Russell Dickerson Sets New Career Heights Following Sold-Out Ryman Debut

Russell Dickerson wrapped the first leg of his debut solo headlining tour with a sold-out performance at Nashville’s historic Ryman Auditorium on Friday. It was a career milestone for the country singer, who already has four No. 1 songs to his name.

Before the concert, the singer was presented three plaques by Triple Tigers Records President Norbert Nix for his most recent three singles – “Every Little Thing,” which went No. 1 in 2019, “Love You Like I Used To,” a two-week No. 1 in 2020, and “Home Sweet,” which was recently certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America. The success was not lost on Dickerson.

“I want to take this as far, as high, as long as I can possibly do this,” he told a room of industry professionals, family and friends. “I want you to know that this is not just a game to me. This is not just a hobby or a ‘let’s see how this goes.’ This is my life. This is my dream that my wife and I have gotten to pursue for the last decade plus. … We have the biggest foundation to build on and we just hit a little milestone tonight with selling out the Ryman.”

Dickerson’s gratitude continued throughout his high-energy, 90-minute headlining set. The singer got visibly emotional while performing “Yours,” his first No. 1 single. “I was just showing pictures to my team of a show we put on years ago and there was one person standing in that entire room,” he said. “The fact that we can go from one person standing in this random club to a sold-out Ryman show means more than you guys know.”

Ahead of the concert, Dickerson said headliner is where he feels he belongs. Now, fans are paying money to come hear the music he’s made and sing the songs he’s written for 90 minutes each night.

“That first night back on stage I feel like we came back in a new echelon,” he tells me of his first headlining date in January. “Performing, I could do for the rest of my life and that’s my focus. I want to have the best show – not just in country music but in the world. That’s what I’m shooting for.”

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Dickerson will spend the majority of 2022 on the road. He’s the main support for Tim McGraw’s tour, which kicks off in April. Following that trek he’ll launch the second leg of his All Yours All Night Tour in the UK in October. It’s a natural transition for the singer, who has been touring for the past decade.

While Dickerson has always known he wanted to pursue a career in music, the Tennessee native says what he didn’t realize is he also had to take on the role of CEO. Once his career began to take off in 2016 thanks to the success of “Yours,” Dickerson realized he also had to become a businessman and business manager.

“You’re going to be creative, but you’re also going to have to step into a boardroom and you’re going to have to run a company,” he says. “You’re going to have to make hard decisions. You’re going to have to hire people and you’re going to have to fire people and make money decisions a lot. My advice that I usually give to young artists: start getting business savvy because it’s a huge part of what you do.”

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Dickerson attended Belmont University where he minored in music business. He says several of his classes helped him learn that the role of CEO and running a business can often be trial by fire. It also taught him how to read contracts, which helped him negotiate his first publishing deal while still in college.

“I was taking my last summer semester and I was in the process of negotiating my first publishing contract so everything I was learning I was like, ‘OK, so I need to go back and then scratch this off because I don’t want to be stuck there,’” he recalls. “That was definitely a very helpful thing.”

Dickerson says he stayed an independent artist as long as he could, but he needed to have a radio team behind him to get to the next stage of his career and to have success at country radio. His partnership with Triple Tigers worked as Dickerson scored his fourth consecutive No. 1 single in 2020, making him the first solo artist since Luke Combs to have his first four singles reach the peak position on both the country Mediabase and Billboard charts.

“It’s definitely awesome to have such a great radio team behind you,” he says. “That’s what we were missing. The first four singles we put out thank God went all the way.”

As Dickerson readies the next chapter of his career as a headliner, he’s also focusing on being a father for the first time and new music.

“I became a dad in Covid and so [I’m] channeling that energy and channeling this newfound appreciation for each day,” he says. “I feel like that’s a common thread around a lot of the songs that I’ve that I’ve written recently.”

That appreciation was evident at the close of his debut Ryman headlining set on Friday, too.

“I just never want this night to end,” he said to a packed crowd at the famed Mother Church of Country Music. “I’ve been waiting on this night my whole life.”