Darius Rucker

Bio

Most country music fans knew about Darius Rucker before he became a star in the country music world. Back in 1994, Darius and his fellow members of Hootie & The Blowfish released their breakout album Cracked Rear View. The album took off. David Letterman proclaimed that Hootie was his favorite band. The album shipped over 16 million copies to record stores and the album sold well over 10 million copies to fans – mostly in 1995. The band continued a successful career throughout the ’90s and ’00s. Then in 2008, Darius announced he was leaving the band (possibly temporarily) to pursue a solo career in country music.

Darius Rucker joined Capital Nashville. He asked the execs to simply give him a chance. They did and Darius worked with producer Frank Rogers to write and record Darius’ first official country release. The result was the 2008 album Learn To Live.

The concept of Darius releasing country music came off as a bit gimmicky in the beginning, but if you really think about it, every artist is some form of a gimmick when they are first introduced to the country music audience. Darius had some barriers to breakthrough that others may not have. Due to the nature of the band’s name he was known to most music fans as Hootie. Most didn’t know who Darius Rucker was.

In the end, the strength of Darius’ first single – Don’t Think I Don’t Think About It – won out. The song went to #1 on the country charts. The next two releases became number one hits as well with a fourth reaching #3.

Darius Rucker successfully conquered country music with his debut album Learn To Live. He won the ACM Award for Best New Artist. He’s probably the only ‘new’ artist to have had sold over 20 million albums worldwide.

Country fans embraced Darius and he embraced them right back. It’ll be great to see what this talented performer has in store for fans with future music.

Official Site: Darius Rucker