After celebrating 20 #1’s on Country radio, Thomas Rhett knows a thing or two about success. While up and coming artists are eager to hear his advice, Thomas says he still relies on some of his biggest role models in the music industry for theirs.
LISTEN NOW: Thomas Rhett says Luke Bryan is one of his biggest mentors
During a recent conversation with KSON’s John & Tammy: San Diego’s Morning Show, Rhett revealed, besides his father — 90’s icon, Rhett Akins — he relies on fellow Country singer, Luke Bryan for mentorship surrounding music, life as a musician and family.
“I talked to Luke Bryan a ton in my early [career]. I still talk to Luke quite a bit,” he said before sharing there’s no topic that’s off the table for them. “I’ve talked to Luke about my voice, I’ve talked to Luke about my marriage, about how to raise kids. He’s always been somebody who is like, not your father, but an unbiased opinion — Luke has kinda been that guy for me.”
Detailing their friendship, Thomas shared he looks up to Luke for a lot of reasons, one of those being the amount of life experience he’s had — good and bad. “Luke’s been through the wringer — he’s adopted several of his sibling’s kids and experienced a lot of trauma in his life and in his career and I feel like he is somebody that has come through the other side of it victorious,” he shared.
Knowing the importance of a good mentor, Rhett says he is always honored when younger musicians come to him for advice and takes the role of being a mentor very seriously.
“I love it,” Thomas said of offering advice to those who seek it. “To have those kids kind of look up to me as sort of their advice-giver sometimes — that’s been really cool. And it’s something I don’t take lightly.”
On the topic off his success, Rhett was also asked if he’d ever consider selling his songs. “They can go,” Thomas said without hesitation. “I’m proud of them, but at the end of the day, when I’m like 60 years old and someone wants to maybe buy/have the rights to the songs — that would be gigantic.”
He continued, “I would keep portions of songs, for sure, especially songs that I feel were very life-changing for my career. In hindsight, I’d probably sell half and I would leave the other half to my kids like in the will or whatever.”
Hear more about Thomas’ thoughts surrounding his music, mentorship, and why he chooses to participate in cryotherapy by listening to his full conversation with John & Tammy above.