What Darius Rucker Is Thankful for This Thanksgiving

Darius Rucker has so much to be thankful for right now. Rucker’s more popular than ever, thanks to his continued touring as a solo act in the country space and with Hootie & the Blowfish in rock space. He’s even lined up a 2023 release for his next album, Carolyn’s Boy. However, when Rucker was asked what he was thankful for this Thanksgiving, his mind was away from his career and instead on something much more important: family.

“(I’m most thankful for) my kids. My kids and their health and their happiness,” Rucker said during an Oct. 26 media roundtable at Nashville’s Electric Jane. “That’s really what I’m most thankful for. They’re 27, 21 and 18 now and it’s great to see them growing up into great adults. Kids have a hard time. It’s tough being a kid in society today. And to see my kids just flourish and be happy and do things that I never thought they could do or would do, it makes me very thankful.”

Family is a big focus for Rucker at this point in his career. Elsewhere in the roundtable, Rucker noted that when he’s not in music mode, he’s cherishing his time off away from the industry.

“I didn’t always give myself time to enjoy it (life),” Rucker said. “It was always work, work, work, work, work. And (if) you’re not working, concentrating on family. But now I’ve learned to say ‘no,’ which was really big for me, learning to say ‘no.’ And I love it. I love writing songs, I love all of it, but I’m at a really cool place in my career where I’m not chasing it anymore. It’s either going to be there or it’s not, now, for me. So I love it. I still love doing it more than anything in the world, but I also love my time off a lot now, too.”

Rucker will release Carolyn’s Boy at an undisclosed date in 2023. Rucker has released two singles ahead of the album, “Same Beer Different Problem” and the Chapel Hart collaboration “Ol’ Church Hymn.”