BayFest

Darius Rucker finds success in country music

By Stephen Centanni

Music editor

When I spoke with singer/guitarist Darius Rucker, his debut country album “Learn to Live” was just days away from its release on Sept. 16. And Rucker, who is more well known for being the front man of ‘90s rock sensation Hootie and the Blowfish, was already experiencing sweet success with the first single off this album, “Don’t Think I Don’t Think About It.” At press time it was at #3, making it the first Top 10 hit by an African American artist on the country music charts since Charley Pride did it in 1988 with “Shouldn’t It be Easier Than This.”

SC: With “Don’t Think I Don’t Think About It” heading up the charts, it seems as if you’ve been embraced by the country fans. How does the feel?

DR: That feels awesome, you know, coming from the rock-pop world, whatever you wanna call it. Fans know real when they hear real, and they know fake when they hear fake. You wanna be accepted, and you want them to know that you’re real. So, it’s really cool. It was number 3 or so on the charts last week or whatever it was. That’s exciting and fun and cool, and I can’t wait for the record to come out this week, because I’m ready to get on the road!

SC: I bet! I saw where you performed at the Grand Ol’ Opry recently. How was that?

DR: It was an amazing experience. It’s one of those things where you can’t really find the words. I got to play with a band and play songs off the record. It just went by so fast, and I was on cloud nine. When we got finished, I was walking off, and Bill Anderson started playing “Give It Away.” That was when it really hit that, and I was like ‘I just played the Opry. Bill Anderson is playing right after me.’ Wow! That was unbelievable.

SC: I saw where your debut album is set for release on September 16, and you talk about how you’re ready to get the album out and tour. What else is going through your mind the closer it gets to its release?

DR: I just want the whole album accepted like the singles have been accepted. I’m really proud of it. Frank Rogers produced it for me, and he’s a great producer. Just talking to him about the record, I just really wanted to make a country record, but we also wanted to make a normal type of album that you’d want to listen to the whole thing like Brad Paisley records, like “5th Gear.” I want to listen to that record front to back. I love that record. We wanted to make a record that people would like that way. We worked really hard on it. We wrote like 60-something songs for this album.

SC: What are you going to do with the rest of that music? Will it be used?

DR: Oh yeah, I’m sure I’m going to make another record when this one is over. Some of the songs that didn’t make this record, it’s not that I didn’t think that some of them were great, but you can only put 12 songs on an album. A double-album would have been the worst idea that I’d ever had (laughing). The songs are there. When we start to make the next record, I’m sure we’ll use some of those songs. Some of them will make the record. Hopefully, I can get some of them cut.

SC: You had a hand in writing all but one of the songs on “Learn to Live.” How would you compare writing these country tunes as opposed to the stuff you did with Hootie and the Blowfish?

DR: I just think the biggest difference in the writing is that it’s with different guys. When we wrote the Hootie, we all four were songwriters, and we would write songs and bring them in, and we’d learn one of them and twist them.

With this record, there was lots of co-writing. It was really different for me. My only music knowledge and musical know-how was with Hootie and the Blowfish. I’ve been in that band for 22 years. It’s the only band that I’ve ever been in. Every song that I’ve pretty much written for most of my life has been written with Hootie and the Blowfish, so it was really weird writing these songs with Rivers Rutherford.

Rivers is a genius. It was cool to learn the different melodies that they hear and the different rhyme scheme and everything about rhyming. It was awesome to sit there and write with those guys but also learn about writing while I’m there.

SC: You’ve got a lot of cool guest performers feature on this album. Who was your favorite to work with?

DR: Aw, I couldn’t say that! They were all so great! It was great to sit there and watch Brad play his part. Brad Paisley is an amazing guitar player and a great guy. I was telling a friend the other day that he’s the kind of guy that everybody wishes that a country star would be or a rock star would be. He’s an amazing musician with a great voice and writes these awesome songs, and he’s the nicest guy in the world.

He said when we were sitting there, “I wanna figure out something that no one’s ever done on a shuffle before.” You can listen for yourself. I think he did.

Then, you got Allison (Krauss) and Vince (Gill). That’s country music royalty, forget country but music royalty. To have them come down and put their music gifts on my record to make it sound so awesome, I get chills when I hear that song. It’s all due to them. To have those people like that come down and be on my record was pretty cool.

SC: Is the country thing something you’re going to stick with? Do you have other plans?

DR: This is my plan for now. Hootie is always in the picture and on the horizon up the road. For now, this record and the next record, we’ll see about a third, I’ll make country records as long as Capitol will let me make country records.

Stephen Centanni is Lagniappe music editor. Contact him at scentanni@lagniappemobile.com.

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