By Paul Freeman [July 2015 Interview]

Darius Rucker achieved mega-pop/rock success with Hootie & The Blowfish, whose 1994 debut, “Cracked Rear View,” is one of the best-selling albums of all time. The band has sold more than 21 million albums in the U.S. alone.

But even at the height of the Hootie hubbub, Rucker was itching to amble down a country road.

In 2008, it was time for Rucker to pursue his dream of making a country record. It was a labor of love. Having a commercial hit didn’t seem likely.

Rucker was surprised that Universal Music Group Nashville CEO Mike Dungan gave him a shot.

The album, “Learn To Live,” reached number one, as did three of its singles. Rucker became the first solo African American artist to reach the top of the country charts since Charley Pride in 1983.

His next two albums, 2010’s “Charleston, SC 1966” and 2013’s “True Believers,” also made it to number one. Rucker says his new album, “Southern Style,” is his “countriest” yet.

Rucker has been embraced as part of the country community. One of the greatest forms of validation came when Rucker was invited to become a member of the Grand Ole Opry.

Rucker resides in his hometown, Charleston, South Carolina, with his wife and three kids.

POP CULTURE CLASSICS:
What made you decide to make this the most country of all your records so far?

DARIUS RUCKER:
You know, I’ve just been saying for the last couple years, “Let’s do something a little countrier.” And we started going in that direction. This is where I wanted to go, where I want to go. And so, I’m trying to get a little closer to those records that made me want to sing country music.

PCC:
Who were those earliest influences, who made you want to sing country?

RUCKER:
Well, Nanci Griffiths and Lyle Lovett and Dwight Yoakum and Radney Foster and Foster & Lloyd. Kenny Rogers was a big early influence. Those guys were just making such great country records. And they were all so different. They were all doing their own thing. And I loved them. Those are the records that made me want to come to Nashville and sing.

PCC:
In Frank Rogers, you seem to have found the perfect producer for you. What makes that chemistry work?

RUCKER:
We’re both from South Carolina. I think that helps a lot. But we just get each other. We’re friends. He’s an amazing producer. I can tell him what I want and he can go get it. He gets me. He gets where I’m going in my career. And he’s one of my best friends.

PCC:
Having Rich Robinson [Black Crowes guitarist] on the album, that must have been a kick.

RUCKER:
Oh, yeah. I mean, I’m such fan. They were such a big influence on me and to have him on there was huge for me.

PCC:
There are always debates over what country music is, what it isn’t. What is country music to you? What’s the essence?

RUCKER:
For me, it’s always the song. I mean, you know a country song, when you hear it. And I guess it goes back to that old - I can’t describe it, but I know it, when I hear it. It’s the twang, but it’s also the words. The instrumentation can be whatever you want it to be, if it’s a really great country song. I think it’s all about what people are writing about, the way they’re singing it… and the production is really important.

PCC:
The song title “High On Life” does that reflect your perspective right now?

RUCKER:
Yeah, you know, I’m just enjoying this second act that God has allowed me to have. I’m out here still getting to play music after 20 years being on the big scene and the people are still coming to my shows. Sold out shows, which is unbelievable to me. It’s a lot of fun and I’m just enjoying it.

PCC:
Even at the height of the Hootie & the Blowfish popularity, were you toying with the idea of someday making country music?

RUCKER:
Oh, yeah. I’d been saying to those guys since like ’89 that’s what I wanted to do. It was really when Radney Foster came out with his first solo record “Del Rio, TX 1959.” I’d been saying ever since I heard that record - “I’m going to make a country record some day.” When the time was right, I was ready to do it.

PCC:
When you recorded your first country album, was that more of a labor of love, rather than aiming at a hit? Did you see it as a risk?

RUCKER:
I didn’t see it as a risk at all, because I didn’t expect anything to happen with it. I really honestly didn’t expect to have three number ones from that record and to have that record go to number one. That was crazy to me. This started off as just something I was going to do with my buddies in South Carolina, just go and do a country album. I have such a great manager, Doc McGhee, that he got me a record deal. I wasn’t even asking him to get me a record deal [laughs].

