Darius Rucker Talks Music Success, Family Struggles in 'Life's Too Short' Memoir: 'It Was Therapy'

In the opening chapters of Darius Rucker's new memoir, The life is too shortreleased earlier this week through Dey Street Books, the three-time Grammy-winning lead singer of Hootie & the Blowfish and successful country solo artist describes a near-death experience in the late 1990s when actor Woody Harrelson rescued him from drowning near Harrelson's home in Hawaii.

“I hear Woody from Cheers, simple, direct, a little silly,” Rucker writes in his book, recalling the actor saying: “Are you dying? S–t. Not on my watch.” (They later traveled to Willie Nelson's home in Hawaii to play golf with Nelson and Kris Kristofferson).

Elsewhere in the early pages of the book, he recounts the time a roadie who had spent time working with well-known rock bands caught a glimpse of what Rucker describes as “the snow-capped mountain range of white powder we had spread out on the table in front of us.” with the roadie saying, “I've been in a lot of bands and nobody comes close to you, not even close to you.”

From stories of celebrity friends to stories of intense drug use, Rucker's memoir makes it clear that the South Carolina native with the distinctive, honeyed voice holds nothing back.

“I wanted to open the book this way to break the ice, to let people know that this was going to be a book about real things that happened in my life,” Rucker says. Advertising sign.

Rucker talks about his life story as the youngest of five children raised by a single mother in Charleston, South Carolina. He describes growing up in a working-class household and first realizing his vocal gift at the age of six, while performing Al Green songs in his living room for his mother and her friends.

In 1986, while attending the University of South Carolina, Rucker teamed up with Mark Bryan, Brantley Smith and Dean Felber, forming the band Hootie & the Blowfish (Smith soon left the group and was replaced by Jim “Soni” Sonefeld). They gained a following as a local act, playing dive bars and frat houses. The band's 1993 EP, Kootchypopincluded “Hold My Hand” and “Only Wanna Be With You” — songs that would later be included on the 1994 Atlantic Records major label debut Cracked back.

This debut LP became one of the defining albums of the 1990s, being certified 21 times platinum by the RIAA and spawning three Billboard Hot 10 hits (“Only Wanna Be With You,” “Hold My Hand,” and “Let The Scream her”) in less than a year. The band's acoustic, pop-tinged songs subverted the melancholic grunge rock sound that dominated music culture in the early-mid 1990s, but also drew intense vitriol from critics.

However, the band found industry champions from day one – including David Crosby, who lent vocals to “Hold My Hand”.

“We're this little pop-rock band from South Carolina, and as soon as we got to L.A. to write a record, a friend of our A&R guy said, 'I want to get David Crosby to sing on the record.' Rucker remembers the recording. “I was like, 'Yeah, right. Nobody knows who the hell we are.' But sure enough, one day he came in with David Crosby and he was awesome. It was just what we needed at that moment. It was just great to be with him and when he started singing on the record, it was just amazing.”

Rucker says in writing The life is too short with author Alan Eisenstock, he aimed for the book to feel like he was sitting with the reader at a favorite bar, swapping stories over a few drinks. He started working on the book almost two years ago, though he says various companies had been pitching him the idea for years.

“I always said I wouldn't do it until my kids were old enough to read it,” Rucker says, referring to his three grown children. “If I was going to do it, I was going to tell the truth, so I felt like I would know when it was time.”

Rucker's memoir pulls back the curtain on a life filled with career highs and relationship struggles. It explores his complicated relationship with his older brother Ricky, as well as the impact of Ricky's death after falling and hitting his head while drunk. Rucker also addresses his estranged relationship with his father, who was largely absent from Rucker's life, and writes about the 1992 death of his mother Carolyn, who died of a heart attack before Hootie & the Blowfish arrived never in the major leagues. Carolyn is the namesake of Rucker's 2023 country album Carolyn's Boy.

“It was hard to do, because we were playing these s-tholes,” Rucker recalls. “I wish he had gotten to see us play the bigger stuff, but I know he did. It was difficult to write. Everything I put in there, it's like, “Should I put it or not?” I wouldn't say it was great to relive it, but it was healthy to relive it and see it now that it was so long ago. It was therapy and it was hard, but I'm glad I did it.”

