Hootie & the Blowfish Drop ‘Hold On,’ Released to Country Radio

Hootie & the Blowfish have a new single at country radio! The iconic rock band, fronted by Grand Ole Opry member Darius Rucker, just dropped “Hold On,” which is being released to country radio. The song, written by Chris Stapleton and Jim Beavers, is from their upcoming Imperfect Circle record, out on Nov. 1.

“‘Hold On’ came very late in our recording sessions,” band member Jim “Soni” Sonefeld explained, via their record label, “but I don’t think there was a song that summed up more of a vibe of our band going back to the early ’90s of sort of lifting each other up and looking out for one another and a spirit of sort of helping each other as a way of therapy and just a way of rebuilding your heart.”

“When I heard it, I was like ‘This is the song.’” added Dean Felber, “I remember listening to it in the back of the bus and it was just perfect – what it meant to me and what it would mean in today’s world.”

The title Imperfect Circle is a perfect summation of Hootie & the Blowfish, according to Rucker.

“It seems like when it’s getting titles for our records, we are always last minute when the label’s saying, ‘If you don’t give us the title to your record, we’re not gonna put it out, so get one,’” Rucker previously stated. “And it was true to this, and we were sitting around before going into the studio and talking about album names and stuff and of course R.E.M. came up because they’re such an important band to us … It’s the 25th anniversary of Cracked Rear View, but we’ve been playing together 30-something years.

“For us to be here, to be doing this tour and to be making a record,” he added, “it just seems like Imperfect Circle was perfect.”

It was Jason Aldean who originally had the idea to reunite Hootie & the Blowfish, when he asked the band to perform with him for one show on his High Noon Neon Tour in Atlanta last year.

“[It’s been] a long time!” Rucker recalled to ABC News Radio. “You know that’s probably the thing that had me a little hesitant when Jason [Aldean] first asked. It was like, ‘Man, we haven’t done anything that big in a long, long time!’ But, you know, we’ll put it together and see what happens.”

Hootie & the Blowfish just wrapped up their expansive Group Therapy Tour, which included a series of shows overseas in the UK. Download or stream “Hold On,” and pre-order Imperfect circle, by visiting the band’s website.

Photo Credit: Getty / Matt Winkelmeyer