The Nashville machine is a meat grinder that usually spits out polished, interchangeable clones faster than a label can print a press release. But every so often, a guy like Russell Dickerson emerges, someone who actually survived the decade-long "overnight success" cycle without losing his damn mind. He is currently riding a wave of chart-toppers like "Yours" and "Blue Tacoma" that have turned him from a van-dwelling dreamer into a mainstay of the festival circuit.
Watching him command a stage is a lesson in high-energy persistence. After tearing through a set at Canada’s Boots and Hearts last year, he is bringing that same frantic, infectious energy to London for Start.ca Rocks The Park on July 10 for BX93 Country Night. We caught up with him to talk about the shift from literal hunger to the heavy lifting of headliner status.
The ascent was anything but linear. For years, Dickerson was the guy everyone in town knew was talented but couldn't quite find the gear. When "Yours" finally broke through, it didn't just open a door; it blew the hinges off.
"A rollercoaster is actually a great reference because for so long, it feels like you’re going up so slow like 'click, click, click, click,'" Dickerson says. "It’s like 'Oh gosh, when is this going to happen?' And then as soon as it kicks in, it was just like full speed ahead. But I feel like we had a really great foundation for this whole thing anyway. And so once it did kick in, it’s like boom. We were ready for it. We had the infrastructure and it was just like 'Yeah!' Everybody was super pumped."
That infrastructure he mentions is the difference between a one-hit wonder and a career. He was not some kid plucked from a reality show. He was a road dog. The industry likes to romanticize the struggle, but the reality is usually just bad food and cramped quarters.
"When I first started, it was like 2011 and I was driving around the country in an SUV with a trailer and all my college buddies and my band," he says. "Just driving anywhere that would pay us gas money and Taco Bell money. We didn’t care, though. We just wanted to play music. It was just fun because it was just me and the boys driving around, and so that was the beginning of it and that was pretty much until 2016, until 'Yours' came out, really. We were just on the grind. It was definitely an uphill battle."
And that battle is often fought alongside people who are now the biggest names in the genre. Nashville is a small town masquerading as a big city. Long before Florida Georgia Line were selling out stadiums, they were just guys in a room trying to figure out a hook.
"They came to one of my very first shows ever," Dickerson says of Brian Kelley and Tyler Hubbard. "I don’t think they had a band name. But I was playing this place called 12th & Porter in Nashville and they came up to me afterwards and they were like 'Man, great show. We should write some songs.' I was like 'Let’s write some songs!' I think, it was 2009, maybe?"
When I first started, it was like 2011 and I was driving around the country in an SUV with a trailer and all my college buddies and my band. Just driving anywhere that would pay us gas money and Taco Bell money. We didn’t care, though. We just wanted to play music... We were just on the grind. It was definitely an uphill battle.
The camaraderie of that era is what keeps these artists grounded when the checks start getting bigger. They aren't just colleagues; they are survivors of the same trenches.
"We just started writing like crazy just because we loved the craft of it," he says. "It wasn’t to be famous or anything. And so we just kept writing and writing and here come along, they write this song called 'Cruise' and I was like 'Well, see y’all later, blowing up for y’all.' So it’s been really special all through these years to know that we’ve got each others’ backs through everything in this crazy industry, and Tyler Hubbard is one of my best friends and it’s one of my longest-lasting friendships in this business."
There is a specific texture to Dickerson’s music that feels more authentic than the usual radio fodder. It likely comes from a childhood that was actually country, rather than just being a costume. While he is a Nashville staple now, his roots are buried deeper in the soil of West Tennessee.
"Honestly, I’d say more of my upbringing in West Tennessee," he says when asked about his influences. "So I lived in West Tennessee until I was 10 years old, and that’s really where I got most of my country roots. I was raised on Garth Brooks and Tim McGraw and all that, but definitely being in Nashville, that’s where I met all kinds of country artists like Josh Turner who sang in my dad’s church choir, all that kind of stuff. So that’s just fun just being around Nashville."
But having the "look" or the "roots" is only half the battle. You have to be able to write. Dickerson didn't just want to be a voice; he wanted to be the architect of his own sound. He actually went to school for this, which is a rarity in a world where many artists struggle to tune their own guitars.
"For me it totally was," he says regarding his commitment to songwriting. "I just felt like I had a fresh sound. I feel like I had something to bring to the table because I went to school for music, and so I feel like I could bring a fresh perspective, you know what I mean? Like I could bring my own sound and so that’s really why I started writing in the first place. And then, learning how to story-tell, learning how to be open and vulnerable and all that stuff. Really what made me want to keep writing and writing."
You can hear that vulnerability in "Blue Tacoma." It’s a song that could have easily been a generic driving anthem. But Dickerson insisted on injecting it with real-life details that only come from actually living the lyrics.
"We started writing that song and one of the co-writers had the idea - I think it was like Red Tacoma or some other - and I just started singing 'Blue Tacoma California' and then at first we plugged in kind of like a hypothetical road trip, but it wasn’t until me and my wife actually took a road trip down the Pacific Coast Highway and then I came back," he says.
The song was essentially built twice. The first version was a placeholder. The second version was the hit.
"I was like 'Guys, Blue Tacoma, I just can’t let go of this song; it’s great,'" he says. "And then we went back and wrote all new verses and pretty much changed everything about the song with our real-life road trip experience, and that’s when the song just came to life."
Now that the stages are bigger and the buses are nicer, the lifestyle has had to change. You cannot sustain a career on the road if you are still living like a 21-year-old in a van. The physical toll of touring is the one thing no one tells you about until you are in the middle of a 200-date run.
"Oh no! God, no," he laughs when asked if he still hits the Taco Bell stands. "That’s another thing about life on the road out here, I have to try to eat as healthy as possible because the schedule is so taxing and you just have to sleep as much as you can. Because sleeping on a bus is like 75% of a full sleep, and so, just eating good, sleeping good, and a little Taco Bell is awesome."
It is a sensible approach for a guy who has finally reached the top of that rollercoaster. He is no longer clicking up the track. He is in the middle of the ride, and he is making sure he stays awake for every second of it.
