Darius Rucker interview

interview by Bill Palmer

Rock fans know Darius Rucker as the lead singer of Hootie and the Blowfish, while country fans are more likely to recognize him as the guy whose new solo album Learn To Live has been in the top five on the iTunes country charts since it was released and whose first single off the record went all the way to number one. But for one recent sunny winter afternoon, I knew Darius Rucker as the laid-back guy sitting next to me in a conference room at the Capitol Records building in Hollywood as we chatted about everything from what happened to Hootie, to how he got off the ground as a country artist, to the shared pain we’ve both felt over the past decade as fans of the Miami Dolphins…

I was a little bit taken aback when I heard you were doing a country album, but then I went back and listened to some of the older Hootie, and there’s always been a country vibe there for you, hasn’t there?



Yeah, we’ve always had that feel. We’ve always had some country-influenced stuff on our records. And that was probably one of the reasons that the last couple records I thought about maybe just going country and playing country songs, because we had so much of that influence. When we sat around and jammed sat around and jammed with each other we still just played country and bluegrass songs. And so it was just like you know, let’s take it all the way. But they were right. We’re a rock band. That’s what we do. So I have no regrets. Everybody’s happy.



Is that why you felt it was time to break the band up, that you didn’t want to put out a country Hootie album, or was that more about being a solo artist?

I wanted to put out a country record and I knew I was gonna have to do that myself. And so I didn’t want to put out a Hootie country record. I didn’t want to put out a record that sounded like us with lap steel. That wasn’t my intention. And so it was like, not even that we’re broke up so much, it’s just that I knew I couldn’t tour with Hootie in the summer and try and do this country thing. And so it was like guys, we’re gonna take a break for a long time because I just want to do this for awhile. I want to make records and tour, and see what I can do in the country world.

How did they take it when you broke the news to them?

It wasn’t me. It was somebody else in the band who called the meeting, that said they wanted to take a break. It was just a perfect timing thing for me, cause I knew that this was coming along, and I had signed a deal with Capitol and things were gonna happen, and I was wanting to make a career move, not just do a record, I wanted to do a lot of records. And I was like yeah, that’s cool. I wasn’t more like “hey you guys, we’re not gonna play cause I’m doing this country thing.” It was more like “hey I want to do this” and another guy was like “yeah I’m kind of tired of doing it every summer too, I want to take some time off.” So it was a cool thing for everybody.

You’ve sold tens of millions of albums, you’ve got the famous voice and the famous name. But did you really think that you could have this kind of chart success? You’ve already got a number one single and a top five country album.

No, I didn’t think I would have that kind of success. This is the way I made the plan and the way I saw it, and the way [producer] Frank Rogers and I even really kind of talked about it, is that we wanted [Don’t Think I Don’t Think About It], we thought it was the perfect first introduction because it was a cool radio song, it was really country, nice theme of growing up. It didn’t show me as trying to be some kind of twenty-four year old kid. It was just a cool tune. And we hoped it would get in the top fifteen. And we figured if it got in the top ten, then man, we really could put out more singles. And it was a thing that we looked at where we were trying to grow a career. The single is probably not gonna be number one, and the next one is probably not gonna be number one, but maybe on number three we can see what happens and try to work it. And so it was just like let’s work this.



So when it started to get close to number one when it came out, I still can’t believe it. And I still think people are kidding sometimes when they say it, you know? Because new guys don’t come around. You’ve seen what everybody’s done. I watched a lot of records, really good records, songs I thought were great songs, get to around fifteen in the chart and just, that’s it. Then it starts to freefall. And mine kept growing. At some point you ask yourself “who’s playing it more? How can somebody be playing it more than they were playing it last week?”


How many of the people that are buying this record do you think are long-time fans of yours that are just following you into this genre, vs. how many of them are long-time country fans?

I think it’s a really great mix of both. Some of the people that are buying it because it’s my record, are people that might have not listened to country music before, but now they listen to country radio because my song’s playing on it. But while they’re listening for my song they hear ten other songs that they go “wow, this is country radio?”

On the record you sing about turning forty. You’re forty-two now. How are your forties playing out so far?

I love it. I had a great time in my twenties and thirties playing in Hootie and the Blowfish and partying and doing the things we did and having a great time. But I’ve gotta tell you, the forties, being married and having three kids and trying to see them and also balance trying to have some success in this crazy music business, I can’t say I’m having more fun or anything, but I can tell you that I’ve never been more content or happy in my life than where I am at forty-two. I just love being who I am.

On “If I Had Wings” you’ve got Vince Gill and Alison Krauss singing on there, and Brad Paisley is playing guitar on another track. Did you already know these country stars from beforehand, or are these all new friends?

I knew Vince. When I wrote “If I Had Wings” with Frank Rogers and Rivers Rutherford, and Frank produced the record, and write after we wrote it I said to Frank, “I want Vince.” And I thought I might be able to get Vince because of the golf tie, we both play golf in tournaments together, and I consider Vince a friend. So I thought we’d get him.



