Who is Tucker Wetmore? The Story Behind His Journey to Country Music
Who is Tucker Wetmore? The singer-songwriter joined us to chat about his journey to country music. Get to know the rising star here…
Tucker Wetmore // Photo credit: Anna Schaeffer
Quick Facts:
Full Name -Tucker Payson Wetmore
Birthdate – 11/5/1999
Hometown – Kalama, Washington
Current City – Nashville, Tennessee
Musical Influences – David Allan Coe, Alan Jackson, Keith Urban
Label – Tucker Wetmore/Back Blocks Music
Current Single – “Wine Into Whiskey”
The Beginning:
This week’s spotlight artist is an artist that we really believe has all the qualities to make it far in music. With an impressive fanbase already established across social media, Tucker Wetmore is primed for stardom. While the singer-songwriter is still brand new to the music industry, his journey thus far is both impressive and exciting.
Wetmore grew up in Washington state, where he was surrounded by supportive friends and family. “Growing up was fun. I was in the middle of not nowhere, but nowhere, ya know. There wasn’t really much to do, so we just found stuff to do, and had fun doing it, if that makes sense. Luckily, I had a super solid friend group and family growing up, so just lots of time with them, making memories,” he shares. Adding “Growing up, my grandpa was a pastor, and he owned a church. […] Music was a huge part of just the church thing, and a huge part of growing up.”
The singer had access to all different types of music throughout his upbringing, including reggae and artists like 3 Doors Down. “Growing up, it was a lot of reggae, a lot of pacific-islander music. My dad and my uncle liked heavy metal […]. In the truck, we’d throw on country radio like Darius Rucker, Josh Turner, that whole era.”
At eleven years old, Wetmore sat at the piano for the first time. “Music kind of came into play when I was eleven. I started playing piano, and I didn’t really get up from it for a long time. I kind of used it as my therapy thing,” he shared. “I started teaching myself piano when I was eleven. I’m entirely self-taught. […] I picked up guitar shortly after that, too. Around sophomore year of high school however, I kind of put music down, and started focusing on sports.”
The Turning Point:
Despite loving music, Wetmore also loved football, and decided to attend college in Montana to play.
“I played a year of college ball in Montana, and I ended up breaking my leg for the third time. I said I should probably start taking care of my body a bit,” he shared, recalling the time he decided to quit football and ultimately leaving school.
“I dropped out of college, I had maybe 2 weeks left of my freshman year, and I just dropped out. I moved back home, got surgery, started working at a coffee shop, and I remember sitting my mom down about six months after I got home, and I said, “’Mom, I’m feeling super lost, I don’t know what I’m doing in my life.’” She said, “’well, why don’t you go sit down in front of the piano, that used to be your vice, your therapy, maybe that will strike something,’” so I wrote my first song that night after she told me that.”
With the support of his family, Wetmore reignited his passion for music. Six months after that initial conversation, he told his mom that he wanted to do music for a living. She encouraged him to go all in and to stay afloat.
With that advice in his pocket, the singer-songwriter made the move to Nashville in 2020, during the pandemic. “There wasn’t a lot of people out. My first year and a half was a lot of mingling and meeting people, and going out, and luckily, by the grace of God, I met my core friend group in the first two months,” shared the singer. “Then my manager and my publisher, Rakiyah [Marshall England], she hit me up probably a year and a half into living here. I had posted a couple of originals, just me playing on my guitar on Instagram and TikTok, and she happened to come by those, and she saw something in me, and went out on a limb.”
Today:
Since signing with Rakiyah’s management team, Wetmore has teased many songs on social media that fans are begging for him to release. Recently, the singer dropped his first official song called, “Wine Into Whiskey,” which he wrote with Jacob Hackworth and Justin Ebach.
“I remember sitting there throwing ideas around for 45 minutes to an hour and nothing was sticking,” Wetmore recalls of the day the three got together to write the track. “Then, Ebach pipes up and he says ‘I’m really sorry, but I’m just extremely hungover right now.’ Me and Jacob looked at each other and were like ‘thank god’, because we were too,” he continues. Adding, “We were just coming off my birthday weekend, and we all took a couple of minutes to laugh about that. Then finally, Ebach pipes up and he goes ‘Alright, I don’t know what this means, but wine into whiskey.’”
Eventually, the threesome began writing the song, which took them about 45 minutes total. “Wine Into Whiskey” depicts what it feels like from the guy’s perspective to break a girl’s heart. “I grew up with four sisters and a beautiful mother and seeing them go through relationships growing up was kind of my inspiration behind this song,” shared the singer. “I saw how they went through some things and some of the things that they went through weren’t right to me, so I kind of put it from the perspective of if the guy would have seen or known what he was doing wrong, maybe he wouldn’t of done it, kind of thing.”
“Wine Into Whiskey” is just the beginning for Wetmore. He has many songs coming down the pipeline, with “Wind Up Missin’ You” being his next release. Make sure to jump on the bandwagon ASAP, and catch the singer on tour with Kameron Marlowe this spring. Get your tickets here.
Connect:
Fans can join our Weekly Round-Up e-newsletter here, for the latest in country music and more news and announcements about future Tucker Wetmore releases.
To keep up with Tucker Wetmore, follow him on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok.
Tucker Wetmore’s music is available everywhere you buy or stream music. Take a listen below and check out more new recently released tunes on our ‘New Country Music’ playlist. Be sure to give the playlist a follow for your weekly new country music fix.
