Few artists in modern country music bring the same infectious energy and feel-good spirit to the stage as Russell Dickerson, whose rise from independent newcomer to chart-topping star has been built on relentless touring, undeniable hooks and an unwavering connection with fans. Since breaking through with his debut single ‘Yours,' Dickerson has racked up six US Country Airplay number one hits, cementing his reputation as one of Nashville’s most consistent hitmakers. That momentum surged even further in 2025 when his viral smash ‘Happen to Me' exploded across social media, driven by its creative, personality-filled video and reaffirming his knack for blending heartfelt songwriting with modern pop-country appeal.
Now returning to the UK as direct support to Keith Urban at this year’s C2C: Country to Country in London, Belfast and Glasgow, Dickerson arrives with a growing international fanbase and a reputation for turning every show into a full-scale party. Known for high-energy performances packed with singalongs, crowd interaction and arena-sized positivity, his live shows have become a defining part of his success. With a string of hits behind him and new music on the horizon in the form of the ‘Worth Your Wild' EP, Dickerson’s return to UK stages marks another milestone for an artist whose blend of charisma, optimism and relentless work ethic continues to resonate on both sides of the Atlantic.
Thanks for your time today Russell, we appreciate just how busy you are right now. How are you?
I'm doing great, thanks for asking. Thank you for taking the time.
We can't wait to have you back in the UK next week for the C2C festival, it's always a pleasure. Special guest at the festival as direct support to Keith Urban. What does that mean to you to be playing such a prestigious slot?
Oh man! This is maybe our fourth or fifth C2C – I need to look that up. We've been slowly but surely building up to this. We had an acoustic, two song set the very first year and then it was a headlining thing but not on the main stage and then we were first of four and then first of three and now here we are as direct support to Keith Urban! I'm such a massive Keith Urban fan, he's such a huge part of why I even started this thing in the first place…….
That means that there is only one more slot to go, right?
That's right! Next time we hit C2C you know where it will be, baby! (laughing)
It will have been well earned and well deserved as well. Both you and Keith are well known for delivering high energy live performances. Does knowing that he's coming on after you raise the bar for your own performance?
Absolutely! I've always thought about shows as a whole evening and not just as individual sets. How do we both create the perfect night for the fans, Keith and I? We put a lot of thought into picking the songs, you know, ‘this one has a ripping guitar solo,' that'll compliment what Keith's doing too. That sort of thing will be in our minds for sure.
Is it going to be hard condensing down your live show into what might be just an hour?
Oh yeah. We just got out of rehearsals on Friday and we we only have 50 minutes I think, which is hard! We wanna set Keith up the best we can whilst also preserving the integrity of my artistry! (laughing) It's like, man, we have to cut singles at this point to fit into the time parameters of the set.
When you are sitting on six number ones you've got some hard decisions to make!
Exactly!
I want to congratulate you on your latest number one, ‘Happen to Me,' which was a huge viral song for you last year also. Did you sense early on that there was something special about that song or did the success take you by surprise?
So we wrote that song back in 2023! We had it and we knew it was awesome and we knew we would put it in the set list but we hadn't thought about anything more than that to begin with. Things started to change once we started putting it online and seeing the reaction to it on social media. We'd never had a reaction on socials to a song like this before.
Usually the label would put some marketing dollars behind a song and you'd take it from there but this one just exploded! It's still doing things to this day, anytime we post a video with that audio on it! (laughing) It's wild.
Is it your number one that's benefitted most from social media then?
Absolutely. I was kinda poking fun at first, you know, you have to have a dance to have a hit song these days and here's my stupid dance! (laughing) People loved it. It's kinda ironic to me that it took off in such a big way.
I always think your social media accounts are hilarious to watch. ‘Bringing random objects on tour' is great, watching you twerking in a cart at Target made me laugh. Do you plot these things out and enjoy doing them or is it a pressure to be always having to come up with content?
Both. Sometimes. Sometimes my team is like, hey, we need you to do this or that and it's hard but the magic comes from things happening, often spontaneously, but always just fun. I have a Fetty Wap video where I was just hanging out and singing his song and it's got about 20 million views, bigger than any video we've ever planned out or done!
We've touched on you having six number ones. Looking at them as a group of songs can you see a theme, connection or commonality between them that might inform your writing going forward?
Yeah. I feel like my style is somewhere between sentimental and nostalgic. I'm never really focusing on negativity. I don't really have any break up songs. I don't plan that but it doesn't come naturally for me. My thing is to encourage people to see the silver linings and the brighter side of life, that's what works for me.
‘Famous Back Home' was your last album, where ‘Happen to Me' and ‘Worth Your Wild' comes from. How did that album represent your evolution as an artist?
I feel like I am just getting more and more into who I am and what I stand for. It allowed me to be me, to be who I want to be rather than looking at the box that is Country music and making sure that I ticked all the boxes or followed all the rules, right? I keep having more fun and that's where the magic comes from.
When we were recording ‘Happen to Me' I was, like, ‘If anybody in this room brings me some run-of-the-mill Country single BS, You're out!' (laughing) Give me over the top, give me ridiculous, give me all that you have so we can make this magic. I don't want the guys to bring in to me what they brought into their last session yesterday, I want Russell Dickerson – so go for it!
Have you ever had a song that you were convinced was going to be huge and it just wasn't. It didn't turn out to be a as big as you were expecting?
That was ‘Bones' for me. Having the demo and even from hearing the master……….. my wife and I, both, just listened to it over and over again and got chills from listening to it. We both decided that that was in our gut and we wanted to follow it. You know, and there was pushback on it from the label, they were, like, ‘Are you sure this is the one you wanna do?' And I was, like, ‘Yeah man, I gotta follow this feeling.'
We put it out and it just, surprisingly, didn't do what I really thought it would, which was sad. It probably stuck around on the charts in the 30s for a while but as soon as ‘Happen to Me' came out…….. the funny thing was that ‘Happen to Me' streamed more in just seven days than ‘Bones' had in total! We knew we had to pivot at that point. Sometimes, as an artist, you have to realise that a song isn't working and you need to get it out of the way because it blocks anything else you can put out. I had to hold myself to that standard and be aware enough to know what was working and what wasn't. There was no point pushing ‘Bones' for the next 9 months when ‘Happen to Me' was a rocket – we jumped on that rocket and rode it all the way we could!
If you make an album every two years you might well only get two singles out of each album if each one is taking 9 months plus to reach the top of the charts. That's not a lot of space – one song a year. That's why the social media game, as annoying as it is, has become so important because you can reach millions of people in just one post and they can hear the song or what you have to say. So I put energy into social media now in a way that I wasn't doing as much a few years ago, it's a whole new outlet for me to reach people directly rather than relying on other media or platforms to do that.
You have new music just about to drop on the ‘Worth Your Wild' EP. Tell me about the new songs on there.
We did a similar thing a couple of years ago, a kind of Spring Break, little collection of a couple of songs to put something fresh out there. Those are the ones that can be kinda the most fun to make because there are no rules about what you can or should do on releases like that. I have a song on there called ‘B.O.A.T.' which is my favourite – that's going to be the focus track and it's already got traction on social media before it's even released!
Are you on a victory lap then in 2026 or will it be the start of another recording cycle for you?
Oh yeah, we're doubling down. We've been in the studio and we've got releases planned! I think everybody is going to be pleasantly surprised with what we have coming this year!
Grab tickets to see Russell in London, Belfast or Glasgow at the C2C festival right here.
