Darius Rucker’s “Wagon Wheel” is one of the most recognizable country songs of the 21st century. It earned him a Grammy, topped the country charts and helped solidify his solo career after Hootie & the Blowfish. But while Rucker’s version brought the song mainstream success, its roots trace back much further — to a half-finished tune by a guitar-strumming folk legend.
Though many fans know that the band Old Crow Medicine Show recorded the original version, the real origin of “Wagon Wheel” begins with an unfinished Bob Dylansong called “Rock Me, Mama.”
In 1973, Dylan was writing music for the soundtrack ofPat Garrett and Billy the Kid, a Western that also featured his hit “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.” While working on that project, Dylan recorded a rough sketch of a song with the refrain “Rock me, mama like a wagon wheel.” It was never completed or officially released — but the snippet survived.
“It’s on one of my old bootleg records,” Dylan once told journalist Bill Flanagan. “I recorded it with Roger McGuinn and Rita Coolidge and Booker T, at a movie studio in Hollywood. That’s where they got it, it just had a different title.”
That recording circulated among Dylan fans for years as part of unofficial bootlegs. The lyrics were mumbled and incomplete, but the melody and chorus were memorable enough to stick with a new generation of musicians.
Critter Fuqua, a founding member of the Old Crow Medicine Show, discovered the recording during a trip to London when he was in ninth grade.
“I let [bandmate] Ketch [Secor] listen to it, and he wrote the verses, because Bob kind of mumbles them and that was it,” Fuqua reportedly told a South Carolina newspaper. “We’ve been playing that song since we were, like, 17, and it’s funny, because we’ve never met Dylan, but the song is technically co-written by Bob Dylan.”
Ketch Secor penned the verses, keeping Dylan’s original chorus intact. When Old Crow Medicine Show officially released “Wagon Wheel" in 2004, Dylan was given co-writing credit, and royalties were split evenly.
Nearly a decade later, Rucker, then in the midst of his solo country music career, covered “Wagon Wheel" for his 2013 album True Believers. His rendition became a success, earning him a Grammy Award for best Country Solo Performance. Rucker’s cover also hit No. 1 on the Billboard Country Songs chart and reached No. 15 on the Billboard Hot 100.
This wasn’t the first time Rucker pulled inspiration from Dylan. Back in 1995, Hootie and the Blowfish’s hit single “Only Wanna Be With You” famously used several lines directly from Dylan’s 1974 song “Idiot Wind.” The track repeats about five lines word-for-word and even includes a lyric that says, “Ain’t Bobby so cool . . . Yeah, I’m tangled up in blue.”
It’s clear that Dylan’s influence has followed Rucker throughout his career — first as a source of inspiration, and later as a songwriting partner, even if indirectly.
Hence then, the article about folk legend s lost 1973 song made darius rucker a grammy winner was published today ( ) and is available on Parade ( Saudi Arabia ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Folk Legend's Lost 1973 Song Made Darius Rucker a Grammy Winner )
Also on site :
- Russian MOD shows map of Ukrainian drone attack on Putin’s residence
- Advantech Unveils Next-Generation Edge AI Compute Solutions Powered by Qualcomm Dragonwing IQ-X Series
- From collapse fears to resilience: How Russia reshaped its economy by the end of 2025