Darius Rucker

Darius Rucker married Beth Leonard in 2000. The couple is happily married with three children. Their first daughter Carolyn Pearl Phillips was born in April 1995 and their second daughter Danielle Rose was born in 2001. They also had a son named Jack in 2005.

Darius Rucker was born on 13th May 1966 in Charleston, South Carolina, in the US. He was raised by his mother Carolyn along with his three sisters and two brothers. According to him, he never saw his father much, except before church on Sundays. His father was in a gospel band named the Rolling Stones. He had a happy childhood despite being raised in poverty.

Darius Rucker began his career with the band ‘Hootie & the Blowfish’ which he formed in 1986 along with his college friends Mark Bryan, Dean Felber, and Jim Sonefeld. They met during their first year at the University of South Carolina. A few years later, they released two cassette demo Extended Plays. They released their first EP ‘Kootchypop’ in 1993. Shortly after, they were signed to Atlantic Records.

They released their debut album ‘Cracked Rear View’ in 1994. The album was an instant success and is one of their best selling albums till date. It was also the highest-selling album of 1995. It entered several charts and stood at the first position on the Billboard 200. A critical success as well, the band won a Grammy Award for ‘Best New Artist’ and also another one for their single ‘Let Her Cry’.

The band released their second album ‘Fairweather Johnson’ in 1996. Though it didn’t fare as well as their previous album, it topped the Billboard US 200 chart, and also charted in several countries such as Canada and the UK. The single ‘Old Man & Me’ can be regarded as the most successful single of the album. It peaked at the 13th position on the Billboard Hot 100. After the release of the group’s third album ‘Musical Chairs’, which was an average success, Rucker decided to focus on building his solo career.

Darius Rucker’s first solo album ‘Back to Then’ was released in 2002. Though it wasn’t a huge success, it entered the Billboard 200 chart, standing at the 127th position. Six years later, he released his second solo album ‘Learn to Live’. It peaked at the fifth position on the US Billboard 200. It was a huge commercial success and remains his best-selling solo album so far.

Rucker continued his solo career over the next few years, and released several more albums including ‘Charleston, SC 1966’ (2010), ‘True Believers’ (2013), ‘Home for the Holidays’ (2014), ‘Southern Style’ (2015) and ‘When Was the Last Time’ (2017). He also made an appearance in Sister Hazel’s album ‘Lighter in the Darker’, which was released in 2016.