Three-time GRAMMY Award-winner Darius Rucker was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on December 4, 2023.
After being introduced by former Universal Music Group Nashville Chairman/CEO Mike Dungan, Rucker shared, “This is stuff you don’t even dream about when you’re from South Carolina…all I ever wanted was to be a singer, but you never dream that this stuff is going to happen.”
“Usually, you’re going record to record or tour to tour, and when this happens, you get to sit down and think about the whole thing,” Rucker shared with Variety as he reflected ahead of receiving the Hollywood Walk of Fame honor. “You think about when the band started, in a dorm at University of South Carolina, and then all the hard work, playing for seven years before you got a record deal. You think about going to Nashville and being told it was never going to work. You think about the first No. 1 [record] you ever had.
“You think about all that stuff, and you have to believe in fate, because one step to the left or one step to the right, and I’m not here talking to you. So you just thank God everything happened the way it did.”
Praised by People for having “never left his humble roots in the rear view,” Rucker recently released his latest album Carolyn’s Boy, an homage to his late mother, a woman he celebrates as the sole reason for “who I am, how I am, what I am.”
About Darius Rucker
Rucker first achieved multi-Platinum status in the music industry as lead singer and rhythm guitarist of the GRAMMY Award-winning band Hootie & the Blowfish, who have sold more than 25 million albums worldwide including their Double Diamond-certified (21x Platinum) debut Cracked Rear View, which remains among the top 10 best-selling studio albums of all time. Since releasing his first Country album in 2008, Rucker has earned a whole new legion of fans with four No. 1 albums on the Billboard Country chart, including RIAA Platinum-certified Learn to Live and True Believers, plus 10 No. 1 singles at Country radio and 11 Gold, Platinum or multi-Platinum certified hits. Rucker was inducted as a Grand Ole Opry member in 2012 and in 2014 he won his third career GRAMMY Award for Best Solo Country Performance with his Diamond-certified (11x Platinum) version of “Wagon Wheel,” one of the top five best-selling Country songs of all time. He topped the charts at Country radio once again with “Beers And Sunshine” in 2021 and his latest single, “Fires Don’t Start Themselves” off brand-new album Carolyn’s Boy is available everywhere now.
As a lifelong philanthropist, Rucker co-chaired the capital campaign that generated $150 million to help build the new MUSC Shawn Jenkins Children’s Hospital in his hometown of Charleston, S.C. and has raised over $3.6 million for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital through his annual Darius & Friends benefit concert and golf tournament. In addition, Rucker has advocated for over 200 charitable causes supporting public education and junior golf programs in South Carolina through the Hootie & the Blowfish Foundation and serves as a National Chair for the National Museum of African American Music in Nashville, Tenn. Rucker is also an avid sports fan, with his Darius Rucker Collection by Fanatics apparel line available at Fanatics.com, and he is part of the Music City Baseball investment group working to bring an MLB team to Tennessee in addition to serving as a partner at the MGC Sports & Entertainment agency.