Going Deep with Russell Dickerson: Exploring the Heart and Soul Of Country Music

Buzz Knight:

Well, I’m Buzz Knight. I’m the host of the Takin’ a Walk podcast series, and I’m over the moon thrilled to be here in Nashville for a series of Takin’ a Walk episodes. And I hope you follow us wherever you find your podcast, Apple Podcast, or Spotify or wherever. Today our guest is a singer-songwriter who is on a roll with his third release on Triple Tiger Records, self-titled LP3. Russell Dickerson is our guest on taking a walk. Welcome, Russell.

Russell Dickerson:

Yes, sir. Thanks for having me, man.

Buzz Knight:

Well, thanks for being here. Now, how long do I have to know you before I can say RD?

Russell Dickerson:

Three seconds.

Buzz Knight:

I love it.

Russell Dickerson:

Absolutely.

Buzz Knight:

Just like everyone in Nashville, you make me feel at home immediately.

Russell Dickerson:

Yeah, man. Yeah. Where are you from?

Buzz Knight:

I’m from the Boston area.

Russell Dickerson:

God, I hear it now.

Buzz Knight:

No.

Russell Dickerson:

Boston.

Buzz Knight:

Oh, please.

Russell Dickerson:

Just when you said Boston.

Buzz Knight:

I didn’t grow up there.

Russell Dickerson:

Boston.

Buzz Knight:

I grew up in Stamford, Connecticut, so…

Russell Dickerson:

Okay.

Buzz Knight:

Outside of New York City, but yeah.

Russell Dickerson:

That’s still up there.

Buzz Knight:

Yeah, still up there.

Russell Dickerson:

Still up there. It was way up there.

Buzz Knight:

Still considered up there. So congratulations on the roll you are on.

Russell Dickerson:

Thanks, man.

Buzz Knight:

Do you feel the pressure of trying to top yourself after your recent success and then when your next success happens?

Russell Dickerson:

I mean, yeah, I guess a little bit, but not, like exciting pressure. If we never hit the mark again, we’ve had a great run, but there’s definitely more to come for sure. And it’s just an exciting pressure to even have this much success in the first place. So yeah, a little bit, but I like it. I like pressure.

Buzz Knight:

I think people use that energy of pressure mostly to their advantage. Some people freak out about it, but I think it sounds like you’ve got it well under control, RD.

Russell Dickerson:

Yeah, absolutely. I do. Yeah, indeed. Indeed.

Buzz Knight:

So you’re a student of the nineties and the 2000 country…

Russell Dickerson:

Oh yeah.

Buzz Knight:

Star scene.

Russell Dickerson:

Absolutely.

Buzz Knight:

Tell me about some of those influencers for you.

Russell Dickerson:

I mean, first and foremost, Garth Brooks. That would be my number one. Just the songs, the entertainment aspect. I love the live show aspect of my career and put everything into that. And I learned that from him to see his tours and just his theatrics and his performances. I think that’s why he’s still selling tickets, selling out stadiums to this day, is that connection with the fan in the live environment. And so that’s probably the most foundational influence in my music. And then Tim McGraw is probably number two of the songs and the voice. I got to tour with Tim McGraw all summer this year, and just to watch him and to be on tour with one of my heroes was insane. I learned so much. And third would probably be, I mean, Michael Jackson. Uh-oh, what.

Buzz Knight:

Left turn.

Russell Dickerson:

Curve ball.

Buzz Knight:

Curve ball.

Russell Dickerson:

Yeah, I mean I…

Buzz Knight:

[inaudible 00:03:45] out.

Russell Dickerson:

I just, I love Michael Jackson, man. I love the percussive of his music and his songs and just the epicness of his songs, and obviously stage presence as well.

Buzz Knight:

So in terms of performers though, that you’ve seen, obviously you’d rank Garth, Tim, and then did you ever see MJ in performance or?

Russell Dickerson:

No.

Buzz Knight:

No.

Russell Dickerson:

No. Never saw MJ live. I wish. Stage presence? Yeah. I mean, Keith Urban is way up there for me too. The epitome of entertainer for sure. And how he does it, playing guitar as well, is mind-blowing to me. He does such a great job.

Buzz Knight:

So when you were out with Tim McGraw, what did you learn even by osmosis from a guy like that while you were with him a lot?

