Darius Rucker’s biggest hit just rolled past the billion mark. The country star’s cover of the Americana standard “Wagon Wheel” has surpassed a billion streams on Spotify, gaining it entry into the platform’s vaunted Billions Club. It’s Rucker’s first song to reach the billion-stream milestone.

“Wagon Wheel” came together over the course of decades. In 1973, Bob Dylan laid down the song’s melody and lyrics in a demo called “Rock Me, Mama” during the sessions for his album Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. Although the demo was never officially released, bootleg recordings proliferated, and the song became a cult favorite among fans of folk and country music.

One of those bootlegs made its way to the members of old-time Americana band Old Crow Medicine Show. The group’s Chris “Critter” Fuqua first picked up a recording of “Rock Me, Mama” during a family trip to London as a high school freshman. Back in Virginia, he introduced the song to his friend and bandmate Ketch Secor, who soon found himself miles away, attending prep school in New Hampshire. Longing for home, Secor added verses to Dylan’s chorus, telling the tale of a homesick southerner hitching his way from New England toward Raleigh to see his lover.

“Wagon Wheel” became a fixture of Old Crow Medicine Show’s setlists in the ‘90s and 2000s, and they officially released it on their 2004 album O.C.M.S. It’s been covered many times, including by Nathan Carter in 2012 and Nathan Evans a decade later. But no one’s had a bigger hit with it than Rucker, who released it as a single off his 2013 album True Believers.

Produced by Frank Rogers and featuring backing vocals from the group now known as Lady A, the Rucker version of “Wagon Wheel” climbed to No. 1 on the country charts and reached a career-best No. 15 on the Billboard Hot 100. In 2022, it became only the fourth country song ever to be certified Diamond by the RIAA.

Shop Darius Rucker’s True Believers here.