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Thomas Rhett is much more than Russell Dickerson‘s boss on the Very Hot Summer Tour: he’s also his best friend.

For the “Yours” hitmaker, that’s a best-case scenario.

“It’s been amazing,” Russell tells ABC Radio. “We’ve hung out, you know, even in the madness of the touring.”

“You know, I finally have people helping me out on the road, so I can hang,” he goes on. “And so it’s just great to be able to hang with such a great friend on the road.”

Russell admits he’s particularly blown away by TR’s new material on his autobiographical Center Point Road album.

“Oh my gosh. That’s the thing about being such good friends with him,” he says. “I’m so proud of him for being one-hundred percent himself, and open and real and vulnerable about, you know, how he was raised, and not trying to follow anything except just being himself.”

No doubt Thomas Rhett is equally impressed by the growth of Russell’s career, as he follows two number-ones with his latest top-twenty hit, “Every Little Thing.”

“It just keeps getting better and better,” Russell reflects. “Because for so long, I had to teach people the songs. You know, like even in ‘Blue Tacoma,’ we started the whole song, I was like, ‘It goes like this. Blue Tacoma, California, whatever.’ And they’re like, ‘Okay!’”

“And then now,” Russell points out, “as soon as we hit the downbeat, it’s just like, you know, they know it. And that’s what I’ve dreamed of more than anything else is being onstage and hearing these big crowds sing my songs that I wrote.”

Friday night, TR, Russell, and Dustin Lynch play Darien Center, New York, before heading for Hershey, Pennsylvania on Saturday.

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