Russell Dickerson:

Oh man. Well, first of all, he always says it’s all about the songs. Songs are the first step to anything else, and that really stuck with me. And second was me and my wife talk about it. We call Tim McGraw on stage, he just sticks it. And because me, I’m all over the place, I’m over here, I’m over there, I’m out front, I’m in the back, I’m on the drums, whatever, and Tim McGraw just goes out there, sticks it, he’ll just like nod his cowboy hat or something, and everybody just loses it. And I’m like, dang, there’s something so powerful about just owning the moment and owning the song and just standing there.

Because when I first started performing, nobody knew who I was. Nobody knew my songs. So I had to go out there and entertain them in some way. And so I was like, all right, well, we’re just going to put on a great live show. And then as things build and people start having a, as I have a couple hits and stuff, I realize that I can just stick it now. They know the song. I don’t have to teach the lyrics or do anything to egg them on. They’re here to hear these songs. And so I really learned that, especially with Yours and Love You Like I Used To, more of the ballad leaning songs. Just stick it, man, let them sing it, sing to them, and just own that moment.

Buzz Knight:

Is it a bit like the zone like athletes talk about when you’re performing?

Russell Dickerson:

Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. It really is. There’s this just adrenaline takeover that happens.

Buzz Knight:

Do you ever get out there and then go, it doesn’t feel completely right at this moment, but I’m going to pull it off. It’s not going to deter me. Is there ever moments that you have to call an audible?

Russell Dickerson:

Yeah, sometimes. We’ll have, depending on crowds, and we’ve always got little changes built in that we can like, hey, let’s skip to this song, because I feel like they would vibe that or this song. Yeah, I don’t know. We have stuff built into our set to where we can tweak on the fly and call an audible and be like, oh dude, what about this song? We should, let’s pop this one in there. I think they’d love it or, yeah.

Buzz Knight:

And there’s enough of a camaraderie, obviously, with your band and the whole close-knit nature that everybody can kind of read the signs, right?

Russell Dickerson:

Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

Buzz Knight:

How much fun is it, though, being out there?

Russell Dickerson:

Oh, I love it. That’s my favorite part about it. Just especially now having, well, even with Tim McGraw, we had a 50-minute set, and this was the first time ever in my career that I was able to play a majority of my set was hits. That’s the first time that’s ever happened for me. And it’s just a whole different ballgame now to go out there and start off with Home Suite, and then go straight into Every Little Thing, and then play a couple songs, and then, boom, Yours, and then Love You Like I Used To, Blue Tacoma, She Likes It. It was this new experience for me as a performer to have a majority of my set songs that people knew because for so long nobody knew anything. Like I said, it’s like you just had to keep going and teach it to them or just play it and hope they like it. But yeah, that was an amazing experience with Tim McGraw, that people knowing all the songs.

Buzz Knight:

Do you remember your first performance in concert?

Russell Dickerson:

The first one, full band I think that I remember was playing my hometown’s county fair. I think that was the first time. I got a bunch of my buddies together, we hopped in my aunt’s RV, we drove three hours. We piled everybody in, the family, everybody. And…

Buzz Knight:

How many people did you fit?

Russell Dickerson:

Oh gosh. I mean, probably at least 12. There was like six people in the band, and we just played the county fair. And I had three, four songs at the time, so we played a bunch of covers and all that stuff. And that was the first Russell Dickerson show, I think. Nobody would book me, obviously, but I knew people in my hometown that would let me play the fair.

Buzz Knight:

Did you ever have doubts early on?

Russell Dickerson:

No, not really. It was never like, is this ever going to happen? It was just like, when? How long? Especially further down the road before 2014, 15, even 16, when we’ve been grinding, we’ve been grinding and grinding, and when is it going to pop? What’s the tipping point? And you just got to keep writing, keep playing, keep hustling, and then we had Yours come out, and then it all changed from there.

Buzz Knight:

But as a man of great faith, if there’s low moments, you call upon faith, right?

Russell Dickerson:

Absolutely. Yeah. Got to have faith in something greater than yourself. Faith in God and faith in yourself and that’s what I think kept me going this whole time.

Buzz Knight:

Well, let’s talk about a difficult time, the years of, as we would call it, the pandemic years. How difficult was that as a creative artist?

