country

Rhett Akins

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Georgia singer who charted in the mid-'90s with "That Ain't My Truck" and then became one of Nashville's most-cut songwriters — a hit factory in his own right.

Rhett Akins was born in 1969 in Valdosta, Georgia, and had formed a band with his two younger brothers by the time he was eleven. He played football at the University of Georgia before leaving after a year to work for his father's oil and gas distribution business. In 1992 he moved to Nashville, performing in theme-park stage shows before becoming a demo singer and signing to Decca Records.

Signed to Decca between 1994 and 1997, Akins released two albums, A Thousand Memories in 1995 and Somebody New in 1996. "That Ain't My Truck" became his signature song, and "Don't Get Me Started" gave him his only number one on the country chart, in the summer of 1996. He toured with Reba McEntire during this period and was named one of Country America's Top New Stars in 1995.

After Decca's Nashville operation folded into MCA Nashville, he released What Livin's All About in 1998, followed by Friday Night in Dixie on Audium Entertainment in 2002. Across his recording career his albums produced fourteen singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, though he has not reached the chart himself since 2006.

Since then he has built a career as one of Nashville's most prolific songwriters, writing hits for other artists mainly as one-third of the Peach Pickers, alongside Dallas Davidson and Ben Hayslip. He is the father of country singer Thomas Rhett, and in 2026 he was invited to become a member of the Grand Ole Opry.

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