Early Life

Thomas Rhett Akins Jr. was born into country music, but not in the mythic, overnight-success way that often gets attached to second-generation artists. His father, Rhett Akins, had a successful recording career in the 1990s and later became one of Nashville’s most dependable songwriters, co-writing hits for other artists as part of a Music Row generation that understood both radio craft and road grit. For young Thomas, country music was not an abstract dream. It was the family business, the sound coming from backstage, buses, writing rooms and demo sessions. He grew up around the mechanics of songs — how a title becomes a hook, how a verse sets up a chorus, how one line can make a room lean forward. Rhett attended Lipscomb University in Nashville, but college did not hold him for long. He left to pursue music seriously, first as a songwriter and then as an artist. That path mattered. Before country listeners knew him as a singer, Nashville knew he could write. He earned early cuts with other artists, including Florida Georgia Line’s Round Here, which helped establish him as more than a famous surname. It also gave him an education that many young performers never get: he learned that a song has to survive before a star can sell it.

Family

Parents

• Rhett Akins, father, country singer-songwriter known for 1990s hits including That Ain’t My Truck and later for major Nashville songwriting success
• Paige Braswell, mother

Siblings

• Kasey Akins, sister
• Brody James Akins, younger half-brother

Career

Thomas Rhett’s first act was not the polished, genre-blending hitmaker listeners now know. His 2012 debut single, Something to Do with My Hands, introduced a young artist with a grin, a bit of swagger and a radio-friendly sound that fit the early 2010s country mainstream. The breakthrough came with It Goes Like This, the title track from his 2013 debut album. The song gave him his first No. 1 on the country charts and, more importantly, proved he could carry a hit under his own name. That distinction mattered because Thomas Rhett entered the marketplace with a built-in storyline: the son of Rhett Akins trying to become a star. Listeners can be generous to legacy acts, but radio is less sentimental. The single had to work. It did. The bigger transformation came with his second album, Tangled Up, in 2015. Rhett leaned into R&B grooves, pop phrasing and a flexible idea of what modern country could contain. Crash and Burn signaled the shift, but Die a Happy Man changed the scale of his career. Written as a love letter to Lauren Akins, the song was intimate enough to feel like a private vow and broad enough to become a wedding-standard country ballad. It became one of those rare modern country singles that traveled beyond format walls. Awards followed, but the deeper impact was reputational: Rhett was no longer just a bright young country act. He had a signature song. That can be both a gift and a burden. Some artists spend years trying to escape the shadow of a career-defining hit. Rhett instead used it as a foundation. Life Changes, released in 2017, widened his subject matter without abandoning the autobiographical center. The album arrived during a period of profound personal change: he and Lauren adopted their daughter Willa Gray from Uganda, and Lauren was pregnant with their daughter Ada James. Songs such as Marry Me, Unforgettable and Life Changes helped turn real-life milestones into a public narrative, but Rhett’s best work in that era avoided diary-entry indulgence. He wrote about family and romance in ways that listeners could borrow for their own lives. Life Changes also topped the Billboard 200, an achievement that showed his audience extended beyond core country radio. Center Point Road, released in 2019, sharpened the nostalgia. The title referred to a real road in his Tennessee upbringing, and the album pulled from youth, friendship and the emotional geography of home. It also produced hits such as Look What God Gave Her, Remember You Young and Beer Can’t Fix with Jon Pardi. By then, Rhett had become one of the clearest examples of contemporary country’s pop-country balancing act. He could divide purists, but he also kept bringing listeners into the tent. Then came a notable course correction. Country Again: Side A in 2021 sounded like an artist checking his compass. The album did not reject his pop side, but it foregrounded country instrumentation, family reflection and a more grounded tone. The title track, Country Again, was almost a thesis statement: a star who had spent years expanding the edges of his sound was publicly acknowledging the pull of roots. Where We Started followed in 2022, including the Katy Perry collaboration of the same name, reminding audiences that Rhett was still willing to cross lines when the song called for it. About a Woman in 2024 returned him to the romantic center that has often served him best. The album’s energy fit the same public image that has made Rhett unusually durable: husband, father, party-starter, songwriter, believer in big choruses. His Music City Walk of Fame star now lands at a meaningful point. It is not a lifetime-coda honor for an artist stepping away. It is a Nashville marker for someone still building. The 2026 The Soundtrack to Life tour gives the honor a stage, allowing Rhett to connect early hits, family ballads, pop-country experiments and newer material into one live narrative. That is where his career makes the most sense: in front of an audience that knows the words because the songs have already been folded into their own memories.

