Want It Again - Commentary

Hey, this is Thomas Rhett, and thanks for checking

Out my Country Again, Side A release special

That's right

It is finally here

I feel like Thomas Rhett has been teasing us for, like, a year

With all this music because some of these songs he wrote

During the pandemic, and he played some of them on Instagram

People have been dying for him to put them

On an album, and it finally happened

The album is called Country Again, Side A, and

We're gonna play every song on the album, and

Thomas is gonna tell us about writing these songs

So first of all, Thomas, thank you

For being here and, uh, how are you?

Good

How are you?

I'm great

I love this new album

I can't wait to play all the songs for everybody

But I guess the first thing I would love for you

To explain because I've heard you talk about it

A few times, how would you sum up Country Again?

Country Again, Side A is 11 songs

We recorded about 24 or 25 for the entire project

We were thinking about doing a double album

Or just a single album that was a bit longer

Kinda had this idea we're gonna split it up over the course of time

And so Country Again, Side A has a song on it called

Country Again, but that song wasn't really written

When we were thinking about this process yet

As I listened down to all these 11 tracks, I feel

Like they have, uh, just somewhat of a common theme

So much of this album is nostalgic, but it's

Also somewhat of just a moment in time

So it's kind of a lot of looking back, but a lot of things that

I've learned over the last 10 years; becoming a better dad

Becoming a better husband, becoming a better friend, better man

And so this collection of songs, to me, is exactly where I'm at today

Even in the song Country Again, it's not even

About putting boots back on or fishing again

It's just about kinda getting back to more of

The simplicity of life that I think I kinda

Misplaced over the last, I don't know, decade or so

And I think 2020 had a lot to do with me kinda getting back to

My roots and just living a little bit more of a simplistic life

And, and that kinda showed through in the songwriting of this

First collection of songs, which is called Country Again, Side A

I totally get that

I kinda went through my own wanting to simplify

My life and get rid of clutter and stuff

And, you know, when I look at this album, I, I love the

Songs on here, but I know that you had a lot to choose from

So how did you go through that process and was it

A hard one for you to whittle down these songs?

It was really hard to narrow down the songs for this

Project because we started with, I think, 75 to

100 Songs and somehow whittled them down into 30

And then when we got to the studio, a lot of it

Was like, "Well, which of the 30 do we wanna record?

" And so we ended up recording about 25 of them

And in many ways, it was the hardest record I've made

Because we haven't done it like this in a long time

But in some ways, it was the easiest record I've made because I

Was so sure in the songs and so sure with the choices that we made

On what to call the record, how we were gonna brand it as a theme

And so for me, it just felt like every song we recorded

Was like, "That's right, that's right." At least for

Me, in my brain, in my heart, they were all the right

Decisions that I wanted to make as a person today

That's pretty awesome

Well, I can't wait for everybody to hear this music

I know they're gonna love it

I love it

So let's start with track one, Want It Again

Tell people what this song is about

So Want It Again was a song that I wrote on a trip in Canada

I was there with Josh Thompson, Matt Dragstrom, and Josh Miller

And, uh, we were writing a song and I had to run

Back to, uh, the bus to grab something and

Um, I was talking to a buddy of mine on the bus

I was like, "Hey, where's those headphones I was looking for?

" And, uh, he was like, "Man, I put them in that drawer

I figured you'd want them again one day." And immediately

Songwriter brain 101, I take things that I hear, whether it's

Just from talking to my wife or talking to friends, and either

Immediately write it down or immediately, like, voice note it

And I remember going back to the bus and being like, "Guys, we need

To write this song called Want It Again." They're like, "What

Does that mean?" And I love taking little sentences like that and

Trying to shape them into something that means a little bit more

And so I started diving back into, like, Lauren and I's

Like, dating life and then going on to getting married

And this is somewhat of a continuation of Marry Me in ways

Basically, I kept my heart safe because I

Figured you, you would want it again one day

And so as we go through this song, first verse, second verse

And then the last chorus, it's kind of this progression

Of I thought we were in love at 15 and then we weren't

And then I thought that you were gonna marry somebody

Else and I was gonna marry somebody else and we

Didn't, and the song kind of reprises with that

I gave a little bit of it to people, but I didn't give

The whole thing away because I hoped that there

Would be a time when you would want it again one day

And so I think that song right there is my wife's favorite track on

The record and just a really neat way to write a love song to me

I can see why this would be one of Lauren's favorite songs on this

Album, and I, I just kinda love the thought of it, that I'm

Holding on to part of my heart just in case you ever want it again

That's the name of the song

You'll find it on Country Again, Side A from Thomas Rhett

It's his new album, which we are listening to now