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How much is enough?

Most people who accrue a fair amount of money and/or power ask that question at some juncture. Those who don’t ask it – well, they probably missed the point.

Count Thomas Rhett among those trying to figure it out. It’s the whole premise behind his new single, “Ain’t a Bad Life,” featuring Jordan Davis. He created it during a weekend on tour in the Dakotas in 2022 with four fellow songwriters who were pondering the subject.

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“We’d just been in this long conversation about contentment and how hard it is for a man, or a woman, to find contentment in life,” he recalls.

Funny thing about that. Rhett and his wife, Lauren, struggled mightily, even after he started having hits. He was actually losing money as an opening act during the early part of his career. He booked overlapping club shows in the middle of those dates to at least break even, but the added work tested his stamina and his patience.

“Those days when my wife and I had zero – like, those were arguably more fun,” he says. “I mean, when you’re scrapping for something, when you’re really in the trenches, and you’re ride or die, those are the times that really kind of built our marriage and [the] values that we still stand on today.”

All of that fed the scenario in the Dakotas. Several writers flew to a midwestern airport on Sept. 28, 2022, and met Rhett’s bus in transit for a show the next night in Grand Forks, N.D. They chatted a bit, stopped for dinner, then chatted some more. Finally, after midnight, they started the first of 12 or 13 songs they penned that weekend. Rhett introduced a chord progression with a James Taylor “Fire And Rain” vibe, and he sang a line that he’d had for a bit: “Didn’t win the Lotto, but the Dawgs won.”

Someone else – likely Ashley Gorley (“I Had Some Help,” “Dirt On My Boots”) or John Byron (“Love Somebody,” “What I Want”) – chimed in “Didn’t bag a big ‘un, but I saw one.” And another line came up: “Ain’t a bad life for a good old boy.” That seemed like a hook, and they dug in trying to fit it all together, with Mark Trussell (“your place,” “Good Time”) taking over the guitar parts and feeding all their ideas into a track on his laptop as they built the song.

Rhett and Gorley had all sorts of melodies flying, and they picked out the ones that seemed to fit best together, even if they didn’t know exactly where they would use them.

“It’s usually a fast-paced thing, especially with him and TR,” notes Blake Pendergrass (“I Got Better,” “Heart Of Stone”). “That whole trip, I remember after it was over thinking about how cool it is to see them work together, where they’re just bouncing melodies and feels off of each other. It’s like this frantic 10- to 15-minute period at the beginning of any song.”

The first verse captured an average Joe with a long to-do list and a significantly used truck who seems mostly contented. Then they slipped into a series of choppy phrases – “No I ain’t… got it all… but I sure… got it made” – that changed the texture. “Ashley or somebody was flowing that melody, and after a little while, we’re all kind of wondering, ‘What is this section?’” Trussell recalls. “Somebody said,’ I think it’s the chorus.’ It happened pretty fast after that.”

Those phrases were unconventional for a chorus – they sneak up to the downbeat, instead of anthemically beginning at the start of a measure – and after a few lines, they changed things once more mid-chorus, mixing elongated “oo-oo-oo-oo” earworms with self-affirming lyrics on the way to the “Ain’t a Bad Life” payoff. “You got to get some ear candy in there,” Rhett says. “Especially on a song that means this much. That and the opening guitar lick arguably are the hookiest parts of the song.”

They stopped at some point – likely after the first verse and chorus – and moved on to other songs, but they came back and finished “Ain’t a Bad Life” after the weekend’s final show, Oct. 1 in Sioux Falls, S.D. After focusing on money and possessions in the opening verse, the second one explored the balance of personal enjoyment and spirituality, and the final verse – placed where a bridge would typically reside – celebrated family.

“When you’re doing a life song, where it’s not just about one thing, you’re aiming to try and make it more substantial as time goes on lyrically,” Pendergrass says. “Whether we even discussed that or not, I’m not sure, but generally speaking, I think that’s a gut kind of a situation where everybody’s on the same page.”

Trussell filled out a demo after the trip, but about three weeks later, they all decided the original intro sounded too much like “Fire and Rain.” So Trussell refashioned it around a 12-string guitar, and though it doesn’t mimic any particular song, it feels just a hair like “Gasoline Alley” / “Maggie May”-era Rod Stewart.

Rhett thought it would work as a duet, but he didn’t have anyone in mind for it, so instead of cutting it for his About a Woman album, he tabled it. But as they contemplated a deluxe version of the album, “Ain’t a Bad Life” resurfaced. Rhett had bonded with Davis on a hunting trip, and he seemed like the right guy for it. Rhett also decided that instead of recutting it, he should have Trussell produce the master, mostly copying what he’d done on the demo.

Trussell played many of the parts, though he worked with drummer Aaron Sterling to redo the rhythm tracks; hired Rich Brinsfield, of Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors, to handle bass; and enlisted Dave Cohen for keyboards. Rhett cut his vocal at home, and Trussell handled all the background vocals behind Rhett and Davis.

“The higher melody was pretty laid out for you – you follow the melody, it worked really well,” Trussell says. “The lower harmony part was a little more involved, because the chords aren’t your run-of-the-mill diatonic chords. The BGVs were actually really fun, to do some notes that [created some] dissonance, but also maybe keep it in sort of a major-feeling thing.”

Contented with the results, Valory released “Ain’t a Bad Life” to country radio via PlayMPE on Sept. 8, and it currently resides at No. 28 on Billboard’s Country Airplay list dated Oct. 25, its fifth charted week. It provides a centrist country topic as a follow-up to “After All the Bars Are Closed,” even as Rhett works on a future project.

“I just kind of felt like ‘Ain’t a Bad Life’ with Jordan was just a nice palate cleanser,” he says, “going into whatever comes next.”