{"id":19186,"date":"2019-10-09T08:08:04","date_gmt":"2019-10-09T14:08:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/news\/?p=1812939"},"modified":"2019-10-09T08:08:04","modified_gmt":"2019-10-09T14:08:04","slug":"thomas-rhett-cmt-artist-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/music-news\/thomas-rhett-cmt-artist-of-the-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Thomas Rhett: CMT Artist of the Year"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:ao:image:cmt.com:682968?width=1200&amp;height=675&amp;.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"byline\">by <span class=\"author\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/news\/author\/morrise\/\" title=\"Posts by Edward Morris\" rel=\"author\">Edward Morris<\/a><\/span> <span class=\"date\">41m ago<\/span><\/span> <\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s been a long journey from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/artists\/thomas-rhett\">Thomas Rhett<\/a>\u2019s boyhood home on Center Point Road, Hendersonville, Tennessee, to the stage of Madison Square Garden, New York City. But for this 2019 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/artists-of-the-year\">CMT Artist of the Year<\/a>, it\u2019s been a steadily accelerating one.<\/p>\n<p>In support of his latest album \u2014 which just happens to be titled <em>Center Point Road<\/em> \u2014 he recently sold out the house at the world-famous venue and thrilled the crowd with his songs and energy. As one reviewer observed, \u201cDuring the upbeat party anthems \u2018Don\u2019t Threaten Me With a Good Time\u2019 and \u2018Vacation,\u2019 [he] cranked things up about 15 notches to the point where the floor of the Garden actually started vibrating.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"deferred_content\">Embedded from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/f5pHiXBt8UU?feature=oembed\">www.youtube.com<\/a>. <noscript class=\"deferred_content\" data-deferred-info=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;iframe&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/f5pHiXBt8UU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\">[embedded content]<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><\/noscript><\/div>\n<p>It wasn\u2019t Thomas Rhett\u2019s first time to play the Garden. He\u2019d done it twice before, opening for Jason Aldean and Florida Georgia Line. But this time he owned it, and to compound the thrill, his dad, Rhett Akins, opened for him. And there was another New York landmark he played this past year \u2014 the revered and enduring <em>Saturday Night Live<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>In spite of his cascade of career highs, Thomas Rhett still seems a bit dazzled to have been chosen for the CMT honor. \u201cI never wanted to assume that I would be an Artist of the Year,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen I was first starting out, I looked at Miranda and I looked at Dierks and I looked at Jason Aldean and Luke Bryan and Florida Georgia Line and all these people that I\u2019d opened for, for so long, and it was like thinking, \u2019I\u2019m always just gonna be here. I\u2019m always gonna be opening for somebody.\u2019 But in the last couple years since we\u2019ve transitioned from the opening slot to headlining the same arenas that I was playing in with Jason and Luke and FGL, it\u2019s weird to view yourself as on the same playing field.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"deferred_content\">Embedded from <a href=\"http:\/\/media.mtvnservices.com\/embed\/mgid:arc:video:cmt.com:de8e5625-dd5b-4097-9d7e-19bd300e4100\">media.mtvnservices.com<\/a>. <noscript class=\"deferred_content\" data-deferred-info=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;iframe&quot;}\"> <\/noscript><\/div>\n<p>Of course, his evolving set list sparkles with a lot more than the party anthems his Madison Square Garden crowd rocked out to. More than most young artists, Thomas Rhett has delved deeply and honestly into his own life story for songs, whether it\u2019s the delightful coming-of-age romp \u201cAll American Middle Class White Boy,\u201d the philosophically mature \u201cLife Changes\u201d (in which he chronicles his maturation from aimless college boy to responsible fatherhood), or the elder statesman perspective of his current heart-melting single, \u201cRemember You Young.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But it was his 2015 blockbuster, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=w2CELiObPeQ\">Die a Happy Man<\/a>,\u201d that gave him the stature, impetus and courage to really reveal himself \u2014 and his love for his wife \u2014 to his fans. As he told CMT, \u201cIf \u2018Die a Happy Man\u2019 had never come out, \u2018Life Changes\u2019 would have never come out. \u2018Marry Me\u2019 would have never come out. \u2018Remember You Young\u2019 would have never come out. \u2018Die a Happy Man\u2019 really inspired me to be like, \u2018Wow, people do care about who I am and what I stand for and what I want to say.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"deferred_content\">Embedded from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/w2CELiObPeQ?feature=oembed\">www.youtube.com<\/a>. <noscript class=\"deferred_content\" data-deferred-info=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;iframe&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/w2CELiObPeQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\">[embedded content]<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><\/noscript><\/div>\n<p>He reckons that the song gave him the legitimacy and assurance to reveal himself not just as an artist but as a distinct individual. \u201cIt allowed me to be as personal as I wanted to be,\u201d he says. \u201cBefore that, I had a song on my first record called \u2019If I Could Have a Beer With Jesus\u2019 that still to this day is one of my favorite songs I\u2019ve ever gotten to be a part of writing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut it didn\u2019t really work that well on radio. I think I was too new of an artist for content that deep at that time. I don\u2019t think people knew who I was or knew how to take that song. So I shied away from anything personal [after that] for a minute. I just wanted to put songs out that felt like radio singles, that were up tempo and made people wanna have fun, made people wanna dance.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"deferred_content\">Embedded from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/FRTdpX9OMr0?feature=oembed\">www.youtube.com<\/a>. <noscript class=\"deferred_content\" data-deferred-info=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;iframe&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/FRTdpX9OMr0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\">[embedded content]<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><\/noscript><\/div>\n<p>Fans have taken \u201cDie a Happy Man\u201d to heart with a zeal he could hardly have imagined. \u201cI mean literally every night in our concert, someone gets engaged to that song,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s crazy. Like you look out in the crowd and there\u2019s a flashlight on somebody in Section 345 who got on a knee and proposed.<\/p>\n<p>Thomas Rhett was steeped in country music from an early age. His father was a bright star at Decca Records in the late 1990s, co-writing and scoring such hits as \u201cThat Ain\u2019t My Truck\u201d and \u201cDon\u2019t Get Me Started.\u201d The younger Rhett made his recording breakthrough in 2012 with \u201cSomething to Do with My Hands,\u201d which took him to No. 15. The next year he netted the first of his string of No. 1\u2019s with \u201cIt Goes Like This.\u201d It\u2019s been a swirl of chart-toppers and memorable music videos ever since.<\/p>\n<p>Remembering the events that brought him to his present eminence, Thomas Rhett says it\u2019s still too much to fathom. \u201cThere\u2019s been a lot of things that have happened to me in the last 10 years that you could call \u2019career-defining moments.\u2019 Whether it\u2019s, say, our first No. 1 single, whether it\u2019s the first time playing the Opry, the first-time selling out a 200-seat club and then, now, in 2019, you\u2019re selling out an arena. I look back at my life, and I go, \u2019I cannot believe where we started to where we are now.\u2019<\/p>\n<div class=\"deferred_content\">Embedded from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/AbXahmBSLTk?feature=oembed\">www.youtube.com<\/a>. <noscript class=\"deferred_content\" data-deferred-info=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;iframe&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/AbXahmBSLTk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\">[embedded content]<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><\/noscript><\/div>\n<p>\u201cBut if I had to pick one moment \u2014 and I know I\u2019ve already talked about it \u2014 I would say a song can literally change everything about your career. You can be cruising and you can have success, but I think that when you have one beast of a song, it can really change your whole dynamic. It changes your whole future. So when \u2019Die a Happy Man\u2019 came out and did what it did, it shifted my life and my career forever.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Currently the Academy of Country Music\u2019s male artist of the year, Rhett will continue to tour through the end of 2019. With these incredible achievements, it\u2019s clear why he\u2019s one of 2019\u2019s CMT Artists of the Year.<\/p>\n<p>THE STATS<br \/>17 singles released (13 No. 1\u2019s, 4 gold, 7 platinum, 4 multiplatinum)<br \/>4 albums released (3 platinum)<br \/>CMA Awards (song of the year, 2016; music video of the year, 2018)<\/p>\n<div class=\"author\">\n<div class=\"description\">Edward Morris is a veteran of country music journalism. He lives in Nashville, Tennessee, and is a frequent contributor to CMT.com.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/news\/1812939\/thomas-rhett-cmt-artist-of-the-year\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: CMT News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Edward Morris 41m ago It\u2019s been a long journey from Thomas Rhett\u2019s boyhood home on Center Point Road, Hendersonville, Tennessee, to the stage of Madison Square Garden, New York City. But for this 2019 CMT Artist of the Year, it\u2019s been a steadily accelerating one. In support of his latest album \u2014 which just [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-19186","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-13 23:32:11","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KRKY Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19186\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}