Thomas Rhett’s Daughters Make Him a ‘Better Person All Around’

Last Father’s Day, Thomas Rhett and his wife, Lauren Akins, had just become parents to daughter Willa Gray, who was adopted from an orphanage in Uganda. This year, the couple have also added daughter Ada James to their family, born in August, making this Rhett’s first Father’s Day as a family of four.

“I think when you have kids you’re kind of forced to change a lot of stuff about yourself and your old habits because life really does change whether you want it to or not,” says Rhett. “And so I feel like I’ve become somewhat of a more laid back human being. Things that used to bother me don’t bother me anymore because there’s a lot bigger fish to fry when you have kids.

“But they have made me just a better person all around and I would do anything for those two little girls,” Rhett continues. “And it’s been really cool to have ’em on the road with me this year. It just makes the road feel a whole lot more like home and I feel like I can be away a lot more and not be as homesick.”

Rhett has been headlining his own Life Changes Tour, as well as serving as the opening act on Kenny Chesney‘s Trip Around the Sun Tour.

“Being on a Kenny Chesney tour, I think is a dream that I’ve had since I was 19 years old,” says Rhett. “[Jason] Aldean’s done it, Eric Church has done it, Miranda [Lambert] has done it. Anybody who is somebody has done that tour and there’s a reason for that and it’s because Kenny has perfected the art of learning how to entertain 70,000 people for two hours.”

The Georgia native previously opened for Chesney for two dates at the Gillette Stadium in 2017, where Rhett got to watch one of the greatest and most successful performers in action.

“I feel like I got to learn so much even in just those two days of watching how Kenny connects to the person in the front row, and the person in the nose bleeds,” Rhett says. “That’s a very hard thing to do, and so I’m anxious to get out there and obviously do our set, but then just learn so much from Kenny. I think that’s every artist’s dream is to one day headline stadiums.”

Find a list of all of Rhett’s upcoming shows at ThomasRhett.com.

Photo Credit: Instagram/laur_akins