25 and counting: Darius Rucker reaches milestone

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Darius Rucker has spent the last few years reinventing himself as a country star. He's had a platinum debut, No. 1 hits and his follow-up, "Charleston, SC 1966," debuted this week with high expectations.

Rucker hasn't forgotten what made him one of music's most bankable voices, though. You know, a certain laid-back rock band that turned out to be the melodic antidote to grunge and one of the biggest acts of the 1990s.

Hootie & the Blowfish celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, and Rucker says the band will record another album and tour at some point.

"This country thing is what I'm doing," Rucker said. "This is my career change. This is what I'm doing 'til I retire. But I know for a fact that — I don't want to put a time on it — but soon there's going to be another Hootie record, another Hootie tour because I love the guys and I think we will always be a band."

Rucker said the band never really broke up — though they haven't recorded together since releasing "Looking For Lucky" in 2005. They play together occasionally, including four dates this year, and bandmates see each other often. Rucker says the chemistry that helped them sell more than 25 million records remains strong.

"We could get together right now and have an album for you in three months," Rucker said. "We're all writing all the time. I was sitting down writing songs (recently) and I wrote a country song and then a song came out that sounded like Hootie, so I saved it for that."

Hootie guitarist Mark Bryan says he has an album's worth of songs alone. But with Rucker's new album fresh on the streets, he knows it will be some time until the singer is free of his country commitments to record with the band: "I'm probably not looking at another Hootie album for another year or two at the very least so I might as well make another album."

Rucker's solo country turn has turned in to quite a run. His first country album, 2008's "Learn To Live" spawned three No. 1 songs, sold about 1.5 million copies and earned him a Country Music Association Award for best new artist. Expectations are even higher for "Charleston."

Rucker's second act as a country music star is no surprise to Bryan. He's been listening to his friend belt out country tunes since they met in 1985 when Bryan heard Rucker singing in the shower of their University of South Carolina dorm hall.

"The very first show Darius and I did together at Pappy's with an acoustic guitar, we did 'Family Tradition' by Hank Williams Jr., which he's still doing in his solo country set," Bryan said.