Tucker Wetmore got an early jump on the country music charts long before his first EP dropped. As “Waves on a Sunset,” makes its debut on Oct. 4, Wetmore already two songs account for more than a combined 200 million streams. And with more hits blowing up the charts, he says this just the beginning.
Arguably the only thing faster than the 24-year-old’s unconventional ascent to becoming one of country music’s hottest new artists may be Wetmore’s 40-yard-dash time in high school. Before lighting up country music was even a thought, Wetmore was lighting up defenses as an all-state wide receiver, as well as a record-setting track and field state medalist. At Washington’s Kalama High School, Wetmore ran a blistering 4.47 40—a time on par with many NFL receivers.
And although there still may be a gap between touchdowns and top streaming hits, Wetmore’s music accolades are closing in on his state championship season. “I think my high school [highlight] reel still has it beat,” he admits, “but just by a little bit.”
It’s only been a handful of years since Tucker Wetmore gave up the gridiron for the guitar, which makes his success the more impressive. His initial breakout hit, “Wind Up Missin’ You” has generated nearly 175 million streams on Spotify since its release in early 2024.
Wetmore then followed it up with Wine and Whiskey, which now has over 75 million streams on Spotify. For Wetmore, who was a People’s Choice Country Award nominee for best new artist, it’s been a winning strategy of talent and an aggressively inventive TikTok campaign that’s helped accelerate his success.
“It’s by the grace of God and the power of social media,” Wetmore says. “I’m thankful and blessed to be able to say I kind of caught my break on a couple of social media things. The songs have to be there, obviously—not everything blows up. But [75 million] is a lot of people].”
Admittedly, behind Wetmore’s success has been long hours of dedicated songwriting, recording, even social media work in front of the camera. The occupations may differ, but the grind mentality in music is similar to what helped him become an elite athlete. His biggest hurdle now, however isn’t getting over the hurdle cleanly as he did throughout high school. These days, it’s about squeezing in the important wellness time as his nationwide Waves on a Sunset tour is in full swing.
From a strictly aesthetic point of view, he’s far from unfit—head to his social media for a glimpse. But the shift in schedules and priorities means a difference between being in performer shape and being built for performance. At age 24, it’s too early to call it quits on the latter.
“I actually had a huge talk with some of my people pretty recently. I was like, hey, I need to, I need to start getting back into it, you know, getting back into my fitness and because I truly love that, and that’s like a huge part of who I am.”
Tucker Wetmore Burned Defenses Before Burning Up the Charts
When comparing playlists to playbooks, Wetmore possesses a similar trait in both: versatility. His modern-country style allows his range to effortlessly go from heartfelt rejection ballads such as “Wine and Whiskey” or “What Would You Do” to the romantically upbeat “Silverado Blue,” Wetmore has the artistic agility can to either slow down or speed up the tempo for his fans.
Athletically, Wetmore was equally adaptable. As a senior in 2018, he was named both first-team All-Conference and All-State at wide receiver. Scoring 22 touchdowns that season, Wetmore was also named All-League Offensive MVP and Offensive Player of the Year. Defensively, he was both All-League at defensive back and punter for Kalama, which won Washington’s Class 2B state championship in 2018. In track and field he was a two-time bronze medalist in the state in pole vault.
His extensive highlight reel is long enough to fill a solid mini-doc, but one play from that championship season he says may have come straight out of the ‘90s cult classic Varsity Blues. Sensing a matchup mismatch, Wetmore says he decided to call an on-field audible, shifting from the slot to the outside—despite his coach’s vociferous objections.
Wetmore says he playfully grinned to the sidelines—before flipping the bird to his coach. His play worked: Wetmore scored, the Chinooks won and earned a state championship. He says his close relationship with Coach Sean McDonald got him off the hook for his unsportsmanlike conduct.
“He was like, ‘Wetmore, what the [expletive] are you doing—get inside,” Wetmore recalls. “After the touchdown, he yelled, ‘Wetmore, I love you.”
Tucker Wetmore didn’t always earn gold, a hurdle mishap cost him a regional gold medal in track and field. “I don’t want to talk about it, but he deserved it,” he says smiling. “In my head, I was thinking, ‘You got to clear this, instead of running like I normally would. So I jumped a little too high and then couldn’t catch up at the end.”
He was still good enough to earn a spot on the Montana Tech football team, where he was originally recruited as a defensive back before being moved back to wide receiver. ”I was like, Thank God. I wanted to be on offense so bad.”
Wetmore admits to not being having the strongest upper body: “I think my best bench was 265,” he says. Instead he relied on quick speed and exceptional lateral movement. It’s a noticeable trait that can be witnessed with each cutback on touchdowns, kick returns, and interception runbacks. He attributes that to not just God-given athleticism, but through heavy training in the weightroom and field through both high school and college.
