Thomas Rhett is launching his own record label. 13 years after Rhett’s debut It Goes Like This album was released in 2013, Rhett is teaming up with Blue Highway Records to launch Fifty-One/Forty-Nine Records, a “new artist-led partnership,” per a press release. Rhett and Blue Highway Records CEO Jake Basden are launching the new endeavor together.
“When we started talking about what the next chapter could look like, I knew I didn’t simply want to make another deal. I wanted to build something that reflected the legacy and shaped the future of my music,” Rhett shares. “From my initial conversations with Jake and the leadership team at Blue Highway, it was clear they, too, were thinking differently about what a record company can be for an artist today.
“This allows me the opportunity to own the body of work I’ve spent my entire career creating, while still having an ambitious team and global infrastructure around me for my future recordings,” he continues. “I am incredibly excited about building this next chapter together.”
Rhett has been on Valory, part of Big Machine Records, for his entire career. In 2021, HYBE Corporation purchased Big Machine. Blue Highway is part of HYBE Americas, the Nashville-based country, Americana, and roots rock division.
What Blue Highway Records CEO Jake Basden Says About Partnering With Thomas Rhett
Basden is a longtime fan of Rhett, which is why he is so excited about their new partnership.
“Thomas Rhett has always been an artist, a songwriter, a performer who brings the best of what being a progressive country artist is today: someone who is willing to explore how other genres merge with Nashville without losing his roots, without sounding calculated or forced,” Baseden boasts.
“His musical fluidity is matched by his sense of lyrics, songs, and what people feel, creating an honest kind of country that finds its way into people’s lives, wherever they are,” he continues. “Having watched Thomas Rhett come into his own and then achieve major success, I am honored to be his partner going forward.”
Thomas Rhett’s Five Children With His Wife, Lauren Akins
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Rhett is busy with his superstar music career, but he is also busy at home. Rhett and his wife, Lauren Akins, have five children, including their son, Brave, who was born in February.
Rhett is still touring, while also working on new music. Still, the 36-year-old makes it clear that his first priority is his five children.
“It’s a season, and I’m really trying to not let it slip me by,” Rhett tells Audacy. “I’m not trying to wish it away. [I’m] really just trying to, when I’m home, just be extremely present. It kind of dawned on me the other day that my oldest child, she’s ten, so I have eight summers left with her. When you start thinking about it in terms of like, ‘Whoa, eight years,’ it seems like a long time. But It’s been six years since COVID, and it kind of feels like it was yesterday in some capacity, so that’s how quick time is moving.”