Over the past four years, Darius Rucker
has established himself as one of country's top male vocalists. But
of course he does have a famous past -- as frontman of one of
rock's biggest acts of the 1990s, Hootie & The Blowfish.
With Rucker's success in country, is there a future for the South
Carolina band? The singer tells Billboard that his old group will
return, someday, but for now country is his priority.
"There's
one more Hootie record and tour that we're going to do," he says.
"I don't know when, because country music is my day job -- it's what
I want to do."
What
might surprise some fans is that the band still plays together --
albeit at a less frequent pace. "We'll probably always be a band.
We've got two shows in August, we do about four or five dates a
year. We'll do another album and tour for a year, then I'll be right
back to this music."
He says it's an
interesting dynamic when his friends and touring partners start
talking about Hootie's impact -- such as Lady Antebellum, who Rucker
has toured with in 2012. "It's amazing to me. When Charles Kelley
and I first met, he sent me a video of him at thirteen with his
brother Josh and one of their friends, and they're playing 'Hold My
Hand.' The first thing that Ketch Secor from Old Crow Medicine Show
told me when we met was 'I told my sister you were doing my song
("Wagon Wheel"), and she said 'no way,' because that record was so
big in our house. She just didn't believe it."
The
singer thinks if Hootie & The Blowfish made their debut now --
things might be different, genre-wise. "I think if we came out
today, we would have to change the instrumentation on a few songs
and rewrite a few songs," he says." We'd have to be a country band
today. I thought we were as close to country music as you could be
then. That's why I thought when I started doing my country records
that I wasn't doing anything different."
That
being said, Rucker believe that many of his current fans likely
have "Cracked Rear View," Hootie's breakthrough album, in their
collections. "I think a lot of people who have listened to Hootie
& The Blowfish back in the '90s have migrated to country music
now, so that doesn't surprise me at all."
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