Listen: Ketch Secor Says Bob Dylan Possibly Didn’t Write “Wagon Wheel”

Darius Rucker rocked Old Crow Medicine Show’s song “Wagon Wheel” from underground anthem to the near peak of pop culture. But Rucker didn’t write it. That accolade belongs to Old Crow Medicine Show’s Ketch Secor. Secor shares the co-writing credit with Bob Dylan. But Dylan’s involvement may be more of a question mark than previously understood.

Secor told beloved Nashville singer, songwriter, and musician Charlie Worsham on his podcast Mississippi on the Map that the song’s origin dates back more than 100 years.

The Old Crow singer remembers he was 17 years old, around 1994, when he heard Bob Dylan mumble through a song’s chorus that Secor described as “semi-intelligible.”

“It’s like, ‘Oh, that sounds like, “Rock me mama like a wagon wheel, rock me mama, like a southbound train.” That’s beautiful. I want to write the rest of that.’”

Secor finished the song, came to Nashville about three years later, and was preparing to publish it. Dylan, he said, “miraculously” agreed to split publishing with him 50/50. Then, Secor received an email from Dylan’s manager. Dylan didn’t write the song Secor heard years before that inspired him to write “Wagon Wheel.” According to the email, Dylan wanted Secor to know that he learned it from Arthur Crudup.

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Bob Dylan’s Manager Says Dylan Didn’t Write “Wagon Wheel”

Secor recounted the email: “Now, Bob says he agrees to publish it with you, but he wants you to know he didn’t write that song. In fact, he learned it from Arthur Crudup.”

Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup was an American Delta blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist best known for writing Elvis Presley’s “That’s All Right.” Like Worsham, Crudup was from Mississippi.

“The whole damn state of Mississippi, that’s where the talent pool is to invent rock and roll,” Secor said. “I go to check out where this guy, Arthur Big Boy Crudup, is from.”

Secor learns that while Crudup recorded “Rock Me Mama,” he didn’t write it. Crudup learned the song from Mississippi-born Big Bill Broonzy in Chicago in the 1920s. Broonzy, he said, was part of the Great Migration, where African Americans from the South moved to the North and West.

“So, back in the 1800s, he’s got this song, ‘Rock Me Mama something or other,’” Secor said. “And by the time it gets to me, I’m able to finish the song. It takes a 100-year gestation period. Imagine laying an egg, and it takes 100 years to crack open like that. That’s what makes that song so special, you know.”

Ketch Secor Traced “Wagon Wheel” to Big Bill Broonzy in the 1800s

Although Dylan said he didn’t write the song, he and Secor still share a writer credit and publishing on “Wagon Wheel.”

Old Crow Medicine Show released “Wagon Wheel in 2004. Rucker re-released the song in 2013 on his True Believers album. Lady A sang background vocals, and Rucker’s version of “Wagon Wheel” became one of the very few country songs the RIAA certified Diamond, which celebrates 10 million units consumed. In 2022, it was one of four Diamond tracks– the other songs being Florida Georgia Line’s “Cruise,” Chris Stapleton’s “Tennessee Whiskey,” and Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road.”

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