Songfacts®:

• "Old Tricks" is a bittersweet reflection on aging and the reality that the carefree behaviors of youth don't work as effectively anymore. Thomas Rhett explores how the cheeky ways that once seemed to work in younger years no longer have the same impact. It sits comfortably between "Life Changes" and "Remember You Young," a meditation on time passing, disguised as a barroom anthem.
• Thomas Rhett wrote "Old Tricks" with Julian Bunetta, John Ryan, Jim Beavers, Andrew Haas, and Ian Franzino, and first recorded it as a duet with Blake Shelton for the deluxe edition of About a Woman. The expanded release ballooned the album from 14 to 25 songs, as if Rhett decided aging gracefully might require writing his way out of it.
• Produced by Bunetta and Dan Huff (with Shelton's longtime producer Scott Hendricks lending his touch), the track leans into the rich twang of the '90s honky-tonk era.
• "Old Tricks" got a surprise remix in 2025 with Niall Horan replacing Shelton as Rhett's duet partner. Rhett used the collaboration to stir up some digital mischief with a callback to the real-life rivalry between Shelton and Horan. The former One Direction singer joined The Voice in season 23, Shelton's final season, and promptly beat him, sending the country star into retirement without a trophy.
• To promote the release, Rhett shared a fake text thread between himself, Shelton, and Horan, joking that he'd found a "replacement" for Blake since he wasn't available to "film content."
  
  "He's not a look-alike," Rhett quipped, "but he's a good singer and a good friend." Horan chimed in enthusiastically, only for Shelton to fire back: "Let me get this straight. First you steal my last chance at a win on The Voice, now you're stealing my song? Unbelievable."
• Horan first heard the track while visiting producer Julian Bunetta in the studio. When Rhett and Horan bumped into each other at the 2025 Masters golf tournament (they've known each other since the late 2010s), the Irishman casually complained he hadn't been asked to sing on the song. Rhett replied something along the lines of, "You were the last person I thought would even like this one."
  
  "He kept texting me about it after and he knew all the words," Rhett recalled. "With how fired up he was and his connection with Blake, it felt like a full-circle moment and turned into something really fun."
• For the 2025 version, a few lyrics were subtly swapped to fit Horan's personality. Shelton's original verse referenced a "huntin' trip" as an excuse to skip work, but Horan's became a "golfin' trip," an inside joke nodding back to their Masters meet-up. The vibe stayed the same, though: easy, nostalgic, and just the right side of tongue-in-cheek.