NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – Whenever country singer Thomas Rhett posts a video of his 1-year-old daughter, Willa Gray, or a photo of his wife, Lauren, on social media, Rhett’s dad, Rhett Akins, knows exactly what fans are saying in the comments.
“There’s not even a point to go look at the comments,” Akins said. “It’s one hundred thousand hashtag goals.”
At 27, Rhett is enjoying an abundance of blessings, both personal and professional, and he’s just trying to make sense of it all on his third album, “Life Changes,” out Friday. The bouncy title track is literally Rhett’s biography put to song as a college kid who became a country singer, married his childhood sweetheart and became a father.
“It is very weird,” Rhett said of becoming country music’s hottest celebrity couple. “Because we are completely just normal people who fight like normal couples, and love like normal couples. It is nuts how famous my wife has become over these past couple of years. She has a million Instagram followers, which is insane to me.”
Thanks to the success of his multiplatinum sophomore album, “Tangled Up,” and the hit love song for his wife, “Die a Happy Man,” the Georgia native has been racking up awards this year like single of the year and male vocalist of the year from the Academy of Country Music.