Throughout the book, Rucker traces his life story through the lens of 23 songs that drew him in and left an indelible mark over the years, marking the memories and milestones with songs like the Black Crowes' “She Talks to Angels” , KISS Detroit Rock City's “She Talks to Angels,” Al Green's “For the Good Times,” and Lady A's “Need You Now.”

Rucker explores the rapid rise of Hootie & the Blowfish, beginning with their life-changing performance of “Hold My Hand” in 1994 at The David Letterman Show (in 2015, the band capped off this experience by performing in one of the show's final episodes, 21 years after their original debut). It also describes the arc of the Hootie & the Blowfish members' relationships with each other as the years passed and they matured through various life stages, detailing the band's 2008 hiatus and their 2019 reunion for the Group Therapy Tour, in memory of Its 25th anniversary Cracked back.

“Mark [Bryan] and I had a moment, 39 years ago, and since then, there's never been a bad argument,” Rucker recalled. “There was never a fight, never any of that. We just don't do that. We have a lot of respect for each other, and that's why we can't play together for five years, 15 years, and then get back together and play again. We have so much respect for each other.”

When Hootie & the Blowfish went on hiatus, Rucker used the time to pursue his lifelong love of country music. In the book, Rucker writes that he was well aware of the obstacles as a black artist pursuing a career in country music — even with pop star bona fides. “The country music world will never accept a black country singer…it happened exactly once, Charley Pride. He succeeded… but that was 25 years ago. Sorry Darius, it can't happen,” she wrote of the thought at the time.

“People think I'm joking, but I really didn't expect any success,” he says Advertising sign. “I just wanted to come here [to Nashville] and make some records, even if I had to do it myself.”

He didn't have to make the record himself – his manager at the time, Doc McGhee, got Rucker a deal with one of the biggest country music labels, Capitol Records Nashville, led by then president/CEO Mike Dungan. In the book, Rucker writes that Dungan called 13 “tastemakers” in Nashville, noting that all but one—producer/songwriter Frank Rogers—told him the prospect of signing Rucker was unlikely to be a successful venture. Dungan signed on with Rooker anyway, while Rodgers has been a primary writer-producer with Rooker since his 2008 country debut Learn to live. Rogers also produced Rucker's first country radio single, “Don't Think I Don't Think About It.”

“To get Mike to believe in me and support me like the Capitol did, it was a game changer,” Rucker says. “Mike really supported me when a lot of people told him it would never happen. Frank stood up for me. It's so sweet to look back on it and know that a lot of people were like, 'It's never going to work' — but here we are, 16 years later.”

While promoting “Don't Think I Don't Think About It” to country radio, Rucker also put in his work, spending six weeks on a radio tour and personally visiting more than 100 stations.

During a visit to a radio station in Tampa, Florida in October 2008, Rucker was informed that “Don't Think I Don't Think About It” had become his first No. 1 radio hit. With it, Rucker also became the first black solo artist to hit No. 1 on the Country Airplay chart since Charley Pride hit the top spot with “Night Games” in 1983. The song spent two weeks at No. 1.

“Paid off. It worked. I remember crying when I found out,” Rucker recalled.

Now, 16 years later, Rucker has earned nine Country Airplay No. Old Crow Medicine Show's remake of “Wagon Wheel” was certified Diamond by the RIAA and spent two weeks at the top of the Country Airplay chart in 2013.

For Rucker, one of the most defining moments of his country music career was when Brad Paisley invited him to join the Grand Ole Opry on October 2, 2012, and he was inducted two weeks later.

“I had played the Opry every chance I got for six or seven years,” Rucker recalled. “It was important to me and I loved it. But joining the Opry — that's where I really thought, “Okay, I'm in. I'm part of country music.”

Given how the music acts as a vessel that guides the book's chapters, Rucker says he and his team considered recording a companion album, with Rucker performing the songs featured throughout the book, but ultimately they decided not to. However, he says, “I thought about doing covers, just a bunch of songs that I love. That's probably something I'll do next.”

More than anything else, Rucker hopes his readers take away from his journey “that it's a real story and a story of American triumph.”