“I had to work for it,” he says. “We did lots of cardio, especially during college. We’d wake up at 4:30 in the morning and go to the workout. They’d split it up so defense would be lifting first, and offense would be doing cardio first. Then after an hour and a half we’d switch. I remember we’d do cardio in the gym, because it was really cold in Montana. There would be two and a half, three feet of snow on the ground.”
Regaining Game Shape in Order to Stay Show Ready
There was a time when outrunning opposing DBs or even setting records in the pole vault—in 2018, he set the state record with a 15’5’’ vault—topped Wetmore’s goal list. His athleticism was so wide-ranging throughout high school that he says he was also recruited as a track decathlete despite his limited experience. “I’ve done one decathlon, and I loved it,” he says. “It was so much fun, but it was probably one of the most taxing things my body’s ever gone through.”
Now, just over five years since dazzling fans with his athletic skills, the “Steal My Thunder” singer’s is looking to re-establish himself physically. Because he no longer competes athletically, his training intensity has decreased. He says he can sometimes feel this onstage during a performance. The athletic artist says he can become uncharacteristically winded after belting out vocals. “I’ll have to catch my breath, he admits, “but by Song 3, I’ll be good.”
The abs are still popping on his 6’1’, 180-pound frame. Wetmore’s goal now is to go all in when it comes to getting back into game shape. “I haven’t totally fallen off the wagon. I’m still fit, I’m just not up to my standard.
He still gets his workouts in. But these days his schedule and location determines whether it’s hitting a local gym or making the best of a limited hotel. When neither of those are an option, his fallback plan is to run a few fade routes at a local field or even parking lot outside the venue.
“We’ll carry a football on the bus,” he says. “We’ll throw the ball around and run routes and do a little workout.”
Wetmore is becoming more in tune with the diet side of his fitness. In Nashville, he can carve up a few steaks and with the help of a little extra spice, throw a barbecue for the boys. “People make cooking to be harder than it really is,” he says. When he gets the chance to head home to the northwest, the avid fisherman enjoys grilling up some trout or other fish.
However, finding a decent meal while traveling has become the latest twist in Wetmore’s quest to stay fit. He tries to keep the carbs down low during the day and maintain a healthy balance of protein. Now, when he’s in a pinch, he’ll pop down a few hard boiled eggs to hold him over.
“If you break down fitness into 100% 80% of it is diet and what you’re eating, and which is also really hard on the road,” he says. “Post show stuff is usually pizza or Buffalo Wild Wings, stuff like that. It’s hard, but I’m starting to manage.”
For Tucker Wetmore, Mother Knows Best
Tucker Wetmore’s successful entry into country music has been fast, to say the least. It’s so rapid that it can be hard to wrap your head around the notion that music was an afterthought in just 2019.
At that time football dreams were still at warp speed while Wetmore was freshman at Montana Tech. One play changed his career trajectory—Wetmore broke his right ankle during practice. It was his third major leg injury—it also became his final play in a football uniform.
The injury forced him to quit football, which led to dropping out of college. He returned to Washington broken both physically and mentally. It was then, without any plan of attack, he turned to his mother for advice for increasing his mental strength during this career crossroads.
“I sat her down, because we’re really tight, and we talked about everything,” he says. “It was like, ‘Mom, I’m struggling really bad right now. I don’t know what my purpose is.’
Her advice: pick up the guitar or sit in front of the piano and get to work.
“I wrote my first song that night on a whim, and then I didn’t look back,” he says. “I kind of just started writing every day by myself. And then, nine months later, I was like, Mom, I really want to do this. She goes, ‘You should go do it.’ And then, I was heading to Nashville.”
Before heading south, Wetmore got his first performance—and taste for show biz—when he was invited by a local Washington radio station to show his stuff. ‘I was like, Let’s do it.’ That was about three or four years ago. And I became hooked.”
Wetmore’s biggest confidence boost, he says, from what he calls a “writer’s round,” in which songwriters showcase their works in small settings. As he explains, when he performed “Wine Into Whiskey for the first time, the small space turned into standing room only, with new fans packed the venue wanting to get a listen of Wetmore.
“I think that was the moment where I was like, This is real. I can do this It was a really cool moment.”
Since then, life hasn’t slowed for Wetmore. He parlayed that moment into a string of TikTok success. By dropping snippets of both hits on the platform, Wetmore generated millions of hits and even more intrigue. His advice in similar situations: Whatever your goal, put in the work.
“Just show up, no matter how much you don’t want to, no matter whatever outside noise is going on in your life,” he says. “If all your eggs in that basket, that basket deserves all the attention. Show up and do it to you best capability. Even if you sometimes have to fake a smile.”
With his sold-out tour in full swing—and a tour with Thomas Rhett already set for 2025—Tucker Wetmore is all set to keep the musical momentum moving forward, while also rebuilding the muscle that made him all-state.
“I’m just getting started, and that’s the way I’m looking at it,” he says. “It’s just grind, grind, grind. And I will not stop grinding until I’m bleeding or I’m dead.”