Did Darius Rucker Just Promise Another Hootie Reunion Tour? Sort Of…

Darius Rucker sat down with Rolling Stone to discuss his new song “Beers and Sunshine,” telling the outlet that he’s been hard at work on a new country album.

“‘Beers and Sunshine’ is the most upbeat thing we have so far, but it’s not the perfect representation of what we’re doing on this record. It’s a personal record, with all the stuff I’ve been going through, and with Covid happening in life,” says Rucker, adding, “It’s been years since I’ve had a record out. I’m ready to get back to work.”

Rucker said he wanted “Beers and Sunshine,” to be escapist fun, and that after writing it, he knew he wanted to put it out quickly. “I never do this, but I sent it to my guy over at Universal and he came back and said, “Can we cut that, like, now?” Rucker also said he was “shocked” by the reception he got for the Hootie & the Blowfish reunion tour. “I’m not going to lie to you. I was shocked. I remember the end [of the band], 13 years ago, when we were putting 7,000 [people] in a 10- or 12,000-seater,” adding, “I didn’t want to do it if it wasn’t going to be big. I didn’t want to be playing shows I was playing as a country guy and then go back and take a step down to play Hootie shows. And it wasn’t. It was no step down. It was huge. It was great to see that people remembered, and not just remembered, but were dying to see it again.”

When asked if the band would do another tour, Rucker said, “I’ll do it again. But no time soon. I think we’d be stupid to start doing that every year. Do it like the Stones — every 4 or 5 years, go play shows.”