To be honest with you, I wouldn’t have given me a record deal. So why should anybody else? Why would anybody want to give the lead singer of Hootie & The Blowfish a country record deal? That doesn’t make any sense. But Mike Dungan [Universal Music Group Nashville CEO] did.

PCC:
You went in a county direction, when it was more common at that time for country artists to be moving into pop.

RUCKER:
Yeah, exactly. And with Hootie, pop radio wasn’t playing our stuff. But we still had a great touring career. We had a great run. So why would you take that chance? But we did. And we’re four albums in and I still can’t thank Mike Dungan enough.

PCC:
Do you think that, ultimately, it was your sincerity that won over the country fans?

RUCKER:
I think that had a lot to do with it. The fact is, I truly loved country music. I still truly love country music. Back early in the day, with Hootie, I was turning them on to Doc Watson and Lyle and New Grass Revival, bringing these bands’ records in and playing them in the van. And we ended up playing a bunch of their songs in our sets. And when I got to Nashville and started talking, I think people really realized I didn’t come here to try to take over country music or be a huge success. I just wanted to make a record and, hopefully, if it was good enough, they’d let me make another record [chuckles]. So yeah, I think that helped a lot.

PCC:
Being accepted into the Grand Ole Opry must have been great validation.

RUCKER:
Oh, absolutely. I’ve been listening to the Opry since I was a little kid, listening to AM radio, flipping through the channels. And you could pick it up on four different stations, from everywhere, back then. And so that day was a great day for me. When I came here to Nashville, one of the things I said to my management was, “I’d really like to play at the Opry.” I love it. Hootie tried to play and we never got a chance to. And this was something that was important to me. I wanted to play as much as I could. When I was asked to be a member, yes, it was validation, but just to be part of that family was pretty amazing.

PCC:
Having firmed up your success in country, do you think, within the next couple of years, you might reunite with Hootie & The Blowfish for a new album and tour?

RUCKER:
Oh, yeah, we’ll do one more album and tour. We’re talking about it. We’re already starting to get together and try to write some songs. I think that’s the most important thing for us - not when we do it, but that when we do it, we have something we’re doing it with [laughs]. I don’t think any of us want to put out a record unless we’re sure we have 13 songs that are great and that we’re really proud of. But you know, I still have at least one more country record to make before I do that.

PCC:
Going back to the song “Drowning,” that was courageous and ahead of the curve. It must be gratifying to see attitudes changing recently with the Confederate flag no longer in a prominent position at the South Carolina statehouse.

RUCKER:
Yeah, you know, we got a lot of flack about that back in the day. It got moved off the statehouse. That was cool. But all this stuff that’s gone down, it makes me proud to see both sides of the aisle in our government actually agree on anything. And it was crazy to watch for me, to see all of these politicians get together and do what was right.

PCC:
You must have expected polarized reactions. Have you always just gone in whatever directions seem right for you?

RUCKER:
Yeah, I mean, I gotta do what’s right for me. I’m not a big polarizing guy. I don’t talk politics. I don’t do stuff like that. But if it’s important, it’s important. And it was one of those things, I don’t think me speaking out on it brought it down. I think it was other things.

PCC:
But even as far as just making stylistic changes, you seem to not worry about what the doubters are going to say.

RUCKER:
Oh, goodness, no. If I worried about what people say, I would never had made my first record. The story goes, Mike Dungan says he’s going to sign me. He comes in the office and he calls these guys and says he’s going to sign me and they’re all like, “What?!” I heard a lot of people go, “It’ll never work.” I was on some show on television one day, before the record came out, and the guy who was host had the nerve to say, “It’ll never work.” [Laughs] I was like, “Okay… “ I think I proved him wrong.

PCC:
You’ve sung R&B, as well, do you just love all kinds of music, as long as it’s good music?

RUCKER:
Absolutely. That’s something I believe - it doesn’t matter what the category is - a great song’s a great song. I love a great song. I love music. I love playing all kinds of music and being a part of all kinds of music and all kinds of music shows. For me, it’s just music. Everybody else can put labels on it and do what they want. I’m going to just sing what I feel.

PCC:
Speaking of great songs - “The Lady Is A Tramp” - you actually sang that for Frank Sinatra himself at his 80th birthday celebration? Was that daunting? Or just a thrill?

