Darius Rucker

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During the mid-1990s, Darius Rucker's voice was the most recognizable on radio. As lead singer of Hootie & The Blowfish, Rucker was the voice of one of the best-selling albums of all time, "Cracked Rear View," which, according to Billboard, sold 16 million copies and might have actually sold nearly twice that number when worldwide sales are figured in.

Still, when the popularity of Hootie fell, no one expected Rucker to sit atop the country music charts as a solo artist 15 years later, or win the 2009 Best New Artist award at the Country Music Association Awards on Nov. 11.

"I think Mike Dungan, the president of Capitol Records, must be a genius because I wouldn't have signed me," says Rucker with a chuckle.

Rucker says that when he first told his manager that he wanted to make a country album, he and the manager agreed that the best they'd be able to do was find an independent label to release the disc. Both thought that Rucker had "too much baggage" in his career for a major country label to release the disc.

"Nobody gets a second chance," says Rucker.

Yet his second chance panned out with the release of his first country single, "Don't Think I Don't Think About It," which went to No. 1 on the Billboard Country Singles chart. His album "Learn to Live" continues to spin off hits.

Rucker says the first time he recognized that he liked country music was when he was a kid watching the TV show "Hee Haw" with his grandmother and Charlie Rich performed "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World."

"I just remember my grandmother saying, 'That white boy can sing!'" says Rucker.

In Rich, Rucker might have actually found a kindred spirit. One of the greats to emerge from Memphis' Sun Records, Rich was as much an R&B and pop singer as he was a country performer.

"I was in my mid-20s before I realized that all singers can't sing everything. I really thought if you sang, you could sing everything," says Rucker. "For me, getting up and singing an Al Green song or a Buck Owens song or an R.E.M. song or a Frank Sinatra song, I'd just sing it. I just thought everybody could."

Rucker says the financial success of Hootie & The Blowfish meant that he didn't have to worry too much about how much money Capitol Records put up to record the album or how successful it was. Even during Hootie's heydey, he didn't splurge.

"I like to watch 'Cribs' and see that guy with one hit and five cars. I just think, 'This is not gonna last!' I have one car. And my car is a 2001 Mercedes. I never wanted five houses. I'm just not that guy who needs to show everybody what I have. I don't want you to know and I don't care what you have. I grew up with nothing, so I always said to myself, 'When I get something I'm gonna hang on to it!' You know, outside of being a singer for a living, my life is so normal."

However, he does say that hearing his voice on the radio again feels very good.

Rucker says that Hootie & The Blowfish are still a group and he and the members of the group still get along.

"I guarantee you there'll be another Hootie album," says Rucker. "We're still a band. I don't think we'll ever break up."

He also says it isn't music that he hopes friends remember him for. His mother always told him he should be nice to everyone and treat everyone the same.

"What I'd really want on my tombstone is: 'He was a nice guy.'"

© 2009, Knoxville News Sentinel
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