‘What Could Go Right’ by Thomas Rhett - Lyrics & Meaning

Thomas Rhett has spoken candidly about how he was friends with his wife, Lauren for a while before plucking up the courage to ask her out, and ‘What Could Go Right’ captures that will-they, won't-they excitement from which their relationship began.

‘What Could Go Right’ appears on Thomas Rhett's seventh studio album, About a Woman, which arrived on August 23rd off the back off the lead singles, ‘Beautiful As You’, ‘Overdrive’, ‘Gone Country’ and ‘After All The Bars Are Closed’.

The intricate composition of ‘What Could Go Right’ powerfully mirrors the anticipation that builds throughout the track, as Thomas Rhett tries to convince Lauren to take the leap. Ahead of the infectious hook, the instrumental is stripped away with TR delivering his warm croons alongside layered, atmospheric backing vocals.

The chorus explores a more pop-leaning feel compared to the previous song on the tracklist, the soulful ‘Somethin’ Bout a Woman’, with ‘What Could Go Right’ being crafted into a feel-good earworm in the mould of 2019's ‘Things You Do For Love’.

“Few Blue Moons in my veins now

Thoughts I've kept hidden way down

Think it's time I get 'em off my chest

Things ain't gon' be the same now

Can't take back what just came out

Girl, I love you, and I've known it since the day that we met”

Thomas Rhett admits he's been drinking some liquid courage in the form of Blue Moon beers, with the Georgia native using this to help him express what he's been wanting to say to Lauren for a long time now. He's been wanting to tell her how he really feels, but has been holding back out of fear of ruining their friendship.

“You say, "But we're best friends", I say, "That's the best part"

It could be a dead-end, it could be a head start

Before you say goodnight, forget all the reasons

That you wouldn't kiss me, I dare you to lean in”

After this revelation, Lauren voices her worries that their pre-existing friendship might make it hard to transition into a full-blown relationship. However, Thomas Rhett reframes this as all the more reason to try, given the fact that they get along so well already.

The ‘What's You Country Song’ hitmaker accepts this might not work out and end up being a ‘dead-end’, before contrasting this with the alternative option, which is that their friendship gives them a ‘head-start’ on love. Thankfully, in real life, the latter proved to be true, with TR and Lauren having now been married for over a decade.

“Girl, don't think about what could go wrong

Just think about what could go right

Yeah, maybe we ruin this all or

Sing it through the rest of our lives

And I don't wanna mess it all up, but

I don't wanna say we never tried

Don't think about what could go wrong

Just think about what could go right

What could go right?”

He encourages Lauren to forget about all the possible things that could go wrong, and instead turn her mind optimistically to everything that could go right. Thomas Rhett endearingly predicts that they might end up singing their love-story for “the rest of our lives”, which, thanks to his plethora of beautiful odes to his wife - including the majority of the About a Woman tracklist - is coming true.

“You move close, then you slow down

Hands don't know where to go now

You're half all in, you're half, whoa now

But I can tell you wanna find out

You know, you know we can do that right now”

Thomas Rhett evocatively portrays the uncertainty and underlying desire that they share, as they start to take things beyond friendship, but with a lingering sense of hesitation.

Thomas Rhett has gushed on a number of occasions about his relationship with his wife, Lauren, but he hasn't yet delved into the specifics as to how ‘What Could Go Right’ came about. In a 2024 interview with Holler, though, ahead of his 2024 project, Rhett revealed how his outlook when crafting About a Woman was intentionally different compared to that of his previous two studio albums.

He explained, “When I think of this project, I keep thinking of the word ‘Freedom’. Not to dive super deep here, but...2019 was the last year that I felt that sort of freedom of just, ‘Man, whatever I'm feeling, I'm just gonna say, whatever feels good I'm just gonna write, whatever sounds good, that's what gonna go on the record’. I think COVID did a number on all of us, but for me, I think being so secluded and not being able to get that instant feedback from fans by constantly being on the road - I love playing new songs on the road to kind of feel, “Is this song vibing, is this song not vibing”. And so I made a couple of records that I'm for sure proud of, but I think those records were...‘Fear’ is not the right word either, but they were made from not a free place, if that makes any sense”.

Thomas Rhett stirringly reflected on how he made sure joy was at the heart of About a Woman, “So somewhere around the beginning of last year, I started having conversations with the guy who actually produced this whole next record, Julian Bunetta, who I've been friends with forever and he produced all the One Direction stuff, just recently produced the whole Sabrina Carpenter record, and produced the whole new Teddy Swims project, so he's had this big resurgence. He looked at me and was like, ’Man, it'd been six years I had a hit, and I just kept coming back and kept coming back and kept coming back, because I love it’. And he was like, ‘How much do you love this?’ That was a very pivotal question for me, because I was like, ‘Man, I love it more than most things in the world. Minus my family, music is what I live and breathe’. He was like, ‘Well, lets write from that part, rather than from the part of, ‘Well what if and what if and what if’”.

“Few Blue Moons in my veins now

Thoughts I've kept hidden way down

Think it's time I get 'em off my chest

Things ain't gon' be the same now

Can't take back what just came out

Girl, I love you, and I've known it since the day that we met

-

You say, "But we're best friends", I say, "That's the best part"

It could be a dead-end, it could be a head start

Before you say goodnight, forget all the reasons

That you wouldn't kiss me, I dare you to lean in

-

Girl, don't think about what could go wrong

Just think about what could go right

Yeah, maybe we ruin this all or

Sing it through the rest of our lives

And I don't wanna mess it all up, but

I don't wanna say we never tried

Don't think about what could go wrong

Just think about what could go right

What could go right?

-

You move close, then you slow down

Hands don't know where to go now

You're half all in, you're half, whoa now

But I can tell you wanna find out

You know, you know we can do that right now

-

Girl, don't think about what could go wrong

Just think about what could go right

Yeah, maybe we ruin this all or

Sing it through the rest of our lives

And I don't wanna mess it all up, but

I don't wanna say we never tried

Don't think about what could go wrong

Just think about what could go right

-

What could go right?

What about what could go?

What could go right?

-

You say, "But we're best friends", I say, "That's the best part"

It could be a dead-end, it could be a head start

Before you say goodnight, forget all the reasons

That you wouldn't kiss me, I dare you to lean in

-

Girl, don't think about what could go wrong

Just think about what could go right

Yeah, maybe we ruin this all or

Sing it through the rest of our lives

And I don't wanna mess it all up, but

I don't wanna say we never tried

Don't think about what could go wrong

Just think about what could go right

-

Woah, what could go right?

What about what could go?

Woah, what could go right?

What about what could go?”

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