Russell Dickerson:

Yeah, I think it came at, for me personally, it came at such a, there’s two ways to look at it. As I’m on the rise, as I’m coming up and coming up, it’s like, boom, shut down. But also, I think I needed it so bad because this was, I mean, we started probably 2013, 14 touring all the time. And so this is year seven. Year seven of just grind. And I didn’t realize how much I needed that just to not be touring four days a week and be home and just enough to do laundry. And it really gave me time to think and reflect and prepare and kind of catch my breath with this new album, honestly. I feel like this is the first album where I really go back in time and dig up old memories from high school and college and all that stuff. So it really did give me time to reflect. And I mean, my wife was pregnant all of 2020. We had our son in September, and it was just such a perfect time to be home and be there together and just prepare for parenthood.

Buzz Knight:

Yeah, my sense is creatively, you really used it during that time to your advantage.

Russell Dickerson:

Yeah. Honestly, I was finishing up Southern Symphony, my second album. That was, everything was already recorded, so we were just mixing and mastering. So that was the first part of the pandemic. And then after that, man, I just really tried to, I mean, yes, I did get stir crazy because we couldn’t perform, and it was frustrating, but I knew, I kept telling myself, I’m like, dude, you’re going to wish you had this time off it come 2021, 22. And I do. I miss, I would love a week off right now. I would love that. And so yeah, it really was a time to just accept the fact that no one can tour, no one can play, and just make the best of it and really kind of hibernate and just store up for the years to come.

Buzz Knight:

So walk me through the songwriting process. You had a lot of great collaborators on, well, all your releases, but this one in particular, one that I noted was Lori McKenna.

Russell Dickerson:

Oh yeah.

Buzz Knight:

Right. So…

Russell Dickerson:

Legend.

Buzz Knight:

So walk me through a typical day and the songwriting process with somebody like a Lori McKenna. What does that look like?

Russell Dickerson:

Yeah, I mean, honestly, it’s so different. It’s so varying. With Lori, she lives in, I think she lives in Connecticut. She lives somewhere up northeast. Boston?

Buzz Knight:

She, I know had a Boston area…

Russell Dickerson:

Okay. Boston, Boston yeah.

Buzz Knight:

For a while, yeah.

Russell Dickerson:

Yeah. So it was me and Casey, my producer, and we were at his house and she Zoomed in and first time ever writing with Lori, super excited, kind of nervous. And I’m a connection person, so it’s like I never really got down with the Zoom rights and everything and I need to be in person. But she’s just so calming and so easygoing and know, all right, let’s go. Let’s get this song, whatever. She was just down with the process, and I don’t know who had the song title, but we just started playing.

I started playing this progression on the guitar, and somebody had, maybe it was Casey had the title idea, and I just, that’s just when I feel like I kind of, if I catch onto a song idea, I can sing a chorus just down, hopefully with something worth saving. And yeah, we just started building thinking about all the little cute things that my wife does and the things that make me smile and that I love about her. And we just built this song, obviously from nothing, and I was like, wow. After the ride, I was like, wow, she really is Lori McKenna. She is, she’s just that good. And it was so easy. And…

Buzz Knight:

And which song was that?

Russell Dickerson:

Just Like Your Mama?

Buzz Knight:

Yeah.

Russell Dickerson:

The last one on the album.

Buzz Knight:

Yeah. Yeah.

Russell Dickerson:

Yeah.

Buzz Knight:

And do you think you’ll collaborate with her again?

Russell Dickerson:

Absolutely.

Buzz Knight:

Yeah.

Russell Dickerson:

Yeah.

Buzz Knight:

What is it about this Nashville community that is so tight-knit and collaborative and welcoming? What makes it so special?

Russell Dickerson:

I just think how real everybody is. Other places, they’re so self-seeking and I think Nashville is just like, yeah, we’re songwriters. We’re in the business of this, that’s not the ultimate achievement in life. Kids and family and marriage and faith, and all of this stuff comes into play. And I just feel like people in Nashville have realized that a number one hit is not the end all be all to happiness. It’s like having a grounded life, having community around you. And I just think there’s a lot of humility in this community that is appreciated and practiced.

Buzz Knight:

So there’s a regular listener of this podcast, and that is at the favorite Italian restaurant in my hometown called Fiorellas, her name’s Sheridan.

Russell Dickerson:

Sheridan, yes.

Buzz Knight:

And Sheridan’s a fan.

Russell Dickerson:

Come on.

Buzz Knight:

In particular, She Likes It.

Russell Dickerson:

Yeah.

Buzz Knight:

Loves that. So Sheridan got a shout-out.

Russell Dickerson:

Shout-out. I love it.

