Russell Dickerson Celebrates His First Chart-Topping Single, ‘Yours’
Russell Dickerson celebrated his No.1 "Yours" almost four years to the date he wrote it with friends Casey Brown and Parker Welling.
It was a long journey to No. 1 for Russell Dickerson and his debut single, “Yours.” The singer first penned the romantic ballad about the love he found with his wife four years ago with friends and former Belmont classmates, Casey Brown and Parker Welling. Ahead of his No. 1 celebration at Nashville’s Aloompa, the singer discussed with local media how he believed in the song long before anyone else did.
The three friends wrote “Yours” while in Brown’s “crappy” apartment on Jan. 24, 2014 and nearly four years to the day, on Jan. 22, 2018, the song hit the top of the charts. “Yours” was the second song the three writers penned together. As they explain, Brown approached Dickerson about writing at a Christmas party in 2013. When they wrote the song, each of the three writers was in their first year of marriage and they knew the story of the singer’s relationship with his wife, Kailey, so “Yours” came naturally without him having to explain anything.
“I think our relationship is different from a lot of co-writing relationships because we were all friends,” Welling tells Sounds Like Nashville. “Casey was roommates with my husband in college. And Kailey, [Dickerson’s] wife and Casey’s wife were roommates. Our friend group is so close-knit. It’s like a family.”
Dickerson adds that the magic was immediate when they began penning “Yours,” explaining that it was like writing a song with his family.
“They’d seen my relationship with my wife since before it was even a thing. You can’t replace that, no matter how long it’s been, in a room telling somebody that,” he admits. “That’s why I think it’s so genuine.”
(L-R): Triple Tigers Records’ Bruce Kalmick, Dennis Entertainment’s John Dennis, Essential Music’s Terry Hemmings, SESAC’s ET Brown, Essential Music’s Holly Zabka, 3 Ring Circus’ Jeffrey Steele, BMI’s Leslie Roberts, 3 Ring Circus’ Darrell Franklin, Triple Tiger Records’ George Couri, Triple Tiger Records’ Norbert Nix and BMG’s Kos Weaver (Photo: Steve Lowry)
Co-writer Brown agrees, explaining that because they’re all friends there is a level of trust and respect in the writing room. As a result, they’re not afraid to say if they like an idea or not.
“When it’s three people that you’ve lived with and fought with and had good times with, you can dig deep [and] try to get the best idea,” Brown says. “And so, I think that played a huge part in the whole process.”
The song took on a life of its own thanks to Spotify, where it was on the Hot Country playlist for over a year. Dickerson says the success of “Yours” on Spotify helped him land a record deal with Triple Tigers in 2016, which resulted in the song being released to radio in April 2017.
A post shared by Russell Dickerson (@russelled) on
“In that four years it was taken to every record label in town and [got] turned down and that was really hard,” Dickerson explains. “Because we knew that this was a huge song. And so getting turned down multiple times . . . we just got to a point where it was like, ‘All right, we’re just going to do this on our own.'”
Following the success of “Yours,” Dickerson treated himself to a Chevy Blazer and says his wife urged him to follow through on the purchase. A friend of his who grew up on a dairy farm had an old Chevy and he always dreamed that when he had a little extra cash he’d buy one for himself.
“Around when ‘Yours’ went No. 1, I found this perfect, kept in the garage for 30 years, baby blue interior, truck for an amazing price,” Dickerson gushes. “It was hard to spend that first little chunk that you get. But, I wanted to get something special. You only get one first number one. So, I just wanted to do something special and Kailey, she was the one that convinced me to do it.”
