The second single from “True Believers” was “Wagon Wheel,” a cover of a bluegrass song originally recorded by Old Crow Medicine Show. Rucker’s version spent two weeks at the top of the Country Airplay chart and its video is nearing 10 million views on YouTube. Darius Rucker follows Ray Charles and Charley Pride as only the third African American artist to top the Country chart.

In 2008, Rucker released his debut solo album “Learn To Live,” which brought him the Country Music Association’s Best New Artist Award. Last year, he was inducted into the iconic Grand Ole Opry. Although Nashville and Country radio have welcomed his sound, the 47-year-old singer feels he still has much more to prove.

“I think the first two records, especially the first record, I wanted people to know how much I love the music. And then the second record, [producer] Frank [Rogers] and I even said to each other, you know, ‘let’s just pick up where we left off of the first record.’ It wasn’t really trying to do anything new," Rucker said. "We had some more to say with that record - let’s pick up where we left off and write songs like that. Well this record, it was totally different. …I didn’t feel like I had rest on anything that I had done before. I couldn’t rest on the last two records even though they had been successes. I had to really go out and prove to everybody that we could make a great record.”