Country Star Tucker Wetmore Jokes Thomas Rhett Is a Bad Texter: ‘Radio Silence’ for 2 Months (Exclusive)

Tucker Wetmore has an in with some of the biggest names in country music — but that doesn’t mean he can always get them on the phone.

“Thomas Rhett is another one of those guys that he’s always texting me, ‘Hey, bud, how you doing?’ I’m like, ‘Oh, yeah, I’m doing good.’ And I’ll explain how my day’s going and I’ll be like, ‘How are you doing?’ Radio silence, two months,” Wetmore, 25, joked to Us Weekly during an exclusive interview about his debut album, What Not To. “And then he’ll text me, ‘Hey, bud, how you doing?’ I’m like, ‘Still good? Still good. How you doing?’ Radio silence.”

Wetmore will be heading out on tour with Rhett, 35, this summer, so hopefully he’ll get a bit more face time — although he understands the demands that come with country superstardom.

“He’s such a good dude, and every time I talk to him, he’s just so loving and caring,” Wetmore told Us. “That’s what I’m most excited about for this tour. Just being able to learn. He does it all the right way. He’s juggling family. And when I say family, I’m talking about lots of kids, an entire family, all of it, and music and his creative mind and his touring life. He juggles it all so well. I aspire to be half the man that he is someday, whether it’s business or family-wise. I’m just excited to learn. Be a sponge.”

While Wetmore may feel that he has a lot to learn from other stars, he’s already seen enough heartbreak to craft the kind of country song that hooks fans from the first note. Before becoming a musician, he was a college football player — he only turned to music after an injury ended his potential career as an athlete.

“I thought football was my path, if I’m being honest,” he explained to Us. “That’s what I was working toward for years of my life. And I ended up getting injured, moving back home, and then I was just lost. … I didn’t know what I was doing with my life. I was getting fat. I was drinking a bit and kind of just putting life on the back burner or my future on the back burner.”

It was his “pretty cool” mom who inspired him to get back into music as a way of coping with the reality that football wasn’t in his future.

“She goes, ‘Well, when’s the last time you sat in front of your piano or picked up your guitar?’ And I was like, ‘Honestly, it’s been a couple years, two years,’” Wetmore recalled. “And she was like, ‘Well, go do that. That was your therapy back in the day. Why are you sitting here?’”

The “Casino” singer took her advice and soon wrote his first song (which he describes as “god-awful”), but he quickly fell into a groove.

“I loved it. I was hooked,” he said. “And I just started writing a bunch by myself and moved to Nashville in 2020.”

Now, he’s gearing up to release his debut album, which contains a whopping 19 tracks including singles “3, 2, 1” and “Silverado Blue.” Before hitting the road with Rhett, he’ll also be playing some headlining shows and stopping by Stagecoach. Mostly, however, he’s excited for fans to hear What Not To in full.

“It’s just telling my stories and my truths behind a couple things that have happened in my life,” he explained. “Everything’s very intentional in the record, everything even down to the track listing, which song goes after that one, and it is going to be cool to see. I feel like I’ve created a puzzle. I’ve cut out all the pieces of the puzzle and I threw everything in a box and I shook it up and I said, ‘Here you go.’ … It reminds me of a spiderweb.”

Wetmore’s debut studio album, What Not To, is out Friday, April 25.