Darius Rucker

Darius Rucker (born May 13, 1966) is an American singer, musician, and songwriter.

Frank Sinatra invited him to sing at his 80th birthday party; he sang "The Lady Is a Tramp."

Its first single, "Don't Think I Don't Think About It", peaked at number one on Hot Country Songs chart, making it the first song by a Black artist to do so since Charley Pride in 1983.

It was followed by three similarly successful singles: "It Won't Be Like This for Long", "Alright", and "History in the Making".

He first gained fame as the lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of rock band Hootie & the Blowfish, which he founded in 1986 at the University of South Carolina along with Mark Bryan, Jim "Soni" Sonefeld, and Dean Felber.

The band released five studio albums with Rucker as a member and charted six top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100.

Rucker co-wrote most of the songs with the other members of the band.

Darius Rucker has been the lead singer of Hootie & the Blowfish since its formation in 1986.

He met fellow band members Mark Bryan, Jim "Soni" Sonefeld, and Dean Felber while attending the University of South Carolina.

Bryan first heard Rucker singing in the shower, and the two became a duo, playing R.E.M. covers at a local venue.

They later recruited Felber and finally Sonefeld joined in 1989.

As a member of Hootie & the Blowfish, Rucker has recorded six studio albums: Cracked Rear View – 1994, Fairweather Johnson – 1996, Musical Chairs – 1998, Scattered, Smothered & Covered – 2000, Hootie & the Blowfish and Looking for Lucky – 2005, also charting within the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 six times.

All six albums feature songs that Rucker, Bryan, Felber, and Sonefeld wrote.

As the frontman, Rucker began to be called simply "Hootie" by fans, though the band title combines the nicknames of his college friends.

Before his rise to fame, he lived in the basement of the Sigma Phi Epsilon house at the University of South Carolina, attempting to launch his career through the college bar scene.

Rucker's signature contribution to the band is his baritone voice, which Rolling Stone has called "ingratiating," TIME has called "low, gruff, [and] charismatic," and Entertainment Weekly has characterized as a "barrelhouse growl."

Rucker said they "flipped" the formula of the all black band with a white frontman, like Frank Sinatra performing with Count Basie.

Musically, he has sometimes been criticized or spoofed for not being "black enough".

Saturday Night Live ran a sketch of Tim Meadows playing Rucker leading beer-drinking, white fraternity members in a counter-march to Louis Farrakhan's Million Man March.

He also received death threats for singing the Hootie song "Drowning," a protest song against the flying of the Confederate flag above the South Carolina statehouse.

Shortly after gaining a measure of fame, Felber and Rucker (who consider themselves best friends) moved into an apartment in Columbia, South Carolina.

With Rucker's recognition as the frontman of a successful band came increased opportunities.

In October 1995, he was asked to sing the national anthem at the World Series.

His debut studio album, an R&B record titled Back to Then (2002) was released through Hidden Beach Recordings.

Six years later, Rucker signed to Capitol Nashville as a country singer and released his second album, Learn to Live (2008).

In 2009, he became the first Black American to win the New Artist Award from the Country Music Association, and the second Black person to win any award from the association.

His third album, Charleston, SC 1966, was released on October 12, 2010.

The album included the number one country singles, "Come Back Song" and "This".

His fourth album, True Believers (2013), reached number 2 on the Billboard 200, and spawned the singles "True Believers", "Wagon Wheel", and "Radio".

His first country Christmas album, Home for the Holidays (2014) reached number 31 on the US Billboard 200.

His sixth album, Southern Style (2014) reached number 6 on the Billboard 200, supported by the singles "Homegrown Honey" and "Southern Style".

His seventh and eighth studio albums, When Was the Last Time (2017) and Carolyn's Boy (2023) followed thereafter.

Rucker was born and raised in Charleston, South Carolina.

His single mother, Carolyn, a nurse at Medical University of South Carolina, raised him with his three sisters and two brothers.

According to Rucker, his father was never around, and Rucker saw him only before church on Sundays.

His father was in a gospel band called The Traveling Echoes.

Rucker has said that he had a typical Southern African-American upbringing.

His family attended church every Sunday and was economically poor, and at one point, his mother, her two sisters, his grandmother and 14 children were all living in a three-bedroom house.

But he says that he looks back on his childhood with very fond memories.

His sister, L'Corine, recalled that singing was always his dream.