Brandon Lake is paying tribute to his friend Thomas Rhett, with the ‘Gratitude’ singer-songwriter reflecting on their close bond while discussing his new country-leaning album.

Lake and Rhett joined forces back in 2023 for a stunning live performance of ’Talking to Jesus’ at The Ryman, with the duo releasing an official version via streaming platforms.

Then, Rhett was spotted attending Lake's star-studded writing retreat at Nashville's Dark Horse Studios, which also featured the likes of Lainey Wilson, Tyler Hubbard, Russell Dickerson, Bailey Zimmerman, Dan + Shay, Ashley Gorley, HARDY and more.

In a new interview with Katie Neal for Katie & Company, as he shares what fans can expect from his next album, Lake underlines how much he values his friendship with Rhett.

The ‘Hard Fought Hallelujah’ crooner gushes, “He's an angel, man. He's always so happy, he's so encouraging...I find myself quickly answering the phone and it would be like two hours later...My wife's like, ‘What are you doing?’ And I'm like, ‘I'm talking to TR!’ And it was similar to Jelly Roll...we didn't talk about music. We just talked about life and being fathers and trying to be the best husbands that we can”.

Lake goes on, “It was more about how do you navigate the industry and always put your family first while you know there's a game to play in a sense...or how do we not play the game and be authentic to what we feel God's putting on our hearts. And he's like, ‘You know, I want to be more outspoken about my faith and...it'd be a dream to have some songs that crossed over’...because I'm unapologetic about I want to reach as many people as I can, and I don't think that's going to happen by me staying where I'm at. And so, you know, I'm only going to go where there's an open door, but...guys like [TR] have opened the door for me”.

It echoes sentiments Lake has expressed in other interviews, where he credits leading country artists like Rhett, Wilson, Johnson and Jelly for welcoming him into their space.

Elsewhere during the conversation with Neal, Lake recalls a golfing trip he went on with Rhett and Jordan Davis, in support of Love One International, a transformative non-profit organisation striving to get life-saving medical attention to children in Uganda. Rhett and his wife Lauren are deeply involved with Love One.

With another Contemporary Christian Music trailblazer, Forrest Frank, revealing a few months ago that Rhett has been sending him an array of faith-driven songs and hinting that he's working on a full-blown Gospel-leaning record, Lake's words here seemingly reinforce the idea that Rhett is venturing further into the CCM space.

There has always been a faith-based undercurrent to the Georgia native's music, epitomised by gems like ‘Ya Heard’, ‘Blessed’, ‘Country Again’ and ‘On A River’, and he has collaborated in the past with Lake, Forrest and another CCM titan, Chris Tomlin, so it definitely wouldn't feel like a stretch for him to release a Christian album.

What's more, Rhett has been taking to socials of late to share some Bible verses that have been helping him, further laying the foundation for this next chapter of music.

We're excited to hear his next collaboration - or collaborations - with Lake. With Lake revealing to Neal that he and his buddies wrote 47 songs during that Nashville writing retreat, we're hoping there might be more than one Rhett and Lake duet in the works. This era will seemingly kick off when the ‘Praise’ singer-songwriter releases his eagerly anticipated new single, ‘How Good God Is’, on August 28th.