Thomas Rhett reveals why he and wife Lauren reject celebrity perks for country life
Thomas Rhett admitted this week that his wife didn’t think he was going to become a famous country singer.
"We've definitely had our fair share of ups and downs, ‘cause I think that Lauren really… she craves simplicity, at all costs, simplicity," the country singer said on the "Girls In Low Places" podcast on Sunday, clarifying that she believed he was talented, but knew that stardom was rare.
"She grew up, you know, real country, and her and her daddy would lay in the street at night and look at the stars," noting that "he would just call out different constellations and stuff like, ‘That's a satellite and that's this.’"
He explained that was how she saw her life, calling it "a real suburban neighborhood thing."
Rhett said he and Lauren Akins have known each other since they were in first grade, and they briefly dated in high school before reconnecting after she graduated from college.
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"So, we got married at 22."
Admitting "there’s nothing normal" about fame, they noted that it affects everyone.
"There's just so many crazy things that come with being famous," he said, giving the example of getting to cut lines, which he said he refuses to do.
"I think that's why so many people try to just live their life in search of such normalcy and I think my wife obviously has wanted that her whole life, and we do live very simply," the "Die a Happy Man" singer said. "But it took me a minute."
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He said his career "really started to pop" around 2017 to 2019.
"I don't think I let it get to my head, but I do think I got really used to it," the 36-year-old admitted. "In probably not the best way."
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Rhett admitted he has to actively focus on not letting fame get him, because "when you walk on stage in front of, you know, 10,000 people, that's like a rush that you can't like go replicate. You know what I'm saying? Like you can't just go like play flag football with your friends and think that's going to entice the same feeling."
For that reason, he has a difficult time "being content in simple situations because I think there's no super high going on."
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That’s forced him to "get really good" at being quiet, which he says doesn't come naturally to him.
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Hearing people singing his songs while he’s performing on stage has always seemed surreal, but the one that "gets" him is witnessing people cry when they meet him "because I don't see myself that way. Period."
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"And I have, you know, definitely five kids that definitely don't see me that way," he joked.
The couple share Willa, 10, Ada, who turns 9 on Aug. 12, Lennon, 6, Lillie, 4, and Brave, who was born in February.
He admitted trying to be "super dad" and taking his kids to school while he’s in the middle of doing late-night concerts can also be exhausting.
Later, in the podcast, when asked what marriage advice he would give, Rhett said, "Don’t forget to continue to date your wife."
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"It gets so much harder when you have children to make time for each other because there's so many other bodies that need your full-time assistance," he explained.
The singer said he and his wife recently spent two days just the two of them in London before joining friends in the Cotswolds, noting that "you feel sad, and your kids are like ‘Why are you leaving?' And you're like, ‘Because we want to stay married!’" he joked.
Earlier this year, he admitted during his years of early fame he felt like he was "living a double life," adding that it almost ruined his marriage.
"I look through my life and I think about all the things that have kind of twisted me or made me like not the best person to be around, and it has always been either around affirmation or lack of affirmation," the country star told Sadie Robertson Huff on her "WHOA That’s Good" podcast.
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Appearing on the podcast with his wife, Rhett said that at the height of his fame, he experienced "the most affirmation I think I'd ever received in my life. And I really liked it."
But he admitted that he didn’t feel he handled his marriage very well at the time.
"I look back at our life during that time, and I'm not — I don't think I stewarded it very well, to be honest with you," he said.
Rhett, who is Christian, said publicly he kept up a façade of spirituality, "but internally I was dying. Like I genuinely, I just liked what was happening so much that I think so much of me was being sucked into the world so hard that it just kept pushing me and her like this," he said, moving his hands away from each other.
Rhett noted that he and his wife said from "day one, divorce is not an option," but, "the more you actually think about it, anything is actually an option if you let it become that."
It wasn’t until 2020 that he "actually discovered bits and pieces of who I actually was at my core, without a microphone, without a stage with and without affirmation, because it was the first time it had ever been taken away from me, if that makes any sense," Rhett explained, referring to the pandemic.
"I’m not perfect," he continued. "I'll never be perfect, but I would say, like today, us looking at each other and being a married couple, I would say this is… I'm living my most true self now."
He pointed to his wife and added, "She always sort of has been."