Darius Rucker – Hootie & the Blowfish Years
Darius Rucker started off his professional career as a singer with the rock band Hootie & the Blowfish. The band started off by playing in local pubs, usually R.E.M covers, until new members were included. With the band, Rucker has released five studio records. These albums have charted at Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 list six times. All the songs in these albums are co-written by Rucker, along with Felber and Bryan. Being the frontman of the band, Rucker eventually found fame under the name “Hootie”. Darius Rucker contributed a lot to the Hootie & the Blowish band, including his signature baritone voice, which was labeled as “ingratiating” by the Rolling Stone Magazine and by TIMES as “charismatic and low, gruff”.
Shortly after the band gained mainstream success, being the frontman, many bright opportunities started unfolding before Rucker. In October of 1995, he was requested to be the singer of the national anthem during the World Series. Hootie & the Blowfish were at the heights of stardom; however, soon Rucker had started to drift off into a different direction. He wanted to experiment with country music and R&B, which he wasn’t able to do with a rock band. Although he decided to embark on a solo career, he said in an interview that he can never completely break up with Hootie & the Blowfish, and he will record and tour with them again, he doesn’t know when, but he surely will.
Darius Rucker’s Solo Venture
In 2000, Darius Rucker had already started feeling the urge to experiment with different genres. Outcome of this was his 2001 solo R&B album titled, “Back to Them”. However, the album didn’t manage to make it big. After a six year long break from solo career, Rucker returned to the music scene. This time he had signed to Capitol Records as a country music artist. The same year, his “Learn to Live” studio album hit the market. The lead single from the album, Don’t Think I Don’t Think About It reached several Hot Country Songs charts.
This was followed by the release of two more number one songs, Alright and It Won’t Be Like This For Long. With this, Rucker had established himself as a successful country music singer. His latest album “True Believers”, as a solo country music artist was released in May, 2013 and has already sold around 478,000 copies within the US alone. In its support, Rucker is currently on his USA tour. He has been joined by Eli Young Band as well as David Nail for this extensive tour.