Thomas Rhett on new album Where We Started and collaborating with Katy Perry: "She's everything I'd hoped for and more"

Thomas Rhett is, without doubt, one of the most humble musicians we've ever had the pleasure of chatting to.

Despite having six studio albums under his belt, sell-out shows worldwide and industry awards adorning every inch of surface space he has available (probably), the 32-year-old country star's still as down to Earth as ever.

Now, as he releases his latest album Where We Started - its title track being a collaboration with none other than Katy Perry - we catch up with Thomas to discuss working with a pop icon, balancing fame and family life and how it feels to finally release his latest body of work.

MORE: See Thomas Rhett's full Official Charts history

"I look at my songs like babies; it's really hard to leave a lot of them behind," Thomas explains.

"Over the last couple of years, I've written so many songs. On tour is where I write the majority of the time. At home, I've got four kids. The thought of telling my wife I want to write when I get home would just be a tragedy [laughs].

So how does Thomas balance his career with family life? "You should've seen my morning this morning. It's absolute chaos. I think I've learned how to be productive in chaos. Being a dad if the first priority, but I don't want to half-ass anything. I'm nervous about the balance of being musician and dad. It's all trial and error."

MORE: Katy Perry's full Official Charts history so far

Chatting about how his latest single - the title track from the album - became a duet with Katy Perry, Thomas admits he 'never' expected to the pair to team up.

"I never thought this would happen," he tells us. "I've always been a huge fan of Jon Bellion; his artistry and his song writing. I call him a melody scientist, because every line he writes sounds like a chorus. He came out to our farm a couple of years ago and we wrote the song Where We Started.

"Every single part of that song feels like a hook to me, especially that pre-chorus. It feels like something large is about to happen.

"When we finished the track, somebody at the label thought it could be a feature and emailed Katy Perry's team. Katy responded immediately and, the next thing I know, I'm FaceTiming Katy Perry in my kitchen and shooting a music video.

"I'm been pinching myself the whole way. I'm thinking to myself 'you are an icon, you changed music and put your stamp on a whole decade.' It's pretty wild to me that Katy would want to do something with me, but I'm very fortunate that she did because I love that track."

"Parenting was the majority of what we talked about," Thomas laughs. "When we were shooting the music video, every time the director said 'cut' we'd pick back up on the last story we were talking about. We were like 'Oh, your kid's doing that now? My kids won't eat peas either!'

"Katy's such a down to Earth human being. It's always so fun to meet someone that you hope is as awesome as you'd expect, and they are. Katy was one of those people who was everything I'd hoped for and more. She's such a sweet person and really cared about why she was there."

Discussing which songs he's most proud of on the new album, Thomas says: "There are 15 tracks on this record, but Angels is my favourite song on there. I wrote it with a new R&B/pop artist called Teddy Swims who's insanely talented.

"We wrote this song together and he really challenged me melodically, and range-wise with my voice. I feel the song is a very unique way to say 'I love you' in a way I've never portrayed before. It's quickly become my favourite track on the album."

Thomas Rhett's new album Where We Started is out now.