On the heels of his three-week #1 smash “Yeah,” multi-platinum selling RED BOW RECORDS artist Joe Nichols celebrated another career milestone when “Yeah” became the second consecutive RIAA GOLD CERTIFIED hit off his latest album, CRICKETS, for RED BOW.
Additionally, “Yeah” remains TOP 10 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart.
Since the release of CRICKETS last year, Nichols has already added two consecutive #1 GOLD CERTIFIED singles to his repertoire of six #1 records, eight TOP 10 singles and multiple PLATINUM and GOLD CERTIFIED albums, proving an undeniable resurgence to the top of the country charts upon signing as the flagship artist for RED BOW RECORDS.
Nichols has spent the last several months performing his collection of hits for over 350,000 fans across the US and Canada on his own headlining dates, as well as joining Lady Antebellum on the 2014 TAKE ME DOWNTOWN Tour.
Nichols recently shared the inspiration behind two of his fan favorite cover songs from his live show with Rolling Stone Country – an unpredictable, “countrified” rendition of “Baby Got Back” by 90’s rapper Sir Mix-A-Lot — and “Footlights” by Merle Haggard, a tune he has been performing for decades and even featured as a track on his latest album.
“It started with just me playing a joke on my band… I think it was at Stagecoach,” Nichols tells Rolling Stone Country in part two of a three-part series on the star. “I would kick off another song and then go into [singing in a slow, southern drawl], ‘I like big butts and I cannot lie…’ But the band just joined right in, so the joke was on me! So we kept playing it, and the crowd went nuts.”
While Nichols has delivered a fresh sound to his fans with CRICKETS, he remains true to his title of one of the most traditional voices in country music today.
“One of my greatest memories of my dad was him explaining music like ‘Footlights’ to me and why it was a special song,” Nichols reminisces to Rolling Stone Country. “Later on, as an artist, I started appreciating what the song was telling me. And performing it, I started appreciating when a song makes people feel exactly what you’re feeling.”
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