Sunday November 15, 2009

DARIUS Rucker admits the success of his debut country album has taken him by surprise.

The Hootie and the Blowfish frontman –  who has sold 1 million copies of his Learn to Live record– took home the prestigious New Artist Of The Year gong at last week’s CMA Awards.

“I didn’t think it would do this,” Rucker told CMT. “Best-case scenario for me was maybe our third single, we could get into Top 10. Then they’d let me make another record and then we could see what we could do.

“When I was making this record, I wasn’t thinking about it working or not working. I was really making the record for me, and then Capitol came along. … If it didn’t work, it was no big deal to them. Capitol has a lot of bands, and for me, I would have been happy because they let me make my record. Now I’m going to make a lot more records because of this, and that’s a pretty cool thing.”

“I can’t tell you how much this ride has been enjoyed, just making the record and how much fun I had doing that,” he added.

“I had so much fun on the radio tour, and now to be standing here a year later, I got a CMA Award. The acceptance is unbelievable. It’s really amazing how much country radio really said, ‘Hey, man, we’re going to give you a shot.’ And they did. I’m a country singer now. This is my day job. This is what I do.

“Probably the thing I will remember the most about winning this award is when I walked up to Zac Brown and I hugged him, and he said, ‘Man, you deserve it.’ From the time we called Vince Gill and asked him to sing or the time we called Brad Paisley and asked him to play, everybody’s been such a champion of this record for me, especially the artists. Before this record ever came out, I would be in Nashville working and somebody would come up to me and say, ‘Brad Paisley just told me he heard four or five songs from your record and [said] it’s incredible.’ I’d be like, ‘Wow.’ It’s so great in country music because it seems like everybody realizes that there’s room for all of us. As long as you’re good, there’s room for you. That’s just cool to be a part of that.”

Tags: darius rucker