Katy Perry Asked Luke Bryan Who Thomas Rhett Was Before Doing Duet

Thomas Rhett and Katy Perry will be performing their duet "Where We Started" at tomorrow night's CMA Awards, and it will be their first performance of the song together. When they did the video for the song earlier this year, it was the first time they had ever met.

In a behind-the-scenes clip, she revealed to him, "I actually asked my friend Luke Bryan about Thomas Rhett. I go up to Luke, and I say, 'Luke! What do you know about this Thomas Rhett guy? Is he a good guy? He said, 'He's a good one.' He was also jealous. He was like, 'I can't believe it."

Perry added, "This is the first time we've met in real life. It's pretty cool. I heard this song, and I was like, 'Oh! There it is!' After wanting to do a song in the country genre, I've never found that song until today."

Katy came to Nashville to make music before hitting it big and said, "I've always wanted to do this. I've always wanted to come back to my roots, and this is the first chapter of that. It's an example of great storytelling. That is what country music is. It is perfect at telling the best story. When I sing that second verse, that's the life that I've already lived. I was here in Franklin, Tennessee, from age 13-16, staying at the Mara Suites eating my Chick-Fil-A, and going to Bluebird Café. When I started, I had two cars repossessed. I would always go overdrawn by like one Crunchwrap supreme. It would be like, 'Okay. $3.75 is going to cost me $38.75. But just all of those beautiful moments of hard times."

Thomas said, "When we wrote 'Where We Started,' it wasn't even on my brain to have a feature, to be honest with you. As I started to listen to it, it felt like it was missing something. Then I was told it was sent to Katy, and I was like, 'There's no way she's going to respond. Second of all, she has probably never heard of me. Third of all, is she going to like it at all? Then the next day, she said she resonated with the lyric so much and the melody. I was just floored."

Rhett added, "I'm so glad we met today. This is truly a dream come true of mine. This is our first meeting ever and also our first kind of performance scene together in this music video. So, we're really just now getting to know each other. Every scene is a little more cohesive."

Thomas Rhett has released four albums including his latest effort, Center Point Road.

He's moved to the top of the country heap quickly: he's already playing big arenas and has scored 19 number one songs and is the reigning Male Vocalist of the Year for the CMA and the ACM.