Best Local Musician/Performer: Darius Rucker, Hootie & The Blowfish

Best Local Musician/Performer

Darius Rucker Hootie & The Blowfish

Gracie Bryant

Everyone thinks their shower voice could win “American Idol” and captivate fans from across the world, when really it’s just giving a good laugh to your entire dorm floor. But for Darius Rucker, one time singing slightly too loud in the shower changed the course of his life.

When his floormate and future band member Mark Bryan heard Rucker singing in the shower, he suggested the two of them become a musical duo. After performing together for a while, the guys brought in two more members, Jim Sonefeld and Dean Felber, to create the wildly successful band Hootie and the Blowfish. Hootie started off playing college bars in Columbia and across the state and eventually released six chart-topping songs — including “Hold My Hand” and “Only Wanna Be With You,” and six albums.

After 19 years, Darius Rucker decided to go solo. He had several songs certify gold, become No. 1 hits and get everyone singing along, including the earworm cover of “Wagon Wheel” he released in 2013. Then, in 2019, the band joined together again for a tour that sold out arenas and an album that put the group on the charts once again. Despite their fame, Hootie and the Blowfish occasionally returns to Columbia and the University of South Carolina to pay tribute to the place where it all began. The band’s most recent performance was in 2017 — when members agreed to perform a free concert for students if the football team made a bowl game that season — but the most talked about was when the band made the Horseshoe its stage in 1996.

Though it’s been years since Hootie and the Blowfish and Darius Rucker made the jump to stardom, the band and its frontman clearly hold a special place in the heart of the Carolina community. No matter how many No. 1 hits they release, they’ll always be “local” to UofSC.

Provided by The Daily Gamecock