Growing up as the son of Rhett Akins, who had a successful country music artist career in the 90’s, Thomas Rhett spent a lot of time around other country stars as a kid. For instance, he remembers going to Reba McEntire’s house with his family for Halloween parties. At one particular party Thomas recalls, “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.”

It was a long time ago, but Thomas remembers Shelby was mad that he kept getting beat in the races, and he says, “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.”

Thomas’ memory is a little vague, but he says, “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.”