How Russell Dickerson’s $6 Music Video Nearly Broke YouTube And Helped Catapult His Career

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If you’ve been to a wedding in the past five years, you’ve likely heard Russell Dickerson’s Yours bellowing out of the speakers while the mother of the bride sobs into a dry martini.

The song released in 2015, solidified Russell as a major player in the country space, and became the title of his 2017 album, which premiered at No. 1 on Billboard’s Heat Seeker chart.

The irony surrounding the song’s success is that its music video was created with an all-in budget of $6. Yes, six dollars. At the time of this writing Yours has nearly 60,000,000 views on YouTube. Yes, sixty million.

We spoke with the country star on our Endless Hustle about the Yours phenomenon and Russell taking things into his own hands after countless rejection.

“We had no label at the time. We had nothing. We were so broke. But we had a dream, by God!

So my wife and I were like, ‘Screw it, dude.’ Every record label had turned me down…We just went to this road and my wife shot out of the back of my SUV. We were just like, ‘Alright God, we need something crazy. Rain, storm, something.’

And I swear, the last take of the Yours video was the craziest rain, lightning. My wife was freaking out, in a good way. She was like, ‘Oh my God this is so sick, go do it again!’ And there’s like tornado sirens going off.

Our friends are calling us like, ‘Can we come to your basement because this shit is getting crazy right now. We need some place to hide!’

And I’m just out there like:

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I don’t think I’ve shot a more magical music video since.”

Check out our entire interview with Russell Dickerson below and go listen to his tune gatdamnit!

Matt Keohan Avatar
Matt’s love of writing was born during a sixth grade assembly when it was announced that his essay titled “Why Drugs Are Bad” had taken first prize in D.A.R.E.’s grade-wide contest. The anti-drug people gave him a $50 savings bond for his brave contribution to crime-fighting, and upon the bond’s maturity 10 years later, he used it to buy his very first bag of marijuana.