Buzz Knight:

She’s going to be pretty thrilled. So tell me about that song and sort of the collaboration on that one.

Russell Dickerson:

Yeah. So I met Jake through Josh Kerr, who produced a third of this record, and he posted a song that Jake, him and Jake wrote. I was like, dude, this is so good. We got to write. And he came to town once, we wrote great song, came back again, and the second song we wrote ever together was She Likes It. And it was just so easy and fun, obviously just like the song. And when we were done, so my studio is just down the hill from our house, and we go back up to the house and my wife never listens to music over the speakers, and she’s cooking dinner, and we walk in and she’s playing John Denver on the speakers right after we wrote this song talking about playing John Denver on the speakers. I was like, what is happening? This is not real. And so that was just a fun kind of confirmation of, hey, this song might be something. And that was just like, yeah.

Buzz Knight:

Wow. What a moment.

Russell Dickerson:

Yeah.

Buzz Knight:

Holy smokes.

Russell Dickerson:

Yeah. Crazy.

Buzz Knight:

That is outrageous.

Russell Dickerson:

Yeah.

Buzz Knight:

Why is music so special? Why is music such a unifying special force in our life?

Russell Dickerson:

Oh, Jesus.

Buzz Knight:

Can you get to the bottom of this? Because I can’t.

Russell Dickerson:

I mean, I don’t know, man. I feel like music is the only thing. Music and film I think are probably the only two consumable things that can give you the chill bumps and tears, and there’s some sort of vulnerable storytelling aspect, I think with music that just can touch your soul that any other form of media can. I don’t know.

Buzz Knight:

I think that’s pretty right on.

Russell Dickerson:

It’s a deep question.

Buzz Knight:

Yeah. Well, I mean, I often think where would we be without it? I mean, as beings on this earth for as long as we’ve been here, it moves us. It shakes us.

Russell Dickerson:

I think, yeah, I think it’s just inside of every human. If you even go back to cave days, they were making drums and they were making music back then. It’s something that has to come out of us. And as an artist, so many guys have come up to me and like, “dude, Yours is exactly what I want to say to my wife, but I didn’t know the words to say.” And there’s just something inside of them that is let out through the music that I created.

Buzz Knight:

What would you have done if you weren’t a musician?

Russell Dickerson:

Probably be a sommelier. I love wine. That, or just like a serial entrepreneur.

Buzz Knight:

You didn’t flinch when you said the sommelier. So…

Russell Dickerson:

Yeah. I’d do something with wine.

Buzz Knight:

You would?

Russell Dickerson:

Or be a wine maker or a, that’d be amazing. Just live in Napa Valley, run a farm, make some wine, have a black lab with me all the time running through the vineyard. Sounds like the life, dude.

Buzz Knight:

It’s quite a scene.

Russell Dickerson:

Yeah.

Buzz Knight:

Right. Top three John Denver songs of all time.

Russell Dickerson:

Oh.

Buzz Knight:

You don’t have to rank them just…

Russell Dickerson:

Well, dude, I will. Annie’s Song number one. That’s one of the best songs ever. Then I’ll go…Two is tough. Sunshine On My Shoulder. Maybe.

Buzz Knight:

Not a bad one.

Russell Dickerson:

I’m just thinking of the ones that give me the most feels. That one and then Leaving On a Jet Plane. Probably be my top three.

Buzz Knight:

All right.

Russell Dickerson:

Yeah.

Buzz Knight:

I mean, they’re all, it’s hard to…

Russell Dickerson:

[inaudible 00:22:07] yeah. Country Roads wasn’t even in there.

Buzz Knight:

I know. You could do five.

Russell Dickerson:

Yeah. Country Road. And then, did I say Rocky Mountain High yet?

Buzz Knight:

No.

Russell Dickerson:

That’s it. Top five. Boom.

Buzz Knight:

Russell Dickerson, thanks for being…

Russell Dickerson:

Absolutely, man.

Buzz Knight:

Takin’ a Walk.

Russell Dickerson:

Thank you for having me.

Buzz Knight:

Thank you.

Russell Dickerson:

Yes.

Buzz Knight:

Thank you.

Speaker 3:

Taking a walk with Buzz Knight is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Buzz Knight is an established media executive with a long history of content creation and multi-platform distribution.

After a successful career as a Radio Executive, he formed Buzz Knight Media which focuses on strategic guidance and the development of new original content.