Darius Rucker’s “Wagon Wheel” Earns 8x Multi-Platinum Certification
Pictured (L-R): Maverick’s Chris Parr, RIAA’s Jackie Jones, Darius Rucker, UMG Nashville’s Mike Dungan. Photo: Strange Bird Media
Darius Rucker has gotten a lot of mileage out of “Wagon Wheel.” His 2013 hit, which was originally released by Old Crow Medicine Show in 2004, has now been certified 8x multi-Platinum by the RIAA. The feat makes Rucker the only solo male country artist to reach the milestone of an 8x multi-Platinum song in RIAA history.
Rucker’s label of more than 14 years, UMG Nashville, surprised the superstar with plaques commemorating the accolade during a stop at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum on Feb. 12.
“I don’t believe you. I don’t believe this!” Rucker responded. “Wow, what a testament to the fans and their love of country music.”
“Wagon Wheel” was penned by Old Crow Medicine Show’s Ketch Secor, and based on a sketch from Bob Dylan, who is credited as a co-writer on the track. “Wagon Wheel,” featured on Rucker’s Gold-certified album True Believers, earned Rucker the third Grammy of his career, this time for Best Country Solo Performance at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards.
“Even in my wildest dreams for ‘Wagon Wheel,’ the singer was never me or Bob,” Secor said. “It could have been a lot of different people who had the big hit with it. It could have been one of those perfect-smile guys with the made-for-TV personalities. That it was instead a salt of the earth singer like Darius is something divine I’ll leave to the theologians to figure out.”
Mike Dungan, UMGN Chairman & CEO, recalled his conversation with Darius when Rucker decided to record “Wagon Wheel”: “Darius called my cell phone one night and told me that he was in the audience for the talent show at his daughter’s high school. He said, ‘Hey man, do you know that song ‘Wagon Wheel?’ I just watched a band full of kids perform it, and it reminded me of how great that song is, and I want to cut it.’ I said, ‘you’re crazy,’ to which he said, ‘well I’m cuttin’ it! I’ll talk to you later!’ We (the label) thought that this was going to either be huge… or a disaster. He was right, everybody’s happy, life is good!”
“On behalf of RIAA, we’re so pleased to mark such an amazing accomplishment,” said Jackie Jones, Vice President of Industry Relations at the Recording Industry Association of America. “A certification of this magnitude is incredibly rare—occurring only a few times in our organization’s history. Darius, his team and the entire UMG Nashville family should be very proud of this historic moment in music.”
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