Thomas Rhett Offers an Update on His Third Album

If Thomas Rhett's performance of his new single "Craving You," a duet with Maren Morris, at the 2017 ACM Awards left fans craving more, there's good news: The singer says, thanks to some time management, his next album is almost ready for release.

"This is the first year that we tried to really compartmentalize our year, rather than try to make a record and write songs and tour all at the same time," Rhett shared with The Boot and other reporters at a recent media event. "That just gets too stressful for everybody. So we went and recorded the entire record in January, rehearsed all of February, and now we’re just in tour season."

In other words? "The bulk of the record has all been cut," Rhett continues. "It just now requires me finding time to sing it and get it mixed and get it mastered, and then try to whittle it down. We cut way too many songs, so we have to figure out which ones are going to stay and which ones are going to go."

A recent two-time ACM Awards winner -- Rhett won Male Vocalist of the Year and Song of the Year at the 2017 ceremony -- Rhett hints that Morris isn't the only special guest on his new set of tunes. However, he's not sharing any more details.

"We have a couple collaborations on this next project, but I would probably get killed if I told you who they were. But it’s going to be really fun," Rhett teases. "We really stepped it up hugely on the last record, on the collaboration side of things. I would collaborate on every song if I could; I just love writing songs with other artists and doing it with them. Obviously you can’t do that on every single, but it’s going to be fun on this next record."

Rhett's currently headlining his own Home Team Tour, which is his first headlining trek. While many artists clamor to finally get top billing, Rhett confesses that he wasn't sure he was ready.

"The biggest show I’ve ever put on sale with my name on it was at a little club, named Wild Bill’s, and it held, I think, 4,000 people," he recalls. "So when my team was like, ‘Hey, I think we should get out and go do this now,’ I was like, ‘Nope. I don’t want to do it. I want to keep building and keep opening for my idols.’ I had been the middle slot for Florida Georgia Line and Jason Aldean and Luke Bryan and those people, and I just kept learning from them. I think I was terrified to go out and have all that pressure be on me."

Still, it hasn't taken long for 27-year-old Rhett to realize that he enjoys being tour boss.

"All those people, they’re there to see everybody, but your name is on the ticket now," Rhett notes. "You get to play as long as you want. You get to play songs from the first record, and they know them, which is fun. Just the energy of being a headliner, and being crazy terrified about it, and watching it actually work, was one of the coolest feelings ever."

Rhett is being joined on the road on his tour by a variety of opening acts, including Kelsea Ballerini, Brett Young, Old Dominion, Dan + Shay, Russell Dickerson, Walker Hayes and Ryan Hurd. The chance to pick those special guests was, for Rhett, the best part of the planning process.

"That’s something I’ve always wanted to be a part of, and now I finally get to do it," Rhett says. He continues, "It’s a show of pretty much non-stop entertainment. From the time you walk into the building until you leave, there’s something constantly going on. And we wanted to make it that way."

A list of all of Rhett's upcoming shows is available on his website. "Craving You" is available for download on iTunes.

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