Darius Rucker Explains How He Decided to Record ‘Wagon Wheel’

Darius Rucker had a huge hit on his hands in 2013 when he recorded a cover of Old Crow Medicine Show’s “Wagon Wheel” for his album True Believers, sending his version to No. 1 on the Billboard Country Airplay chart and No. 15 on the Billboard Hot 100. Rucker won the Grammy Award for Best Country Solo Performance for the recording, and it has been certified 9x Platinum by the RIAA. During an interview with Kelleigh Bannen on Essentials Radio on Apple Music County, Rucker revealed that recording a cover of “Wagon Wheel” had never crossed his mind, until he heard an unexpected rendition.

“It was funny because I had known the song forever and I never thought about cutting it because I always thought it was a bluegrass song,” he explained. “I never even thought about cutting it. My oldest daughter was having a high school pageant, I’m right in the middle of recording True Believers, and I have to leave Nashville to go to Baltimore to this pageant, this high school talent show. That’s what it was.” Rucker shared that the talent show included performances by a faculty band, “and at one point they start playing ‘Wagon Wheel.’”

“They were playing it with drums and everything, and I’d never heard it that way,” he recalled. “I’m sitting there. I’ll never forget. I’m sitting there, watching this, going, ‘Crazy.’ They get to the first chorus and I’m like, ‘Man, that would be a cool song,’ and so I text my producer, Frank Rogers. I was like, ‘Man, you remember that song ‘Wagon Wheel’?,’ and he texts me back, ‘Yeah. Why?’ I was like, ‘Man, I think we should cut that.’”

“Wagon Wheel” was co-written by Bob Dylan and Ketch Secor of Old Crow Medicine Show — Dylan recorded the chorus in 1973 and Secor added verses to the song 25 years later. The band’s version of the song was certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America in April 2013 and it has been covered numerous times including versions by Rucker and Nathan Carter. Rucker’s cover of “Wagon Wheel,” which features backing vocals from Lady A, is the most successful song of his career.

Earlier this year, Rucker released his latest single, the romantic “My Masterpiece.” Rucker wrote the song with Josh Osborne, J.T. Harding and Ross Copperman, and Rucker told his record label that “My Masterpiece” is “another one of those songs that really, with when you think about all of the great masterpieces in the world, it was great to write that song and come up with another song that I love.”