Thomas Rhett tries to make time stop in the music video for his single, “Slow Down Summer,” bringing the song to life in a visual dreamscape.
Directed by P. Tracy, the clip follows TR’s story of two young people holding on to the last moments of a summer together, as they prepare to embark on a new season apart. Colorful and bright, the video starts off with the heat of new romance burning, as memories flood back to a teenaged couple. But as Thomas Rhett narrates from a grand piano, that moment is lost forever with winter’s icy freeze.
“Slow Down Summer” was written by TR with his father, Rhett Akins, Sean Douglas, Ashley Gorley and Jesse Frasure, and serves as the first taste of his upcoming sixth studio album, Where We Started. Earlier this year, Thomas Rhett announced that project would arrive in early 2022 instead of the expected follow up to his previous album, Country Again: Side A, and he’ll revisit the Side B project later.
As always, TR also said he wrote the track with a little bit of his personal romance with wife Lauren Akins built in, since they’ve been sweethearts since they were kids.
“I wrote this song from the point of view of two people who are in love during senior year of high school,” Thomas Rhett said at the time. “I envisioned them headed off to different schools and they’re starting to understand that the moment the weather starts to change, they’ve got a 99-percent chance this relationship is not going to work. I know that myself and a lot of people have been there before, wishing the fireworks stage doesn’t have to end.”
Meanwhile, TR and Lauren just welcomed the birth of their fourth daughter. Lillie Carolina Akins was born November 15, and he says the other girls are “taking this really well.”