Darius Rucker and Hootie & The Blowfish remain one of the best-selling bands of all time and have accomplished a feat that few bands have been able to do. Their debut album, Cracked Rear View, is celebrating its 30th anniversary and remains in the Top 10 of best-selling albums of all time. The album produced three Top 10 singles: “Hold My Hand,” “Let Her Cry,” and “Only Wanna Be with You.”
Now the band is currently on the “Summer Camp with Trucks” tour hitting 43 cities with support acts Collective Soul and Edwin McCain. Blowfish members, Darius Rucker, Mark Bryan, Dean Felber, and Jim Sonefeld, have been touring together since forming back in college in 1986.
“It’s awesome to be back with these guys,” Rucker tells TVMusic Network exclusively backstage at the “American Idol” finale. “The tour is going to be a party. That’s what we do. It’s going to be fun. We don’t get out…we don’t play very often so when we do, we like to make sure it’s fun and great.”
“It’s going to be a good time. It’s a lot of music for a low low price,” adds Sonefeld of the tour. “It’s easy being back we treat it like being on a bicycle. You jump back on and get ready to ride it after a few shows at least.”
“We try to do some changes at least to freshen it up for ourselves and the fans a little bit,” said Bryan. “It’ll be fun.”
With the songs being so well known, every fan sings along, it’s a wonder if the band will just let the fans take over.
“It’s really amazing that, we can still remember playing to clubs with four people back in the days, ” shares Rucker of the fan support. “Now we’ve come this far and see people are singing our songs, it’s totally what we want when we play our music so it’s incredible.”
“We’re fans too so,” Sonefeld said. “We’ve always remained fans. We enjoy the idea of being a fan out there and seeing how fans feel and how we can inspire them, so it goes back and forth.”
When asked if there is favorite song to sing, they stayed consistent, liking any song that the crowd sings back with them.
“We did a new album on our last tour five years ago and a couple of the songs that we do from that album that we still do are really fun, said Bryan. “It’s always fresh to do your new material. The big fans do, the hardcore fans don’t want to hear the news stuff. People just want to hear the hits.”
If there’s one thing the band has to have on tour, Rucker and Sonefeld vote for a golf course and their golf clubs while Bryan said, “It’s nice that marijuana is now legal in half the country,” as the band laughs. “Make sure they know Mark said that!” Rucker adds in as the last word.
The band is currently on its “Summer Camp with Trucks” tour playing across the US. For tickets and more info, visit the band’s site, Hootie & the Blowfish.