And so Frank saw him at a gym, and this is the difference from rock and pop. If I saw some rock star at a gym and said “hey man I’d love you to come play on my record,” they’ll say “yeah” but then they’ll tell their manager who’ll call my manager and by the time it’s all over it ain’t gonna happen. But he saw Vince Gill in the gym and just asked him, “Darius has got this song he’s crazy about and he really keeps talking about you singing on it, will you come sing?” And Vince Gill, who’s won twenty Grammys or whatever he’s won, says “yeah I’ll be there in a couple of days” and two days later there’s Vince Gill on my record.



And then after I hear Vince on it, I’m on my horse and I go “Alison Krauss would really be crazy on this,” and he sees Alison in a restaurant and says “Vince sang on this Darius song that I’m doing and Darius would love you to sing on it.” And she says “yeah I’ll be there in a couple days.” No one calls their manager, they just come down and they sing, we’ll deal with that later. That’s pretty cool.



“Don’t Think I Don’t Think About It” is the first number one country song by a black guy since Charlie Pride twenty-five years ago. Do you think about it much in those terms?



I didn’t until it started to happen. When we got in the top twenty somebody mentioned it to me, and I went really? Cause I thought you know, Cleve Francis, Cowboy Troy, Trini Triggs, I thought one of those guys had a top twenty hit in the last twenty-five years. And it got crazy when it got to number one, the thing that’s crazy to me is somebody pointed out that it was twenty-five years to the week that Charlie Pride had his last number one.


I saw you co-hosted ESPN’s Mike and Mike in the Morning.



Yeah, broadcast journalism was my major in college. My fallback job was being a sports journalist. That’s what I wanted to do. That was going to be my thing if I didn’t make it in music. And I’ve done some shows, I had hosted with Dan Patrick before and stuff. And a friend of mine had a connection up there and asked if I wanted to do it. It’s just something that I’ve always wanted to do. Even my plans, after this country thing is over in ten to fifteen years, is I want to sit around Charleston and have my own sports talk show.



And so they asked me to do it, and the thing that amazed me is I loved every minute of it, and I really hope to goodness they call me back to do it again, because the thing that was amazing to me is how at the end of four hours, cause you talk for four hours, at the end of it I couldn’t believe how fast it went.


Were you on with one of the Mikes?



Nah, it was me and Erik Kuselias. It was great and actually, Mike Golic called in cause we played the Notre Dame golf tournament together a few years before. Those guys are great guys, and it’s one of my favorite shows, a show that I watch every morning. My kids have a joke for it, they try to say as many “Mike and Mikes” as they can before they say “in the morning.”



And so I’m sitting there on Mike and Mike, I’m hosting, and Tiger is a pretty good friend of mine, there I’m naming dropping but he’s a pretty good friend of mine, and this is how big Mike and Mike is. We’re sitting there and Tiger texts me, “I wake up this morning, I turn on my favorite show and I have to see your ugly mug?”



Is it different now that you’ve got the kids, do you have to structure your touring around that now?



Yeah, everything’s different. That’s also one of the great perks of being in the country world is country guys religiously, and I like to think of the family thing, I think it’s a couple reasons they do this. I think they do it cause country people are blue collar people who have to work, and they need to work on Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday they might be able to go out and maybe Thursday. So country guys tour from Wednesday to Saturday, and that’s just beautiful to me because that means Saturday night I can get on the bus or get on a plane and fly home, and Sunday morning I wake up with my kids. Monday morning, Tuesday morning, Wednesday morning I’m home with my kids, and then I get back on the road again. That’s just a thing for me that’s a blessing. It’s something that I stress to my management now. I’m not doing the Hootie thing where I go out in May and come back in November. I’m doing it the right way and I’m going to have a family life.



Everything’s different. I mean I used to be a guy who, if we were off for three days, all I could do was think “man, I’m so ready to go back on the road. I’m so ready to go on the road. I want to go on the road.” And now I’m that guy who, I can be playing some of the best shows in the world, and it’s like “man, I’ve got to leave my kids?” But it’s my job, I’ve got to do it. I ain’t skilled to do much else. It’s this or talking on a talk show somewhere for twenty thousand dollars a year.



When you do a show, is it all new stuff or do you mix in some of the Hootie stuff?



Oh, I’m always going to play those Hootie songs. “Let Her Cry” and “Only Wanna Be With You” and “Hold My Hand,” especially “Let Her Cry,” that’s a song I actually play every night that I play. I mean if I’m playing a three-song demo, I should play “Let Her Cry.” That song made my career. That made people go “man, that guy can write a song.”



You’re still going to play a few shows a year with Hootie for charity?



Oh yeah, we’ve got four shows already lined up for March and April, they’re really big shows for us. And there will be another Hootie album, another Hootie tour, sometime down the line. I just don’t know when.



Just not anytime soon.



No time soon. 



Do you think those shows will have a different feel when you play with them now?



I think the one thing about us is we’ve been together about twenty-three years, that when we do get together to play, even the shows we’ve played since the tour ended, it’s just what we do. No matter what everybody does on their own, when we get back together it’s still the four of us doing exactly what we do. And I think that’ll always be that way.



So Hootie’s not dead then.



Nah, we’ll never die. With all the stuff that’s happened to us in the last few years, if we haven’t died yet, we’ll never die.

Learn more at DariusRucker.com