Thomas Rhett Recalls Being Put in Timeout by Reba McEntire on Halloween

Thomas Rhett's dad, Rhett Akins, is a country music singer and songwriter released albums of his own before writing for others, which means Rhett was introduced to a whole lot of artists growing up. One of those artists was Reba McEntire, who hosted a Halloween party that resulted in Rhett being put in a timeout.

"Reba's son, Shelby, I think we're about the same age, and we were at their Halloween party one year," Rhett told his record label, referencing McEntire's son, Shelby Blackstock. "And I remember us racing back and forth to this barn, and I think I kept beating him in this race. And I think he was a little bit older than me and bigger than me, and he put me up against the wall, you know, around my neck. And I remember Reba comin' over and snatchin' Shelby off of me and puttin' us both in timeout."

"I mean, I had to have been five, maybe five, to be put in timeout," he added. "I hope that I wasn't like, nine or something and I was in timeout."

Rhett grew up to be a country singer himself, and this year, he collaborated with McEntire on his song "Be A Light." The uplifting track also features Keith Urban, Hillary Scott and Chris Tomlin and Rhett told Bobby Bones on The Bobby Bones Show that he thought the song's message could be even more "powerful" coming from voices besides his own.

"At first I thought, 'Maybe I'll just do this by myself,' but then as we started to kind of record the song, I was like, 'Man, I feel like it's a great message coming from me but I feel like, how much more powerful could the message be coming from for sure my heroes and people that a lot of our fans love,'" Rhett recalled. "I've also always wanted to do a song with Reba. That was a longshot."

The 30-year-old added that he was "freaking out" when McEntire agreed to appear on the song. "Bucket list moment to do a song with Reba, for sure," he said, adding that he got to know Tomlin over the past few years and had known Scott "forever."

"These people are all people I've wanted to work with for a long time and it felt like all of our views kind of aligned with this song and I felt like they could just make it that much cooler and that much bigger," Rhett said. "It was really cool to record a song with all four of them."