Mark Bryan grabbed his guitar and asked Rucker to jam in his room, leaving the door open.
Within minutes, they were drawing their first crowd.
It feels good to know that we canstill do it.
Darius Rucker is on tour with Hootie and the Blowfish — but he’s not sure he’ll do it again. “As an artist, sometimes you don’t want to go backwards,” he says.John Lamparski/Getty Images
It seems pretty core to what you do.Oh, yeah.
There was one point early on, in the mid-Eighties, where we probably did twelve R.E.M.
songs in our set.
And they said theyre never doing that again.
They really want to be the band that never does it again.
They were like, We went out where we wanted to go out.
I dont think anybody in R.E.M.
was worried about money.
If they never do it again, I wont be surprised.
Thats really interesting.I still have an obsession with that song.
Its one of the best songs Ive ever heard in my life.
I always say that Let Her Cry was me trying to write She Talks to Angels for Bonnie Raitt.
Every time we play it, I go, Thats what songwriting is all about.
It came from wanting to be the Black Crowes.
Were putting together a cool little project with Mike Mills from R.E.M.No kidding.
Do you see that as a supergroup?Everybody that hears it says its a supergroup.
So if thats what they want to call it, then call it that.
But were just a band.
We just, were friends and we just started.
We jammed together one day at Steves kids school with [Nashville session player] Tom Bukovac playing guitar.
We were just like, Lets go in the studio and see what happens.
And we went in the studio, and to be honest with you, magic happened.
And I just cant wait for the record to get out.
We got to finish everything up.
Will this project tour?Were going to play some shows.
I dont know when were going to get back in the studio and to finish it up.
If not the end of the year, early next year, hopefully.
And you said they put up with almost everything.
But Kiss was a bridge too far.
They just could not stand Kiss.I was a big Kiss fan.
Im still a big Kiss fan.
They just didnt get it.
They didnt get Detroit Rock City like I did, they did.
Theyve always been a great rock & roll band to me.
Three chords and youre out.
And I love that.
I love the lyrics.
I love everything about them.
So Blowfish took a really long break between albums and then put one out in 2019.
Any thoughts of another album by the band?Oh, no.
Nobody had a bunch of songs they were thinking about.
So it was like, we dont want to make an album just to make an album.
Maybe in the future, no time soon.
And whats going on with your next solo album?Oh, Im starting to write another solo record.
I dont have a timeline for it, but its coming.
So youre going to work with country artists in Europe?Yeah.
Youd be shocked at how big its getting over there.
So you know, Im actually playing the O2 Arena in October over there.
Its growing so much.
Its becoming such a thing.
I had specifically heard that about the U.K., actually.Yeah.
The U.K. has been getting big and also in the Scandinavian countries.
Doing stuff like that was awesome.
Nowadays, people want to get on TikTok, explode, and get a record deal.
By the time we had our record deal, we had honed what we were.
We had honed our craft.
The seven years we didnt have a record deal were so much fun.
Those are the days I miss.
I dont miss playing to 70,000 people in East Lansing, Michigan.
I miss playing to 500 people at the Mad Monk.
Those were the great days.
We were in our late twenties, and all this moneys coming in.
It had been a party since the club days.
Drinking heavy and doing what we do.
And we were out there, man.
You guys played the Grammys drunk?[Laughs.
]We were feeling pretty good that night.
We were nervous and just sitting around.
I dont miss it.
That was a different time.
That was a different time.
It wasnt just us.
It was the crew.
Everybody was out here doing it.
We bought in bulk what we could.
How do you guys have any serotonin left after that?I dont know.
Im sure theyre going to study my brain when Im dead.
Ill let them study my brain and tell you if I have any serotonin.
It was just, Im done.
And I was done.
I was done with the hard partying and I was done doing the hard drugs.
Is Darius OK?Yeah, a couple of friends called, Am I OK?
Yeah, Im OK.
It was something that I had in my car, which I shouldnt have in my car.
