Thomas Rhett Talks ‘About A Woman’ Album: ‘Joy Is What I Hope You Feel’

Photo byCourtesy of BMLG

Thomas Rhett is so glad his About A Woman album is out. The 14-track record is all in celebration of his wife, Lauren Akins, and their almost 12 years of marriage.

“I can’t believe it’s here,” Rhett writes on social media of the project being released. “It’s like I’ve had a ring in my pocket ready to propose haha. It’s finally yours. The mission of this album was to bring you joy. And joy is what I hope you feel listening to these 14 tracks. About A Woman is out now!!!

Rhett, who recently opened up about overcoming hard times in his marriage to Akins, says the entire album is a synopsis of his relationship to Akins, whom he met when they were both in elementary school.

“The content is very familiar because it’s all coming from my memories with my wife, whether it was from younger years to high school to now to future thinking about my marriage and all those kinds of things,” Rhett tells American Songwriter. “I think my mission for this project was joy, smiling, and dancing. For the most part, it is mission accomplished.”

For the first time ever in his entire career, the 34-year-old took time off the road, and with his family, to focus on creating About A Woman. It was a refreshing season which is evident in all of the songs on the record.

“It’s been an interesting year,” Rhett admits. “I’ve never played this few shows in my life. But it’s also been very rewarding to be able to spend a lot of time kind of homing in on this project, and it might be the new system.”

Rhett might have played fewer shows while he was creating About A Woman, but the songs he hints are meant to be played on tour.

“I think on this record, I wanted it to be full of songs that I really wanted to play live because if you’ve been to our live show, it is very high energy,” Rhett tells Country Now. “We encourage screaming, jumping and dancing and all the things. I genuinely like spreading joy. It’s kind of just my main mission.”

Photo byCourtesy of the CMA

Perhaps surprisingly, it was a conversation with Akins, about the songs he writes for her, that became the inspiration for About A Woman.

“I’ve written a million songs about my wife, but a lot of them end up in ballad form,” Rhett explains. “So I think on this project, it was like, ‘How do I say ‘I love you’ in a way that can also make you want to move?’ That was kind of my wife’s commission to me for this project. She was like, ‘I love that you write songs about me, but also make me dance too.’”

“It really all stemmed from one conversation about a year and a half ago, ” he continues. “Like ‘What do you want the mission of this record to be, and how do you want it to feel, and what do you want people to take away from it?’”

Rhett has a Top 20 single with “Beautiful As You,” the debut single from About A Woman. See a track list for About A Woman below. Purchase the record, and find all of Rhett’s music and upcoming shows, at ThomasRhett.com.

About A Woman Track List:

1. “Fool”
2. “Overdrive”
3. “Gone Country”
4. “Beautiful As You”
5. “Can’t Love You Anymore”
6. “After All The Bars Are Closed”
7. “Church”
8. “Back To Blue”
9. “Country For California”
10. “Somethin’ ‘Bout A Woman”
11. “What Could Go Right”
12. “Boots”
13. “Don’t Wanna Dance”
14. “I Could Spend Forever Loving You”