Thomas Rhett has earned a sizable collection of No. 1s during his career, but one of his early singles wasn’t a big hit with wife Lauren Akins. Speaking to Jesse Frasure on Little Bit Country Radio on Apple Music Country, Rhett shared that his debut single, “Something to Do With My Hands,” may be Akins’ least-favorite song of his.
“I put out this song called ‘Something to Do with My Hands,’ it was my very first single that I ever put out and I don’t even talk about that song anymore,” he said. “I think it might be my wife’s least favorite song I’ve ever written.” Rhett explained that he began his music career with the intention of only being a songwriter and not an artist, though he eventually started releasing music of his own, following “Something to Do With My Hands” with his single “Beer with Jesus.”
Videos by PopCulture.com
“That was to me, what I wanted the world to know of me,” he said of the song. “After ‘Beer with Jesus’ died at 15, I was like, ‘Well, now what do we do?’ And a song going to 15, I would consider that… It’s a win… Especially for a brand new artist, that’s definitely a huge win.”
“Something to Do With My Hands” appeared on Rhett’s debut album, It Goes Like This, as did “Beer With Jesus.” The album also contained three additional singles — its title track, “Get Me Some of That” and “Make Me Wanna,” all of which hit No. 1.
“I’m a perfectionist as you know, and it was not going to be suitable until it was at the top,” Rhett told Frasure, explaining that his label was initially hesitant to release “Make Me Wanna” as a single, though it ended up being a tipping point for his career.
“They were like, ‘That is a death threat. Literally, it is a career ruiner of a song,’” he recalled. “In the nicest way because they obviously wanted me to succeed. And in my gut, I remember I called Virginia, my manager, one night and I said, ‘I think we got to do this.’ And she goes, ‘Here’s the deal. If you are still going to be happy, if the song dies at 45, then you should definitely put it out.’”
“I had to think about that because I was like, ‘Well, if it dies at 45, I don’t know what we’re going to… I guess we’re just going to make a new record,’” the father of three continued. “And the song sat at 40 for six weeks. It sat at 40 for so long. And then all the sudden, every week it started creeping up on the iTunes chart, creeping up, creeping up, creeping up. And the next thing you know, we’re in the top 10, we’re in the top 5, and then all the sudden, it was a two-week number one.”
Rhett has since seen nearly every single he has released top the charts, and his most recent effort, “What’s Your Country Song?” is currently climbing.
