“We’ve never both been surprised at the same time.”
Russell Dickerson said it in a video he and his wife, Kailey, shared on Instagram this week. They were about to learn whether baby No. 3 is a boy or a girl, and for once, neither of them knew the answer.
Russell is the Tennessee singer behind No. 1 hits like “Yours,” “Blue Tacoma” and “Happen to Me.” He grew up in Union City, Tenn., and met Kailey when they were both students at Belmont University in Nashville. They married on May 5, 2013.
Kailey has been part of his music from the start. “Yours” was his love song for her, written after the wedding. “I wish I had it to sing at our wedding,” he told The Boot in 2017. When labels kept passing on him, the two made a music video on their own. Kailey, a videographer, filmed him from the back of his SUV as he walked down a road, and The Boot reported they spent about $6, the cost of the gas. “It was this God moment, totally,” Russell told Fox News in 2019.
The “Yours” video Kailey filmed from the back of his SUV
The song went on to become his first No. 1. Then came the boys. Remington Edward was born on Sept. 10, 2020. Radford Arthur followed on Oct. 1, 2023. When Rad arrived, their announcement said, “Rem is obsessed with being a super big brother!”
Boys were nothing new for Kailey. When they learned their first baby was a son, she wrote on Instagram, “As a girl raised with 5 older brothers, this is everything I ever wanted and more.” For that reveal, Russell opened the envelope alone in his car and surprised her at home.
This summer they shared a beach video with Kailey’s baby bump and the line “One more face in that hallway hall of fame.” Baby No. 3 was on the way.
This time, Russell wanted them on equal footing. “We’re about to find out the gender of the baby,” he says in the new video. Then he pitched his plan: “I think we should go, like, closed eyes and stand at the door.”
They walked in, counted down and opened their eyes at the very same moment. Taste of Country reported that both of their mouths dropped.
It’s a girl.
Country Rebel reported that the room on the other side of the door had been decorated in pink. Kailey could hardly believe it. “No, are you sure?” she asked, according to Taste of Country. Then she added, “What do we do with one of those?”
Russell tried to keep everybody calm. “I’m shooketh… everybody be cool… everything’s fine,” he said. Country Rebel caught one more line from him: “People have been raising girls for a millennia!”
Fans noticed the song at the end of the video, too. Country Rebel reported it closes with “God Gave Me a Girl,” Russell’s 2023 hit. He wrote it about Kailey, but it will be hard to hear it the same way now. Here he sings it live for Vevo.
Russell sings “God Gave Me a Girl” live
The couple hasn’t shared a due date or a name yet. Rem and Rad are about to be big brothers to a little sister, and their mom already knows that life well from the other side. She was the little sister to five of them.