Several months ago, Russell Dickerson was at a crossroads. The gregarious country singer had experienced success, including four Billboard Country Airplay No. 1s between 2017 and 2020, but his career had seemed to level off.
“I had gotten to a point last year of just like surrendering it to God: ‘I’m burnt out. I’ve tried. My wheels have spun. I’ve been going and going and going, but it feels like I’m on a treadmill,’” he recalls over breakfast during a recent trip to Los Angeles. Exhausted, he decided, “I’m not going to keep hustling and hustling and saying yes to everything.”
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Compounding his growing frustration, at the beginning of this year his business managers told Dickerson that with the high level of production he wanted on his headlining Russellmania tour, he would only net about $60,000 from the road for the entire year. “I was like, ‘I may quit. We should just wipe the books, and I’ll stay at home and drive an Uber,’” he says.
Then “Happen to Me” happened to him. The ebullient song, written by Chris LaCorte, Jessie Jo Dillon, Chase McGill and Dickerson, with a credit also given to “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” writer Robert Hazard for its interpolation of the Cyndi Lauper hit, details a random meeting with a woman in a bar that is about to change his life for the better. The tune, which was only meant to be an album cut that would add even more energy to his high-octane live show, took off.
The song, which has climbed to No. 5 on the Country Airplay chart, garnered more than 130 million streams and became an immediate viral sensation, in part thanks to an endearing dance Dickerson — who learned his moves from watching Michael Jackson and Usher — created, complete with raised arm clapping, booty shaking and twerking. He’s now posted multiple versions of the dance, including in the gym, on the golf course and on the beach, and even from a Target while back-to-school shopping with his son. There are also star-studded versions with fellow artists Carly Pearce, Lauren Alaina and Maddie & Tae, and Dickerson promises more to come.
As the popularity of “Happen to Me” rose, Dickerson began selling more concert tickets, adding extra nights and expanding to bigger venues on his tour, which has just started its third leg. “Our business managers were like, ‘You’re going to be just fine,’” he says.
As early as two weeks after the song’s release in March, “I felt an immediate shift — even in Nashville, arms-crossed, jaded, industry town,” Dickerson says, describing the first time he played it in Music City later that month and the audience roared as soon as it recognized the opening chords. “That’s the feeling that I’ve been chasing… That’s the most electric feeling in my career. I’m a big, crazy dreamer and I feel like for the first time in my career, what I’m seeing is matching up to my dreams.”
The song is the breakout hit from Dickerson’s new album, Famous Back Home, out today (Aug. 22) on Triple Tigers. The title track deals with balancing his career and family life as both expand. “Before you have kids, you’re like, ‘Dude, I want this [career] to be as big and crazy and everything as possible,’” the father of two young boys says. “And then I’m to the point now where I don’t want anything to take away from my home life. Obviously, we travel all the time, and it just gets harder. Remy is almost five and [he asks] ‘How many sleeps until you’re back?’ My No. 1 priority is how can we be efficient in this whole crazy career and still have a beautiful family. When I come home, [my kids] run to me. I’m famous back home.”
For this tour, Dickerson and his wife have focused on alone time. “Kailey has been coming out with me, just us. We finally got a full-time nanny. Thank you, Jesus,” he says. But the pair often find themselves working on their separate pursuits: Kailey recently signed a deal for two non-fiction books and a children’s book, “so she’s working on that while we’re on the road together,” Dickerson says proudly. “We go on a coffee date every day. It’s been so amazing just to have us time to have a conversation.”
If the title track looks at his current life, the album also looks backward on the reflective “16 Me,” an autobiographical song that reveals how the musical spark was ignited in Dickerson when he picked up a guitar and was leading his church worship group and learning how to perform in front of an audience as a teen. “Sixteen is such a ‘Where is my life going’ kind of thing, but you’re not really that worried about it yet. It’s a cool thing to just look back and picture you right here with your 16-year-old self.”
Dickerson signed with Range Management almost two years ago and that helped realign his priorities, including creating the new album, his first full-length release since 2022’s self-titled set. Previously, in a blurry, non-ending cycle, he would bring songwriters on the road with him and then as soon as he was home, he would head into the studio. “When I was opening — 30-minute set, easy — I could write all day, but now that I’m headlining, that’s a 90-minute full-on performance,” he says. “I don’t want to write on the road. Range has been very strategic in how we book my calendar now and it’s been so much more productive. If it’s everything all the time, nothing gets attention. It was just so beneficial to go back to that old feeling of one thing at a time.”
The change has also helped with his ADHD, a condition he’s been very open about, as he’s often able to hyperfocus on one thing. “My brain never stops, so song ideas are just non-stop. Business ideas, products, just non-stop,” he says. “The negative is I get overwhelmed very easily with decision fatigue. Like when making a record, I’ll get [told], ‘We need your mix notes for 12 songs by tomorrow afternoon.’ That’s just like paralysis. And then you go into overdrive. I took Adderall all through high school, and I never touched it again because I hated it.”
But recently, when tour rehearsals and completing the album overlapped and Russell felt like he was making “nine million decisions a day,” his doctor prescribed a low dose of ADHD medication “and it rocked me in a great way,” he says. “So, if there’s anything that I really need to focus in on, it’s really, really helped.”
At a time when country songs are often dealing with darker and more intense subjects than ever before in the last 25 years, according to a report from ChartCipher, Dickerson prides himself on being “the antithesis of that. I want people to hear my music and find love and joy.” Even his slower songs, like “Yours,” “Bones” or “Love You Like I Used To,” revel in love’s successes and durability. (The new album’s “Never Leave,” a ballad with backing vocals by Vince Gill, is the rare regretful song.)
Columbia Records’ promo team is now working “Happen to Me” to pop radio, resulting in Dickerson’s first Adult Pop Airplay hit. There’s also a Steve Aoki dance remix. At a time when country artists like HARDY, Jelly Roll and Morgan Wallen are appearing on multiple genre charts, he’s not worried about alienating his country core. “No way,” says Russell. “I’m all for taking this thing as big as possible.”
“Happen to Me” has also become his first No. 1 on the U.K. country chart, leading to conversations about expanding Russell’s international audience. “That’s my conversation with Range: ‘Where are we going? You tell me. I’m open. I’m ready.’”
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