RUCKER:
That was a thrill. They asked us to do that event and I was so excited, because I’m such a huge Sinatra fan. And so they said, “Okay, what song do you want to do?” I said, “I want to do ‘Lady Is A Tramp.’” They sent us this great arrangement. This guy had taken “Lady Is A Tramp” and made it sound like “Only Wanna Be With You” [the Hootie hit]. I listened to it. It was a great arrangement. I called them two weeks later, I said, “That’s not what I want to do.” He said, “What do you want to do?” I said, “Well, I want to do the Quincy Jones arrangement from Sinatra’s live at the Sands album, ’64. So he said, “Oh, okay.” So we went ahead and did it and it was awesome. To see Mr. Sinatra stand up and make me come over and shake his head, that was absolutely unbelievable for me.

PCC:
Whatever kind of music you’re doing, is there a certain kind of effect you want to have on the audience?

RUCKER:
Yeah, it’s very simple. I want people to come and see me and go, “I want to see that again.” It’s not about anything else. It’s about playing music that they want to hear and having fun with the crowd and hopefully, they’ll go, “Oh, man, that was great. I want to see that again.”

PCC:
You have such a knack for writing songs that really grab people. Is that just a natural gift? Did you at any point study hits to see what made them work?

RUCKER:
Oh goodness, no. I’m not that smart. [Laughs] I’m lucky. It’s luck. It’s writing a song that makes people feel or makes people think or makes people laugh or makes them cry. I’ve been lucky, man. I’m not smart enough to really go study songs. I know what I like. And I still make records for me… and hopefully other people will like them.

PCC:
At what point did you realize that songwriting was going to be an important means of self-expression for you? Was that in your teens? Earlier?

RUCKER:
I’ve always wanted to sing, but I never thought about songwriting until I got to be like 18, 19, started playing in Hootie. Then I started thinking, “Let’s start writing some of our own stuff.” That was the beginning. I’d always thought that songwriters wrote songs [laughs] and singers sang them. Al Greene and Sam Cooke were the exceptions to that rule. I heard them as a young, young kid. But nah, I didn’t think about it until I was well into my teens.

PCC:
The fact that the Blowfish were performing for a number of years before really hitting it big, does that make you even more appreciative of how far you’ve gotten?

RUCKER:
Oh, absolutely. I think if we had gotten a record deal after being in the band for a year-and-a-half and all this success, we’d have been different people. I don’t know if all of us would still be alive. But we were on the road for eight or nine years before we ever got a record deal. We were making a good living. We had our clubs where we were playing and everything. It was great. For us, we were happy with where we were. And then the record deal came and Letterman came and everything went crazy. But the great part of it was, nobody changed. Nobody became anybody who they weren’t. And that was just so much fun to watch and be a part of. We had a blast.

PCC:
You’ve had a street named after you in your hometown. Has your success exceeded the dreams you started out with?

RUCKER:
Oh, yeah, man. Yeah. I never thought I’d have a street named after me in Charleston… especially not while I was still alive. I’m just a little kid from West Ashley who went out and worked hard and got lucky. And I try to do as much for my community as I can. I try to give back as much as I can. But that’s just what I was taught as a kid. That’s just what I’m supposed to do. And so, to be recognized like that and all the success, all the stuff that’s happening around me, it’s amazing. And that’s why I’m still living here. It’s home for me.

PCC:
With all you’ve achieved are there still goals left to accomplish?

RUCKER:
You know there’s a lot of things. That’s the good thing about music - theres always something else you can do. I’d love to sing with McCartney. I’d love to write a great song for a movie. There’s so many things. There’s always other things you want to do. And for me, now, I’m just enjoying life. I’m enjoying what I’m doing right now. And I’m going to keep doing it this as long as country radio wants me around, I’ll be around.

PCC:
At this point, what are the most rewarding and the most challenging aspects of life as a musician?

RUCKER:
Well, the most rewarding is definitely getting up there for that hour and forty-five minutes, to get to play every night and watch people singing your songs. And I’m so happy to be there. The most challenging part is leaving my family to have to do it.

For the latest on this artist, visit www.dariusrucker.com