Why Thomas Rhett had to write “Beautiful as You” and more songs outside of Nashville

WITH “Beautiful like you” getting closer to the top ten of the national charts, Tomasz Rettwalks down memory lane to remember the day he wrote his new hit while on retreat in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

“I wrote it at a writing camp in Chattanooga with some friends I knew but had never really collaborated with,” Thomas tells ABC Audio. “Of course they already had the chorus written, which you can hear in the song, and we spent the next few days just fine-tuning it. We wrote four or five other songs that ended up on this project.

“The Chattanooga times were really good, man,” he recalled. “They became kind of the centerpiece of this project.”

Even though songwriters gather in Nashville to write, leaving Music City was a necessity for the father of four.

“I think I’ve noticed that when I go to camp in Nashville, I’m very tempted to go home, and that’s okay. I just think that when you’re at writing camp, it’s really good to fully immerse yourself in what’s going on,” Thomas says. “And so Chattanooga was close enough, but also far from where you couldn’t go home.”

“We just hid out there for about four days and did nothing but write songs,” he adds.

“Beautiful as You” can be found on Thomas’ latest album, About a womannow outside. If you missed his live performance at CMA Fest, you can watch it below YouTube.

Tickets to see Thomas on his Better in Boots Tour 2025 can be found on the website thomasrhett.com.

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