In the early 90’s Akins followed his dream and moved from Georgia to Nashville to push his music career forward. At first, he was a demo singer but very soon he was signed as artist himself to Decca Records and released his own albums.

In the mid 2000’s he released his song Kiss My Country Ass which was subsequently recorded by Blake Shelton. He progressively began writing more songs for other artists primarily with his writing group known as The Peach Pickers which included Ben Hayslip and Dallas Davidson. He went on to deliver Number 1 US Country radio hits for a wide range of artists including Joe Nichols, Josh Turner, Rodney Atkins, Luke Bryan and indeed Blake Shelton.

He also had a son Thomas Rhett, who took on the baton as an artist and Akins has helped deliver an array of top 10 US Country hits for him, including Look What God Gave Her, Life Changes and Star Of The Show. In 2018 Akins was nominated for a Grammy for his contribution to the Blake Shelton song I Live It in the Best Country Song category.