Thomas Rhett has one of the best Reba McEntire stories of all – and it’s absolutely embarrassing for him – not her, country fans.
Those that know of Thomas Rhett, know he comes from a lineage of country stars. His father is Rhett Akins, who was a huge country star in the 90s. As a result, Thomas grew up surrounded by other country stars and legends. One such legend? Reba McEntire herself.
Not only was Rhett able to meet and spend time with her as a child, but he went to her house, too. In fact, his family would go to McEntire’s for Halloween parties each year. One party, however, went far differently than all the others.
“Reba’s son, Shelby – I think we’re about the same age,” Rhett begins. “We were at their Halloween party one year. And I remember us racing back and forth to this barn, and I think I kept beating him in this race.”
To make a long story short, Rhett remembers Shelby got very upset with him for continually beating him at his own game. So much so, that things quickly got rough. “He was a little bit older than me and bigger than me,” Thomas clarifies, “and he put me up against the wall, you know, around my neck. And I remember Reba comin’ over and snatchin’ Shelby off of me and puttin’ us both in timeout.”
After laughing it off, Rhett tries to remember how old he was during the incident. “I had to have been five, maybe five, to be put in timeout,” he chuckles. “I hope that I wasn’t like, nine or something and I was in timeout.”
Even if you were, Thomas, you were put in timeout by Reba. That’s a great story no matter how old you were.
Listen to the Full Thomas Rhett Interview
To listen to the full interview with Rhett, the audio is available over at Big Machine Label Group. We’ve also transcribed the audio referenced within this article below.
“Reba’s son, Shelby, I think we’re about the same age, and we were at their Halloween party one year. And I remember us racing back and forth to this barn, and I think I kept beating him in this race. And I think he was a little bit older than me and bigger than me, and he put me up against the wall, you know, around my neck. And I remember Reba comin’ over and snatchin’ Shelby off of me and puttin’ us both in timeout. I mean, I had to have been five, maybe five, to be put in timeout. I hope that I wasn’t like, nine or something and I was in timeout.”
Thomas Rhett
Rhett Proves Very Open in Interviews
All in all, Rhett is a very open country star for having grown up in a famous family. In an additional interview, Rhett opens up more about how being in the spotlight his entire life has created challenges for him. Specifically within his marriage.
Rhett says his relationship hit a huge snag whilst Lauren was in Uganda. Rhett was still touring and living his usual life. Lauren, though, was pregnant and struggling with loneliness on the other side of the world. The two had a particularly terrible fight over the phone and chose to seek therapy over it. According to a humbled Rhett, they came out “stronger than ever.”
“Coming on the other side of that, I feel like I learned so much from that experience,” Rhett adds in an interview with Bobby Bones. “It made me know that, in a marriage, you do have to figure stuff out. You have to talk about it. You’ve gotta be real about it. You’ve gotta be honest about it. Hopefully, there’s somebody else reading that chapter going, ‘Man, I’ve been in that same position. If they can work it out, we can work it out too.”
Since then, Rhett has posted the incredible progress he and his wife have made together.
[H/T Big Machine Label Group]
