were 13 going on 25. You know so many of those life experiences completely shaped who I am today not only as a, as a husband but as a dad as well and as a friend and co-writer, as an entertainer. Like all these different things, really kind of before you knew it, shaped who I was gonna become.”
Thomas Rhett – collaborations on CPR :33
“I’ve always been a huge fan of like if you’re going to have somebody guest on your album you should know them, first of all. You should have a good relationship with them. On this record, Little Big Town is featured on ‘Don’t Threaten Me with a Good Time,’ Jon Pardi is featured on a song called ‘Ain’t Nothin’ A Beer Can’t Fix’ and Kelsea Ballerini is on ‘Center Point Road.’ And so I feel like I got to take some really best friends in country music and have them be a part of this record and if I could have a friend on every single song I would probably do it just because I think making music with your friends is so much more fun than doing it by yourself. But I think it’s gonna be really cool man. I think when people see the list of the people that are on this record they’re just gonna be really, really excited about it.”
Thomas Rhett – wrote so many songs for new album :24
“I think for this record we wrote about 150 songs. And then you kinda have to take those 150 and go, ‘Okay, you can’t put 150 songs on a record.’ And so then you have a bunch of preliminary meetings kinda talking about what our favorite 40? And then what our favorite 20? And then actually how many are we gonna go in the studio and cut? And so for this record in particular, we went in and cut 18 tracks, which is a step up from the last record that we cut 22 on.”