Chuck Wicks

Chuck Wicks, destined for country stardom, passed his childhood on his family's potato farm in Smyrna, Delaware. While attending college he gradually recognized his own musical gifts, and once he finished his degree he relocated to Nashville in 2002 to chase a career writing songs. He soon averaged nearly one hundred compositions per year, and one of them reached the ears of RCA executives.

The ballad “Stealing Cinderella,” which recounts a suitor asking permission to marry, became his debut single after the label pushed it to radio in summer 2007. That September he joined the short-lived Fox reality series Nashville, which was pulled after only two episodes; the abrupt cancellation freed him to concentrate on promoting the single and making his first appearance at the Grand Ole Opry. By late autumn the song had become a wedding staple for father-daughter dances and had climbed into the country Top 10.

It also anchored Starting Now, Wicks’ first album. Released in early 2008, the project bowed at number 24 on the Billboard 200 and yielded two further country-charting tracks: “All I Ever Wanted,” which peaked at 14, and “Man of the House,” which reached 27.

During 2010 he offered the singles “Hold That Thought” and “Old School,” which stalled at numbers 42 and 43. Both were meant to preview a second RCA album that was ultimately shelved, prompting Wicks to step back and focus on behind-the-scenes writing. His strongest placement in that period was “I Don’t Do Lonely Well,” recorded by Jason Aldean on the 2012 album Night Train.

He re-emerged as a recording artist with the independently released EP Rough in spring 2013. By year’s end he had signed with Blaster Records. Over the next two years he issued five singles, the most successful being “Us Again,” which climbed to number 36 after its early-2014 release and paved the way for the full-length Turning Point in spring 2016.