Cracked Rear View behind them as band looks ahead
Following decade-long break, pop-rockers hit the road again Hootie & the Blowfish kick off their Group Therapy Tour in May..
NASHVILLE— Twenty-five years after
Cracked Rear View launched their careers, Grammy-winning rock band Hootie & the Blowfish will release a new album and launch a tour next year after a decade-long break.
The Southern pop-rockers, featuring lead singer Darius Rucker, Mark Bryan, Jim Sonefeld and Dean Felber, broke out with their major label debut in 1994, which has been certified 21-times platinum and made the Recording Industry Association of America’s list of the top-10 most popular albums of all-time.
With Top 10 hits like “Hold My Hand,” “Let Her Cry” and “Only Wanna Be With You,” the South Carolina-based band went from playing college bars to selling out arenas and winning best new artist at the Grammy Awards in 1996. Their last official tour was in 2007.
With a big anniversary approaching in 2019, the four musicians decided it was time to go out on the road and bring with them some new music.
The Group Therapy Tour starts May 30 in Virginia Beach, Va., and will hit 44 cities.
The tour includes a Toronto date — Aug. 29 at the Budweiser Stage; Toronto’s own Barenaked Ladies are reportedly the opening act for the tour.
They talked to The Associated Press from Columbia, where they all met as students at the University of South Carolina. The answers have been edited for brevity. Looking back at Cracked Rear View, the crazy amount of success and attention must have been a big change for you?
Rucker: We probably toured seven years before we got a record deal.
Felber: We did two cassettes and a CD before we got signed and did Cracked Rear View, and had been on the road for four years pretty solid. By the time we got there, we were pretty ready and pretty busy.
Bryan: But we also jumped to the big stages really quick, which we weren’t used to. So, it was kind of interesting trying to take our set from like a club show to these big arenas and that sort of thing. So, there was definitely a period of transition there. That album came out when the dominant sound in rock was grunge. Did that set you apart?
Sonefeld: Our music was going against the grain of what was popular on radio at the time. It was more of the angstdriven, harder-edged rock and I think we brought back melody and brought back some of the harmony sounds that weren’t really in the middle of rock radio at the time.
Was there a conscious decision to put the band on hold?
Sonefeld: The idea of going dormant for an unknown period of time can be daunting or scary. But we felt like going away for a while, getting back to our families and a little bit more of a sedentary lifestyle might be a good experiment. We didn’t say we were going away for six months or six years. We just said, ‘Let’s go dormant.’ And Darius was releasing his first (country) single at the same time. So, he really got the opportunity to put a great effort, a full effort into country music. And when that blew up, it helped in some ways to secure that we would be dormant for more than six months.
Are there certain venues or cities you’re excited about playing again?
Rucker: The Garden. The last time we played Madison Square Garden we played two nights and it was awesome. I haven’t been in there since to play a show.
Darius, are you ready to rock again after a decade in country music?
Rucker: I am looking forward to rocking again. Gonna be fun.