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\n\tSeveral months ago, Russell Dickerson<\/a> was at a crossroads. The gregarious country singer had experienced success, including four Billboard<\/em> Country Airplay No. 1s between 2017 and 2020, but his career had seemed to level off.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tExplore\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p><\/div>\n \t\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n <\/p>\n \t<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n See latest videos, charts and news<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \n\t\u201cI had gotten to a point last year of just like surrendering it to God: \u2018I\u2019m burnt out. I\u2019ve tried. My wheels have spun. I\u2019ve been going and going and going, but it feels like I\u2019m on a treadmill,\u2019\u201d he recalls over breakfast during a recent trip to Los Angeles. Exhausted, he decided, \u201cI\u2019m not going to keep hustling and hustling and saying yes to everything.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tCompounding 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. \u201cI was like, \u2018I may quit. We should just wipe the books, and I\u2019ll stay at home and drive an Uber,\u2019\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \n\tThen \u201cHappen to Me\u201d happened to him.\u00a0The ebullient song, written by Chris LaCorte, Jessie Jo Dillon, Chase McGill and Dickerson, with a credit also given to \u201cGirls Just Want to Have Fun\u201d 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.<\/p>\n \n\tThe 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 \u2014 who learned his moves from watching Michael Jackson and Usher \u2014 created, complete with raised arm clapping, booty shaking and twerking. He\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n \n\tAs the popularity of \u201cHappen to Me\u201d 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. \u201cOur business managers were like, \u2018You\u2019re going to be just fine,\u2019\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \n\tAs early as two weeks after the song\u2019s release in March, \u201cI felt an immediate shift \u2014 even in Nashville, arms-crossed, jaded, industry town,\u201d 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. \u201cThat\u2019s the feeling that I\u2019ve been chasing\u2026 That\u2019s the most electric feeling in my career. I\u2019m a big, crazy dreamer and I feel like for the first time in my career, what I\u2019m seeing is matching up to my dreams.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe song is the breakout hit from Dickerson\u2019s new album, Famous Back Home<\/em>, out today (Aug. 22) on Triple Tigers. The title track deals with balancing his career and family life as both expand. \u201cBefore you have kids, you\u2019re like, \u2018Dude, I want this [career] to be as big and crazy and everything as possible,\u2019\u201d the father of two young boys says. \u201cAnd then I\u2019m to the point now where I don\u2019t 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] \u2018How many sleeps until you\u2019re back?\u2019 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\u2019m famous back home.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tFor this tour, Dickerson and his wife have focused on alone time. \u201cKailey has been coming out with me, just us. We finally got a full-time nanny. Thank you, Jesus,\u201d 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\u2019s book, \u201cso she\u2019s working on that while we\u2019re on the road together,\u201d Dickerson says proudly. \u201cWe go on a coffee date every day. It\u2019s been so amazing just to have us time to have a conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tIf the title track looks at his current life, the album also looks backward on the reflective \u201c16 Me,\u201d 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. \u201cSixteen is such a \u2018Where is my life going\u2019 kind of thing, but you\u2019re not really that worried about it yet. It\u2019s a cool thing to just look back and picture you right here with your 16-year-old self.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tDickerson 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\u2019s 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.\u00a0\u201cWhen I was opening \u2014 30-minute set, easy \u2014 I could write all day, but now that I\u2019m headlining, that\u2019s a 90-minute full-on performance,\u201d he says. \u201cI don\u2019t want to write on the road. Range has been very strategic in how we book my calendar now and it\u2019s been so much more productive. If it\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe change has also helped with his ADHD, a condition he\u2019s been very open about, as he\u2019s often able to hyperfocus on one thing. \u201cMy brain never stops, so song ideas are just non-stop. Business ideas, products, just non-stop,\u201d he says. \u201cThe negative is I get overwhelmed very easily with decision fatigue. Like when making a record, I\u2019ll get [told], \u2018We need your mix notes for 12 songs by tomorrow afternoon.\u2019 That\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tBut recently, when tour rehearsals and completing the album overlapped and Russell felt like he was making \u201cnine million decisions a day,\u201d his doctor prescribed a low dose of ADHD medication \u201cand it rocked me in a great way,\u201d he says. \u201cSo, if there\u2019s anything that I really need to focus in on, it\u2019s really, really helped.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAt 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<\/a>, Dickerson prides himself on being \u201cthe antithesis of that. I want people to hear my music and find love and joy.\u201d Even his slower songs, like \u201cYours,\u201d \u201cBones\u201d or \u201cLove You Like I Used To,\u201d revel in love\u2019s successes and durability. (The new album\u2019s \u201cNever Leave,\u201d a ballad with backing vocals by Vince Gill, is the rare regretful song.)<\/p>\n\n