Thomas Rhett Opens Up Ahead of Tour About New Music and Why His Kids Think Tour Bus Is 'Coolest Thing' Ever (Exclusive)

The country star sets off on his Soundtrack to Life summer tour on July 9

NEED TO KNOW

• Thomas Rhett’s Soundtrack to Life Tour kicks off July 9 and runs through October with special stops along the way
• The country star opens up to PEOPLE about balancing touring with family life
• He’s working on a new album, calling it his favorite project yet, created with intentionality and away from tour chaos

Naming tours has never been Thomas Rhett’s strong suit. For years, the country star has named his concert runs after songs of his — but fans took notice when said songs didn’t actually turn up on his setlist, and it eventually became a running joke among the singer and his band.

So this time, when he sets off on July 9 for a string of dates that’ll keep him on the road through October, he’s keeping it simple: the Soundtrack to Life Tour. After all, that’s what Thomas Rhett’s music is to most of his listeners.

"There’s so many people that I meet at shows that are like, 'Oh man, I grew up listening to you. I was 6 years old when I heard your songs for the first time,'" he tells PEOPLE. "I think in many ways, my fans have grown up with me. When I first started, we were all 21. Now a bunch of us have growing families and we’re married. We’re just in the thick of life."

Of course, Thomas Rhett’s own growing family is ready to support him along the way. He and wife Lauren, whom he married in 2012, are parents to daughters Willa Gray, 10, Ada James, 8, Lennon Love, 6, and Lillie Carolina, 4, plus son Brave Elijah, who was born in February.

The "Life Changes" singer, 36, says his two oldest girls are all in on tour life.

"They love going on the road," he says. "They think sleeping in a bunk on the bus is the coolest thing that ever happened."

Being away for much of the summer is still a "balancing act" for the star, though, who says his weekend shows often clash with the girls’ busy sports schedules. But for Thomas Rhett, being able to live out his dreams as a career has been a special teaching moment.

"I hate to leave my house, but it’s also a privilege to be able to leave and go do this," he says. "It’s also a unique chance to teach your kids that you’re allowed to do something that you love for a living. I try to turn it into a teaching tool rather than a, ‘Oh, your daddy has to go.’ I’ve turned into like, ‘Hey, your daddy gets to do this. This is such a privilege to be able to do it.’ Reframing the way that they look at me leaving I think has been really beneficial for me as a dad and I think for them as children."

His kids are only just starting to piece together what exactly their dad does for a living; at a recent dinner, they told the star’s friend that he "just sings" and "makes words rhyme."

They are, of course, not privy to the rest of Thomas Rhett’s job — the months spent writing, recording, rehearsing and promoting his songs and rhymes.

He’s currently hard at work on a new album, the follow-up to his 2024 record About a Woman, and he’s confident the new stuff is his "favorite project" yet.

For a long time, he explains, his writing process was intertwined with his touring schedule. He’d write during the day, then get back into show mode at night. But over the last year, he switched things up, and stopped writing on the road. Instead, he took a few days off at a time to hunker down with a group of songwriters so they could work their magic without the stress of tour.

"I feel like there were a lot of years were I was doing quantity over quality songs," he admits. "I feel like all the music made for this record was made out of peace rather than the chaos of the road. We just wrote a lot of songs that have a lot of heart and a lot of intentionality."

He’s open about feeling jaded toward the music business, and having to grapple with that in order to move forward.

"Honestly, this business can easily make you not like music anymore. When you’re surrounded by it, inundated by it, and then you start comparing yourself to other people and you’re like, 'Well dang, I thought I liked this song, but then I heard the new Luke Combs song, so maybe I need to write that,'" he says. "Then I heard the new whatever song, so maybe my songs suck.’ Then all of a sudden you put blinders and [say], 'You know what? This is not why I got into this business, to compare myself left and right.'"

He continues: "The best expression of yourself is just being fully yourself, and I think you have to have the space and the time to be able to do that. I haven’t been on the road in six months, and that was intentional. It was to give me real time to write and real time to record. I think that is going to shine through a lot on this project when it comes out."

For now, though, he’s focused on giving his all to the Soundtrack to Life Tour. He’s making a few special stops along the way; in July, he’ll play two co-headlining shows with his pal Niall Horan, and in August, he’ll head across the pond to play three dates at London’s Wembley Stadium as opening act for Luke Combs. He’s also donating 50 cents for every ticket sold to Love One International, which supports children in Africa.

Though he’s been playing shows and making music for nearly 15 years now, Thomas Rhett still has "debilitating" nerves to shake before each performance, which he eases with a few rituals. Hours before his shows, the singer sits in at least 20 seats in the venue, taking in the stage from different angles. He’s also gotten into grounding vibration plates, which he lets rock sideways for 10 minutes before he goes on.

"Three or four years ago I was talking to my band like, 'Guys, why? This is like, our 15,000th show and I feel like I’m about to throw up right now,'" he says. "I’ve had to learn that that is my process, and I think that it also means that I really, really care. My band has always looked at me and said, 'The day that you are not nervous is the day that you should retire because it means that you just have lost your ability to care for what we're about to go do.'"

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