Television

• CMT Crossroads: Fall Out Boy and Thomas Rhett (2015) — Performer
• The Voice (2016) — Musical guest
• CMA Fest (2018-2019) — Co-host and performer
• Saturday Night Live (2019) — Musical guest
• ACM Presents: Our Country (2020) — Performer
• American Idol (2022) — Guest performer

Awards & Honors

• 2016 — Academy of Country Music Awards (Single Record of the Year) — Won
• 2016 — Country Music Association Awards (Single of the Year) — Won
• 2017 — Grammy Awards (Best Country Song) — Nominated
• 2017 — Academy of Country Music Awards (Male Vocalist of the Year) — Won
• 2017 — Academy of Country Music Awards (Song of the Year) — Won
• 2017 — Billboard Music Awards (Top Country Song) — Won
• 2018 — Grammy Awards (Best Country Album) — Nominated
• 2018 — Country Music Association Awards (Music Video of the Year) — Won
• 2020 — Grammy Awards (Best Country Album) — Nominated
• 2020 — Academy of Country Music Awards (Entertainer of the Year) — Won
• 2021 — Academy of Country Music Awards (Male Artist of the Year) — Won

Business Ventures

• Co-founded Dos Primos Tequila with his cousin Jeff Worn; the brand launched publicly in 2021.
• Launched Home Team Publishing with Rhett Akins, Virginia Bunetta and Roc Nation to develop songwriters.
• Has built the Home Team identity into a fan-facing brand used across touring, merchandise and his broader artist community.

Philanthropy

• Released Be a Light in 2020 with Reba McEntire, Hillary Scott, Chris Tomlin and Keith Urban, with proceeds benefiting the MusiCares COVID-19 Relief Fund.
• Has used his platform to highlight adoption and child-welfare causes, an area closely connected to his family’s adoption story.
• Has supported and amplified charitable work associated with Lauren Akins, including organizations focused on children and medical care in Uganda.
• Has participated in country-music charitable events and benefit performances, including efforts connected to disaster relief and music-community support.

Current Projects

• Received a star on Nashville’s Music City Walk of Fame.
• Launching the 2026 The Soundtrack to Life tour.
• Continuing the album cycle connected to About a Woman, released in 2024.
• Maintaining his work as a songwriter, touring artist and head of the Home Team creative ecosystem.

Interesting Facts

• His full name is Thomas Rhett Akins Jr.; he performs professionally as Thomas Rhett to create a distinct identity from his father, Rhett Akins.
• Before his own recording career took off, he built credibility as a songwriter for other artists.
• He co-wrote Florida Georgia Line’s Round Here, a No. 1 country hit that arrived before Rhett became an arena headliner himself.
• Die a Happy Man was inspired by his relationship with Lauren Akins and became one of modern country’s most requested wedding songs.
• Life Changes was not just an album title; it reflected the real period when Rhett and Lauren became parents through adoption and pregnancy in the same year.
• His album Life Changes debuted at No. 1 on the all-genre Billboard 200, a rare crossover achievement for a contemporary country album.
• He once played in a punk-influenced high school band called The High Heeled Flip Flops before settling fully into country music.
• His 2020 ACM Entertainer of the Year win was shared with Carrie Underwood, creating the first tie in the category’s history.
• Rhett has repeatedly collaborated outside strict country boundaries, including work with Katy Perry and Fall Out Boy.
• His father, Rhett Akins, successfully reinvented himself from country artist to top Nashville songwriter, giving Thomas a close-up view of career longevity.
• The title Center Point Road refers to the area of Tennessee where Rhett came of age.
• He and Lauren Akins have made family life a visible part of his public image without turning him into a purely domestic artist.
• His tequila brand, Dos Primos, grew out of a family partnership with his cousin Jeff Worn.
• He has often described his fan base as the Home Team, a phrase that became part of his touring and business identity.

Why ShowBiz Selected This Entertainer

Thomas Rhett is featured this week because Nashville has formally placed him among the artists it chooses to celebrate in public memory. His Music City Walk of Fame star recognizes more than chart statistics; it acknowledges a career that began inside Nashville’s songwriting culture and grew into a modern country brand of its own. The honor also arrives at a useful dramatic moment. Rhett is not looking backward from retirement. He is moving into the 2026 The Soundtrack to Life tour, which gives him a chance to reframe more than a decade of hits in front of the fans who made them personal. The current news connects neatly to his larger career: a hometown-raised country star, once judged partly through the lens of his father’s name, has earned a Nashville landmark under his own.

Watch Next

• Die a Happy Man music video
• Marry Me music video
• Life Changes music video
• Look What God Gave Her music video
• Remember You Young music video
• Beer Can’t Fix featuring Jon Pardi music video
• Country Again music video
• Where We Started featuring Katy Perry music video
• Beautiful as You music video
• Thomas Rhett live performances from CMA Fest