Darius Rucker

School was very important to me ,and music was what kept me coming back. ”

I grew up in South Carolina. A lot of what I remember back in the day is AM radio. When I was a kid, you could hear Stevie Wonder and Buck Owens on the same station. All the walls and lines between music were taken down for me. ”

I got turned onto the 'Pat Garrett' soundtrack when I worked retail back in the day. ”

I'm going to make country records back to back for a while - until country radio doesn't want me anymore or until I get my own theater in Branson - one of the two. ”

It was important to me to find a label that wouldn't back out after a first single. Everyone's so used to hearing me with Hootie, they're going to be skeptical. ”

As a kid, I was big into Al Green, Gladys Knight and the Pips, but as I got older, I started listening to all sorts of music, including country. ”

For me, '52nd Street' is quintessential Billy Joel. I bought that record as a kid and listened to it so much. ”

I've been a Robert Randolph fan forever, since 2001. I just thought he was so cool; you don't see a black kid playing the slide the way he plays. No one plays like Robert. ”

I'm always up at 7:30, usually earlier. Having three kids will do that. ”

My kids don't care about anything. I'm just Dad to them. They don't get excited about anything. ”