Country Dream Domes True For Lead Singer of Hootie & The Blowfish
by Jim Lundstrom
Knowing I’ve got a Darius Rucker interview coming up for a preview of Country USA, I saunter down to a local bar with a 21st century jukebox that’s usually playing country music to find out what the aficionados think of the newest voice on the country scene.
I pop in a couple bucks and choose two hits from Rucker’s debut country release Learn to Live. When the first song comes on – “Don’t Think I Don’t Think About It” – the bar owner, a well-known fan of old country music, pumps her fist in the air and yells, “Darius Rucker!”
I ask her what she likes about Rucker and she confides that when she first heard the song, she thought he was a white guy.
“I was surprised when my husband told me he was the black guy in Hootie & the Blowfish,” she said.
Not that the color of his skin matters. She digs Rucker’s soulful approach to solid country songs.
So does the country music establishment, which recognized Rucker as New Artist of the Year at the 2009 Country Music Association Awards for his 2008 debut as a country musician.
It’s kind of funny to think that the lead singer of one of the most successful bands of the mid-1990s – Hootie & the Blowfish’s 1994 major label debut, Cracked Rear View, sold 16 million copies and reached No. 1 – is recognized as a new artist in any genre.
But Rucker is immensely grateful for that recognition. It told him he had arrived at his longtime dream of being a country singer. And not just any country singer, but one whose first single and first album debuted at No. 1 on Billboard charts.
“It was awesome to win the best new artist,” Rucker said by telephone on May 21, the day he was to open the H2O Tour with Brad Paisley. “I guess I’m new to country, and that was an honor. I’m 44, but it’s an honor for the country community to go, ‘Man, we get what you’re doing. You’re the best new thing that came out.’”
Not that Rucker is truly new to country music. Listen closely to those old Hootie & Blowfish records and you’ll pick up on some of Rucker’s soulful twang in pop-rock clothing. Country is in his soul.
“My main influence is Radney Foster, but growing up in South Carolina I heard everything from Hee Haw to George Jones and Kenny Rogers, who was pretty big for me because he was always on the radio,” Rucker said. “I’ve been talking about making this record since the Foster & Lloyd record came out (1986). Ever since I heard Radney Foster, I said, ‘Man, I’m going to make a country record.’ I never heard anyone sing so much like me, and I just wanted to be him. Even the last two or three Hootie records, I talked to the guys and said ‘Let’s do a country record.’ But they didn’t want to. To finally get to make it and have it be so successful is really cool.”
Rucker’s approach to country includes an undeniable vein of folk that he mines in tribute to another musical influence.
“That part of my country comes from being such a big Nancy Griffith fan,” he said. “She’s a country singer, but she always had a folky quality. I have every Nancy record ever put out. I think that side comes out from loving her so much.”
To help establish his country creds on Learn to Live, Rucker enlisted the aid of Brad Paisley on the song “All I Want,” and Vince Gill and Alison Krauss showed up to participate in “If I Had Wings.”
Still, it was Rucker’s show. No one knew if the man known to so many as Hootie (he is not Hootie) would be taken seriously by the country world.
“It was one of those things where we really didn’t know what was going to happen, if country fans and radio were going to give it a shot or look at me in Hootie and not give it a shot,” Rucker said. “But they did, and it was just a big surprise, and it’s been fun to watch, especially country radio. They just got it.”
Rucker said he really knew he had made it in the country world with his first appearance at the Grand Ole Opry in July 2008.
“That was just really, really cool. I was just, yeah, I’m in,” he said.
When “Don’t Think I Don’t Think About It” reached Top 20 on the country charts, also in July 2008, Rucker became the first African-American singer to reach Top 20 on the country charts since Charley Pride, and when the single reached number one in September of ’08, Rucker again matched a mark last set by Pride in 1983.
“Absolutely Charlie Pride paved the way,” he said. “I owe much of this success to Charley Pride. Charley Pride won entertainer of the year twice. He definitely paved the way for me to do what I’m doing.”
Country music also had to like the idea that Rucker came with lots of good baggage in the form of Hootie fans.
“I hope there’s some Hootie fans who come over. I mean, I know there are,” Rucker said. “I get so many notes and e-mails that say, ‘I never listened to country music until your record came out. Now I listen to country radio all the time.’ That always makes me feel good.”
And what about Rucker’s newfound country fans? Will they ever get a chance to hear him in his Hootie role, the band he started with three University of South Carolina friends in 1986?
“Oh, goodness, I could play a Hootie show right now if you wanted me to. We’ve been going 24 years,” Rucker said, but adding that country is his day job now.
“I think country all the time,” he said. “Hootie, we still play some shows now and then, but I think country most of the time now.”
By the time Rucker hits Oshkosh on June 23 to headline that day’s Country USA festival, he should have a new single out, the first from a new album he hopes is out before the end of the year.
In the meantime there will be plenty of touring and reveling in his second musical career.
“I’ve said it a million times: I’m blessed. Most people don’t get a second chance,” he said.
COUNTRY USA LINEUP
Tuesday 6/22: gates 3 p.m.
3:30 p.m. Brian Stace
4:30 p.m. Chasin’ Mason
6 p.m. Justin Moore
8 p.m. Randy Houser
10 p.m. ZAC BROWN BAND
Wednesday 6/23: gates 3 p.m.
3:30 p.m. Pure Grain
4:30 p.m. Lonestar
6:30 p.m. John Michael Montgomery
8:30 p.m. Joe Nichols
10:30 p.m. DARIUS RUCKER
Thursday 6/24: gates 2 p.m.
2:30 p.m. Kentucky Headhunters
4:30 p.m. Jason Michael Carroll
6:30 p.m. Darryl Worley
8:30 p.m. Rodney Atkins
10:30 p.m. JASON ALDEAN
Friday 6/25: gates noon
12:30 p.m. SFC Jamie Buckley, U.S. Army
1:30 p.m. Bryan White
2:30 p.m. Confederate Railroad
4:30 p.m. James Otto
6:30 p.m. Luke Bryan
8:30 p.m. Jack Ingram
10:30 p.m. TOBY KEITH
Saturday 6/26: gates noon
1 p.m. U.S. Army Field Band
2:30 p.m. Joe Diffie
4:30 p.m. Sawyer Brown
6:30 p.m. Terri Clark
8:30 p.m. Travis Tritt
10:30 p.m. BLAKE SHELTON
