Tucker Wetmore is still a little astonished by his success.
Since bursting onto the country music scene last year, the 25-year-old from Kalama, Wash., has amassed 1.3 million followers on TikTok and 573,000 on Instagram, hit the top of the charts with his single “Wind Up Missin’ You” — which was just certified double platinum — toured across the U.S. as well as overseas, and secured a nomination for New Male Artist at the Academy of Country Music Awards slated for May 8.
And on Friday, Wetmore will release his first full-length album, “What Not To,” which will feature his other platinum single, “Wine Into Whiskey,” as well as his most recent drops, “3, 2, 1” and “Casino.”
“I still wake up every day, mind blown that I’m doing the things that I’m doing,” he said. “I woke up today and I get to do what I love, and I’m gonna wake up tomorrow — hopefully, God willing — and do what I love. I’m very blessed.”
But music wasn’t always his chosen path. Although he grew up surrounded by all types of music, from gospel and reggae to soft rock, and learned to play the piano, guitar and trumpet, it was sports that called his name — especially football. But after blowing out his left knee twice followed by his right playing ball in college in Montana, it was time to reassess.
“I remember sitting on the field right after the last one happened and that was my sign. I knew I needed to move back home. I didn’t know what I was going to do and, if I’m being honest, I was pretty lost.”
But that was before his mother got involved. “I remember sitting my mom down and saying, ‘I don’t know what I’m doing with my life.’ She said, ‘When was the last time you sat in front of piano or picked up a guitar?’”
He wrote his first song that night, which opened the floodgates and led him on the road to Music City. “It was terrible, but I was hooked,” he said.
“I moved to Nashville in 2020 without knowing anybody,” he continued. “I signed a publishing deal in 2022 and then I wrote pretty much every day for three years, sometimes two or three songs a day. We finally got to a spot where we said, ‘Let’s start teasing some stuff.’ And then ‘Wine Into Whiskey’ happened. It took off on social media and right after that, ‘Wind Up Missin’ You’ came out and that blew up even more than ‘Wine.’”
He signed his record deal with UMG Nashville and Back Blocks Music last May, and he was on his way.
He released an EP last October, “Waves on a Sunset,” that featured both hit songs as well as six others. The work was designed to whet the appetite of his fans and support his tour.
“I had two or three songs out and we sold out an entire headline tour,” he said. “But we needed songs to create a set. You can’t just play three songs and leave.”
The cover of Tucker Wetmore’s “What Not To” album.
Courtesy of Tucker Wetmore
“What Not To” features 19 songs, including the two hits, as well as a couple of others from the EP. Wetmore said he was actually hoping to release a full-length album last year, but admitted: “It just wasn’t ready — and I wasn’t ready. There was still a lot of developing that had to happen before the album came out, so I’m pretty happy we waited.”
Although the album is lengthy for a debut work, Wetmore believes every cut is necessary to tell a complete story. “It was initially supposed to be fewer songs, but we had a pile of around 100 songs — I’ve been writing every day for the last four years of my life. But once we really narrowed it down to what I wanted to say and the overall theme, it kind of got easy. It just happened to be 19, but I feel like that’s the perfect amount for what I’m trying to accomplish.”
He said the 19 cuts will allow his fans an inside glimpse at his life. “This is my chance to scratch the surface of telling my story,” he said.
That story involves a lot of whiskey — the spirit is mentioned in nearly every track — as well as his penchant for blonds and his fondness for casinos. But the most personal song is the title track, 1which is about a guy who has met the girl of his dreams and is hoping for the house with the white picket fence and a yard full of kids. But he’s scared. As the lyrics say: “The thing I want is what I never had…what if I wind up being exactly what you were? When it gets hard, how do I not leave? How do I do ‘em better than you did me? I gotta admit I don’t know what to do, but thanks to you, I know what not to.”
“I was kind of hesitant to make the title of the album because it’s a very deep song,” he said. “It’s talking about the things that I don’t really talk about often, but that’s why I write songs, so I don’t really have to talk about them. What that song is saying is it’s like learning from doing the wrong things, or seeing other people do the things that they shouldn’t. I feel like life is just living and learning, and we’re all just doing that every single day. That’s pretty much what this album is talking about — my experiences and how I’ve grown from them. My intention was to create an album that meant something more than just a bunch of songs.”
That may be one reason he received the ACM nod, which is also a mindblower for him. “That’s such an honor,” he said. “Not to just attend the ACMs, but to be recognized by your peers and the people in the community that you look up to. In the last six months, I’ve really felt the love of Nashville that everybody always talked about. Nashville’s just family. No matter what happens that night, I’m just going to sit there with the biggest smile on my face.”
Tucker Wetmore wore a Todd Snyder suit at the CMA Awards last fall.
Getty Images for WME
And he’ll also get the chance to showcase his style. He wore a Todd Snyder suit to the Country Music Association Awards last year and was wearing the designer’s sweater with brown Wrangler jeans, Tony Lama caiman boots and an Embry Outdoors ball cap during his New York visit. He said he will be working with Embry on a special hat collection later this year. “I like the stories that hats tell,” he said.
For more formal occasions, he’ll wear a cowboy hat but if he’s not walking a red carpet, he pretty much lives in Wranglers, “and I probably have 45 pairs of boots,” he said. “But if you were to ask me my preference, I’d rather be walking around barefoot.”