Something To Do With My Hands

Album: It Goes Like This (2012)
Charted: 93
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Songfacts®:

  • Thomas Rhett grew up in the music industry by means of his singer-songwriter father Rhett Akins. Whilst studying business and communications at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Rhett formed a cover band and began playing frat parties and other gigs they could get. His dad persuaded him to take the stage one night at a Nashville showcase, and EMI Music's Ben Vaughn, the same publisher who had signed his father many years earlier, offered Rhett a publishing deal. Within a few months, he'd succeeded in landing the cut "I Ain't Ready To Quit" on Jason Aldean's 2010 album My Kinda Party and the following year Rhett signed a recording contract with Big Machine Records' Valory Music Group division. This playful tune, which Rhett penned with Lee Thomas Miller and Chris Stapleton, was released as his debut single.
  • Rhett's frantic on stage persona inspired the song. He explained to The Boot: "I turn into a kind of crazy person onstage. I don't know where it comes from. I'm a very laid-back human being, but when I get out there, I just get way too pumped up and I don't know what to do with my hands sometimes except to wave them in the air or point at somebody!"
  • Rhett penned this song during a writing session with Chris Stapleton and Lee Miller. He recalled: "We started the session looking for titles that we had on our phones. Lee brought out this title and we starting writing this song and it just came out and turned into this sort of quick, funny song about doing something with your hands."

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