Story Behind the Song: Thomas Rhett, ‘Star of the Show’
Thomas Rhett earned his seventh No. 1 hit with "Star of the Show," featured on the deluxe edition of his sophomore album, Tangled Up. Written by Rhett with his father, Rhett Akins, and Ben Hayslip, the tune is a love song about Rhett's wife Lauren. Below, Rhett shares the story behind the single.
I got married in October of 2012, and I think I wrote it in November of 2012 -- so, freshly married, and I think that was my point of starting to write a bunch of love songs. At that point in time, we were either done with [my first] record, or just finishing the first one, and that song, it just didn’t fit at that time period in my life, because it was a progressive song at the time.
And so, my fans have always wanted it on my first record, and then they wanted it on my second album. And, really, all that ever existed before we cut the song was a YouTube video of me playing it at a radio station, somewhere in Alabama. I love when old songs like that resurface, and you’re kind of reminded that they are good. So it was really cool to have that song live for so long, and also be a song I wrote with my dad and Ben Hayslip, who I’ve known since I was basically two years old, or, actually, when I was born. So it’s a very special one for the three of us, and [it's] really cool, the parameters in which we wrote it and how it took five years to record it ...
That [song] was the first little bit of, "Hey, I’m going to start writing songs for [Lauren]." I had never really written a song [that] personal, about her, and obviously, everyone knows "Die a Happy Man" was written about her as well. But "Star of the Show" was one of the ones that I guess got forgotten about. When you get in the recording process, there’s so many songs, and then sometimes, you finish it, and then your album's out, and then you find a song that you’re like, "Dang, I wish we had put that on the record." "Star of the Show" seemed to be that one on the first one, and the second record, [too]. So, I just thought, what better time to cut it than now?
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