The police and everything, they were so great.
They treated me with so much respect.
But Im going to accept whatever I get and move on with my life.
It took 57 years before I ever saw the inside of a jail cell.
Its still not fun though, Im sure.No, its not.
It wasnt fun at all.
There wasnt any social media or anything back then.
The only time you saw us was onstage or on VH1.
And so no one knew, and it wasnt something we talked about.
Even writing the book, I had trepidations about telling the truth.
We are nice guys.
We didnt care about changing our image.
It was what it was.
Its still wild that David Crosby came in and sang harmony on Hold Your Hand.I still cant believe it.
Thats going to be important?
22 million records later, I guess it got important.
They had no promises about the record coming out or anything, and they didnt care.
Because we werent grunge.
We didnt have any edge.
And at that point, music was all about the edge.
It was all about grunge and all about that stuff.
How could that be flying over the statehouse?
Governor Haley basically took it down.
I dont know if she took it down wholeheartedly, but she did take it down.
Even Hold My Hand is about that.
It comes across as a song about peaceful love and hippie shit, but it was a protest song.
The country was so divided.
The idea was, we can get together.
Were better than this.Well rise above the mess.Exactly.
Theres that part of me that just believes Americas going to do whats right.
Every now and then, the country proves me wrong.
I always think were going to do whats right.
And the most important thing about a country is clinging to our faith in democracy.
You went into the world of country music with full knowledge of the pitfalls there.
And the success you had was against the odds.
How much was that on your mind?Yeah.
It was the music for me.
I just wanted to, I just wanted to sound like Radney Foster.
I never gone into these situations thinking that.
There werent any other Black faces in rock & roll at the time.
I love R&B.
Im not an R&B singer.
Im a country singer.
Im a rock & roll singer.
Thats the stuff that my voice fits and what I should be doing.
In country, I wasnt thinking this [level of] success.
Right now you have the Beyonce album breaking down barriers in country music.
And then theresMorgan Wallens continued success, which some people find problematic.
Firstly, I just make my records.
And when it comes to listening, I listen to all that stuff.
I love Morgans records.
I get why its so big.
I love Beyonces record.
I love, that new Shaboozey song.
But then I also love Jason Aldean.
I think his songs are great.
I love Luke Bryan.
I love Luke Combs.
I think hes amazing.
Do you feel that Morgan should be forgiven?
Do you have thoughts on that?Yeah, I do.
I think Morgans become a better person since that.
Ive known Morgan a long time.
Hes still not out for CMAs and ACMs.
Cause no ones selling more tickets than Morgan.
Maybe Luke Combs is right up there with him.
Theyre playing stadiums, man.
You had a great performance at a Frank Sinatra tribute in the Nineties, which Frank himself loved.
Any thoughts of a standards record someday?I do it every now and then for charities.
Ill sing with a big, 30-piece orchestra.
.And Ive thought about doing a record.
Id like to do a record.
I think Ill do that when the times right.
When it came out, I was so shocked.
Thats all I said.
I bet I can get it, but Im not gonna pay for it.
Having a shout-out on a Notorious B.IG.
Thats another one of those things it’s possible for you to never take away from me.
Its one case where youre referred to as Hootie where youll let it slide,Oh, every day.
Im such an idiot.
I look back now, I go, Youre such a friggin idiot.
But I never once thought about it.
And then when it started happening, I was like, What did I just friggin do?
And when we named the band, we were like, Well change it later.
We just need a band name cause we got these shows coming up.
And we just never changed it.
Because for me, its just Im going backwards.
As an artist, sometimes you dont want to go backwards.
You start the book with a near death experience where youre swimming with Woody Harrelson and almost drowned.
And you learn what friends are.
That was the moment Woody and I became brothers.
That was a moment that was solidifying our relationship.
And it also makes living life so much better.
Because there was a moment where I was ready to die and I thought I was going to die.
And I got myself OK with that.
I just learned that life is great.
You got to live every day because you never know when its going to end.
