Songfacts®:

• This soulful R&B-inflected duet with Katy Perry finds Thomas Rhett reflecting on the romance between him and his wife, Lauren Akins. Rhett recalls the start of their relationship when he played covers on his guitar in an empty room before picking Lauren up from her shifts in his Chevrolet. Now he's making a living out of singing songs about her.
• Rhett wrote "Where We Started" with the New York pop songwriter Jon Bellion (Maroon 5's "Memories," Justin Bieber's "Holy") and Nashville songsmiths Ashley Gorley and Jesse Frasure.
• When Big Machine Label Group executive Allison Jones asked Rhett if he would mind if they sent over the song to Katy Perry's camp, he figured why not, not believing anything would come from it. After all, the California pop star probably gets sent dozens of songs a day and she's never done a country collaboration before. Within 24 hours Perry responded, saying she loved the song and wanted the files. A week later, Rhett was facetiming Perry in his kitchen.
  
  "I think people expected the song to be some crazy hype EDM version of something but it's a beautiful love song that Katy came in and just owned," Rhett told Billboard.
• Rhett is a self-confessed perfectionist who is continually fiddling with his songs until the day he hands in the album. This rootsy soul jam is exactly the same as the demo, despite his best efforts. Rhett recounted to The Boot trying to record "Where We Started" "50 different ways," from a modest piano and vocal version to "tracking it like how Tom Petty may have done it." Nothing worked until he used the original demo track loop.
• This is the title track of Rhett's Where We Started album. Rhett's initial plan had been to record Country Again: Side B, the follow-up to his lockdown Country Again: Side A album, but after writing this cut, his plans changed. "I wrote this one song called 'Where We Started' with some good friends of mine named Jon Bellion, Ashley Gorley and Jesse Frasure," Rhett recalled to the media. "We were out at my farm, and this song, for some reason, spurred a lot of other songs that followed suit with it. It kinda started becoming a different project."
• The album blends lighthearted party songs with tracks that address Rhett's love for his wife Lauren. Besides the title track, "The Hill," "Bass Pro Hat," "Angels," "Bring the Bar," "Paradise," "Mama's Front Door," "Slow Down Summer," and "Us Someday" are all gleaned from their relationship.
• Thomas Rhett and Katy Perry performed the song live for the first time during the American Idol Season 20 finale on May 22, 2022.
• Thomas Rhett and a cowboy-hatted Katy Perry teamed up for a performance of "Where We Started" at the 2022 CMA Awards.
  
  This was the second year in a row that Perry appeared at the ceremony. The pop star presented the Song of the Year Award to winner Chris Stapleton at the 2021 CMA Awards alongside her fellow American Idol judges Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan.