East Tennessee State University announced Darius Rucker as a special guest for Saturday’s college football game against West Carolina. Unfortunately, the country music star’s management team ruined his performance.
Buccaneers fans were severely disappointed with the actual on-field presentation compared to what they were promised.
ETSU is located in Johnson City, Tennessee. Rucker famously covered Old Crow Medicine Show’s hit song ‘Wagon Wheel.’
It has a direct reference to Johnson City.
Walkin’ to the south out of Roanoke
I caught a trucker out of Philly, had a nice long toke
But he’s a-headin’ west from the Cumberland Gap
To Johnson City, Tennessee
The Bucs started a new tradition during the 2024 college football season. They play ‘Wagon Wheel’ at the end of the third quarter, much like LSU with ‘Callin’ Baton Rouge’ and Alabama with ‘Dixieland Delight.’
Word got back to Rucker, who wanted to join in on the fun. He traveled over to ETSU on Saturday for what was seemingly announced as a full performance of ‘Wagon Wheel.’
Rucker, a three-time GRAMMY Award winner, will sing “Wagon Wheel” at the end of the third quarter on Saturday. Rucker won his third career GRAMMY Award for Best Solo Country Performance with his Diamond-certified (11x Platinum) version of “Wagon Wheel.”
— East Tennessee State University
More than 12,000 fans packed into William B. Greene, Jr. Stadium. They expected Rucker to play the song live on the field with a microphone and a guitar. That is what the announcement implied!
However, that is not quite what happened. Darius Rucker was there. He did technically “sing Wagon Wheel at the end of the third quarter” like the Bucs announced but it wasn’t really a performance.
The 58-year-old walked around at midfield while singing along to a pre-recorded track that played over the loudspeaker. He did not even have a microphone to pretend. Fans in the stands could not hear his vocals.
Naturally, the crowd was disappointed.
ETSU athletic director Dr. Richard Sander cleared things up in response to the backlash. Neither Rucker, nor the university is to blame for the frustrating sing-a-long!
I’d also like to clear up a little bit of the situation with Darius Rucker. First of all, there were so many lies, innuendos, mistruths that were put out on social media…
The reality of that is we did not pay Darius Rucker one cent. We didn’t pay for his expenses, we didn’t even give him a game ticket.
He came here because he had heard about us playing ‘Wagon Wheel’ after the third quarter. He wanted to be a part of it. He cares a great deal about this community. Thought he could come here and support the ETSU Bucs and northeast Tennessee. So he did it all on his own.
He let us know that he would participate in the third quarter situation. Initially to be perfectly honest, he thought he could sing ‘Wagon Wheel,’ but his management team called us and said that they didn’t want him to do that. So that’s kind of what happened…
I appreciate Darius Rucker being here… He was extremely gracious to everybody he came in contact with.
— Dr. Richard Sander
Credit to Darius Rucker. It actually sounds like he went above and beyond for the Buccaneers.
Unfortunately, his management team spoiled what could’ve been a really special moment.