Russell Dickerson is wrapping up 2025 by performing on Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest. Dickerson joins other notable artists, including Maren Morris, Chance the Rapper, 50 Cent, Tucker Wetmore, Demi Lovato, Jordan Davis, and more, in celebrating ringing in 2026. But for Dickerson, the ability to perform as part of the star-studded show is personal.
“I think my favorite experience of 2025, of the touring aspect, the shows, was New York City,” Dickerson reflects. “It was Pier 17. We have this song called ‘What A Life,’ and it’s self-explanatory. What a life. And there’s a picture of me from the Statue of Liberty, when I was like seven years old, on the video wall. And I look over the crowd, and there’s the Statue of Liberty, over this sold-out crowd. I legitimately just started weeping. Something in me broke. It was like, we worked so hard and so hard to get to where we are, and now it’s like, it’s starting to happen.”
The father of two lives his life full-speed ahead, which he plans to continue for his New Year’s Eve performance.
“I would describe my New Year’s energy as gusto. So I try to live my life with gusto. To be here on New Year’s Rockin’ Eve, I’m telling you is a dream come true. Bucket list. To cap it all off with the biggest New Year’s Eve celebration of all time in 2025, it will be, after we’re done with it.”
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Russell Dickerson’s Recent No. 1 Single, “Happen to Me”
Dickerson recently celebrated his sixth No. 1 single, with “Happen to Me.” The song, on Dickerson’s Famous Back Home album, is written by Dickerson, along with Chris LaCorte, Jessie Jo Dillon, and Chase McGill. Dickerson also credits Robert Hazard as writer, since he wrote Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun,” which inspired “Happen to Me.”
When Dickerson released “Happen to Me,” he wasn’t sure what his future in country music looked like. After the success of his 2022 “God Gave Me A Girl” single, he didn’t have a hit in 2023, with his 2024 “Bones” single barely cracking the Top 40.
“It’s just been cool, and a relief as well,” Dickerson concedes to American Songwriter. “I was about to quit. I was about to give up. That has really been wind in our sails.”
The 38-year-old acknowledges that he was making peace that his career might have already peaked before “Happen to Me” made its ascent up the charts.
“There were times, even right up until ‘Happen To Me,’ of, ‘Is this as big as it’s going to get?’ and ‘Am I okay with that?’” Dickerson recalls. “[I was] coming to terms with it, kind of wrestling with God a little bit. I was like, ‘Come on! I know the dreams that you’ve given me. I see them… We’re years and years in now.’”
Now, Dickerson is back at radio with “Worth Your Wild,” and eager to embrace 2026.
“I feel like the two words that God gave me this year were easy and fun,” Dickerson says. “It’s been nothing but that, finally, because, for a long time, it was neither of those.”
See the complete lineup for Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest here. The show will air live on ABC beginning at 8:00 PM ET, and stream the next day on Hulu.
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