Seven years after his last album, Caught Up in the Country, Rodney Atkins has returned with a new collection of songs grounded in what matters most to him. Themes of family, faith, and friendship run throughout True South, his 12-track album released earlier this year via Curb Records.
Atkins, 57, has long drawn inspiration from those themes, but he now has more life experience to pull from and a growing family of his own. The country superstar’s wife, fellow singer-songwriter, Rose Falcon, and their two children, Scout and Ryder, along with his eldest son from a previous marriage, Elijah, have given him an even deeper appreciation for how quickly time flies.
“I don’t know if I’ve really changed what I’m trying to say through the years that much, other than I say I’m singing about friends, family, and the good Lord,” Atkins tells Music Mayhem in an interview, reflecting on the gap between albums and the message he hopes to share with his fans. “True South is not necessarily about where I’m from. It’s about staying in touch with who you really are, I think.”
On True South, the East Tennessee native reflects on his upbringing and the people and places that have shaped him into who he is today. He also celebrates milestones in marriage and fatherhood while expressing his appreciation for small-town roots and the moments that make a life worth living.
“True South is not necessarily about where I’m from,” Atkins explains. “It’s staying in touch with who you really are… My goal has always been to remain relevant, to have songs that aren’t following trends, but just really be locked into who you are. I’m just trying to be a husband and raise a family and stay connected to my community.”
His deep appreciation for the simple things in life shines through on “Toys in the Dirt,” a song that looks back on Atkins’ childhood while considering the kind of upbringing he hopes to give his own boys.
“To a lot of folks, it could seem like a place that there wasn’t a lot to do, but man, I feel like growing up that way, I cherished my childhood. It was just simple,” Atkins says. “It’s the kind of childhood that I want my kids to have, where you’re outside until somebody calls you in.”
Fatherhood has taught him valuable lessons about time, too. Between coaching baseball and being present for his boys, Atkins keeps a clear philosophy: “My job as a dad is to make myself quietly unnecessary, but to remain available. You want to be unnecessary, but not unavailable.”
His close-knit family also inspires his music. Atkins’ wife, Rose Falcon, was the inspiration behind “Marry Me Again,” which he wrote as a surprise 10th-anniversary gift. “I kept calling it MMA for ‘Marry Me Again,’ but she knows I’m a UFC fan, so I thought she would think it was just a song about MMA fighting and she would ignore it the whole time,” he says with a laugh about the secret song and its cheeky code name. “And she did.”
“It’s our story,” he adds. “There’s just lines in there that we’ve said to each other about falling together and not apart… I just know I’m so lucky to have her tackling life together. She’s my best friend.”
Rose also appears on “Believe Me,” a song Atkins fell in love with before realizing she had co-written it. “Someone from the record label sent me the song, and I loved it,” he recalls.
When he played it for Rose, she sang right along and revealed that it was her track. “I said, ‘Okay, we’ve got to make this a feature. You’ve got to sing this.’”
The family collaborations don’t stop there.
In “Watching You 2.0,” Atkins teams up with his 25-year-old son, Elijah, to revisit his iconic 2006 hit. The collaboration grew out of a TikTok duet that Rose gently encouraged Elijah to record, which garnered more than 12 million views. The success inspired father and son to record the track together.
“I like it better than the original version because it was always the kid singing the chorus. That’s the way it was supposed to be,” Atkins says.
The duet also drew an overwhelming response when they performed it live at the Ryman Auditorium and CMA Fest. “I mean, people have tears in their eyes,” he recalls. “It blew me away when he came out and sang the song with me.”
Music also runs in the Atkins household. His 8-year-old son, Ryder, plays piano by ear, while 7-year-old Scout is a natural performer who loves jumping onstage to sing with her dad.
True South also arrives alongside the 20th anniversary of Atkins’ landmark album, If You’re Going Through Hell, which dropped in 2006. Early in his career, Atkins was advised to stick to standard love songs, but mentor Phil Gernhardt encouraged him to focus on “life songs” instead.
“He said, ‘If you can connect with these life songs, you can have a long career,’” Atkins remembers. “I think that’s what I’ve continued to do through the years… It’s mostly life songs, and that’s what True South is, just continuing that path.”
For rising artists hoping to build similarly lasting careers, Atkins emphasizes the importance of staying authentic and resisting the temptation to chase trends.
“Our job isn’t to sound like what’s on the radio. It’s to sound like something they’d miss if you disappeared,” Atkins says. “Build a life underneath your career because careers go up and down… and you have to have something worth coming home to.”
Looking ahead, Atkins is busier than ever. His single “The Years Are Short” recently spent two weeks at No. 1 on Christian Country Radio, and he’s touring extensively while already writing songs for his next album.
“We’re on the road a lot, man,” he says enthusiastically. “We’re kind of all over the place, and I’m playing even more now than I think I ever have in my career.”
