Darius Rucker has been putting the finishing touches on his upcoming third album for Capitol Records Nashville. He revealed on Friday night after his appearance at the Grand Ole Opry performance, that one of the new songs is “Wagon Wheel,” originally recorded by Old Crow Medicine Show. He was invited by the group to perform the song with them on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry.
On the tune, he enlisted the help of his tourmates Lady Antebellum to sing backup on the tune. “We cut it, and after we finished it, it was great,” says Darius. “And then so [producer] Frank [Rogers] and I were talking about what we’re gonna do, and I was like, ‘You know, I’m on tour with Lady A. Let’s see if they’ll sing on the backgrounds.’ And he was like, ‘Yeah, ask ‘em.’ And they loved the song and came in and did it, and that song went from being…I cut it to put it as the last song on my record, to end the record that way, and when they were done, I was like, ‘Man, it’ll probably be second, and [laughs] if it’s the first single, I’m OK with that too.’”
Audio / Darius Rucker talks about getting Lady Antebellum to sing on “Wagon Wheel,” a song appearing on his upcoming album.
DownloadDarius (Lady A Wagon Wheel) OC: …hear it. :31
“We cut it, and after we finished it, it was great. And then so Frank [Rogers] and I were talking about what we’re gonna do, and I was like, ‘You know, I’m on tour with Lady A. Let’s see if they’ll sing on the backgrounds.’ And he was like, ‘Yeah, ask ‘em.’ And they loved the song and came in and did it, and that song went from being…I cut it to put it as the last song on my record, to end the record that way, and when they were done, I was like, ‘Man, it’ll probably be second, and [laughs] if it’s the first single, I’m OK with that too.’ It was just so great…and it’s really great to get a song that’s so big in its own way, but there’s so many people out there that haven’t heard it, you know, that should hear it.”