It Goes Like This

Thomas Rhett's third single was the first release that the singer-songwriter didn't write. It was penned by Thomas' father - Rhett Akins - with his Peach Pickers colleague Ben Hayslip and Jimmy Robbins. "Never in my mind did I think that Thomas Rhett was going to record it because at that time, Thomas Rhett had already cut a bunch of songs, and we thought his album was going to come out in the spring," recalled Akins to Roughstock. "I think they pitched it to Luke Bryan and some other people, and it just miraculously hung around enough. I did send it to Thomas Rhett, just because I wanted him to hear it. I didn't even think he was going to record anything else. I just thought it was a song he would like to hear. He immediately called me back and said, 'Dad – this song is a smash! My wife loves it, I've played it for all my friends, and they love it. I want it.' I was like, 'Well I don't know if you can have it, because you're probably not going to be able to record it for another year or two.' It just so happened not long after that, [his record label, Big Machine] told Thomas Rhett they wanted to cut some more stuff. As soon as Thomas Rhett found out he was going to be able to record some more songs, he knew he definitely wanted a shot at this song."

This was the first time that the two Peach Pickers had written with North Carolina born singer-songwriter Jimmy Robbins, whose other credits include Blake Shelton's "Sure Be Cool If You Did." "Ben and I went over to his house, and we talked for 30-45 minutes, trying to get to know each other," Akins recalled to Roughstock. "We really didn't have anything going, and Jimmy had a ukulele on his couch. I'd never even tried to play a ukulele, but while we were talking, I just held the ukulele and kept messing with it, trying to figure out how to play it a little bit."
"I found something on there where I could pick the four strings and it sounded somewhat like a little melody," Akins continued. "I wasn't trying to write a song or anything. I was literally just messing around. Jimmy heard what I was playing, and he picked up his guitar and started playing over the little melody I was playing on the ukulele. So Jimmy started playing around what I was doing, and that's how we got the song started."

The song evolved into something different as the trio continued crafting the tune. "I think what we were originally trying to write was not what we ended up writing," Akins recalled to Roughstock. "I think we started with another title and started writing towards that. It's about meeting this girl, and he says you make me want to write a song, and the song is about us … what I envision you and me doing tonight or for the next year or for forever. I think the song changed mid-way through writing it into what it is now. What we started with wasn't what we kept." "The chorus definitely changed," added Hayslip. "We replaced words with oooo's and hey's to make it different. It's one of those songs where you get the demo back, and you just play it over and over. My kids say, 'Daddy, play it again! Play it again!' When that happens, I usually know we have a hit song."