The different genres of music are usually dominated by certain classes of people. From R&B to Rock, there are common similarities between all the people who are major stakeholders. For country music, it was often white men and women who led the forefront of this genre of music in the United States of America.
In 2009, Darius Rucker broke this norm by winning the Award for the New Artist in the Country Music Association. This was made possible with the release of his 2008 album Learn to Live. Rucker had not always been a solo artist, in fact, the history of his career in music can be traced to the band Hootie & the Blowfish.
Darius Rucker’s Mother Raised Him On Her Own
Darius Rucker came from a large family of eight, where his parents had three daughters and three sons. He was born in Charleston, South Carolina on the 13th of May, 1966. As a child, his father was rarely in the picture and Darius only saw him once a week – on Sundays before church. The bulk of the family welfare fell on his mother, Carolyn, who worked as a nurse at the Medical University of South Carolina.
His father’s absence in his life was caused by the hours he spent on the road, traveling with his gospel music band, ‘The Travelling Echoes’. As a man who was haunted by his father’s absence in his life the release of the 1994 Hootie & the Blowfish song, Where Were You, chronicles the dysfunctional relationship he had with his dad. This song was only released in Europe as Darius Rucker suspected that his father was not likely to be in that continent.
His Family Was Poor
Darius Rucker did not have a very comfortable childhood, although he remembers those years of his life with fond memories. The work that his mother did was not always enough to cater to all the financial needs of the family. There was a period in his life where he lived in a three-bedroom apartment with 18 other people including his grandmother, his mother, two of his sisters, and 14 other children.
The death of his mother in 1992, as a result of a heart attack, was an event that caused him a lot of grief. In honor of her passing, he wrote two songs; I’m Goin’ Home and Not Even the Trees. Both songs were released on the 1994 album of Hootie & the Blowfish; the former was a plea for her to stay one more day while the other song is about how much he misses her.
Darius Rucker’s Kids and Ex-Wife
The musician is a father to three children. In 1995, Carolyn Pearl Philips was born to Darius Rucker and his then-girlfriend, Elizabeth Ann Philips. There is not a lot of information on Elizabeth Ann Philips and it is also not clear how long the two dated each other.
Three years after the birth of his first daughter, Darius Rucker met Beth Leonard. When they met, she was working at VH1 television network in New York while Darius had just come into town with his band when he saw her. He asked her to go on a date with him multiple times but she kept turning him down until a particular day she invited him to go see a play with her.
The two got married in 2000 and in 2001 they had their first daughter, Daniella Rose. Jack, their son, followed four years after. Although she is not the mother of his first child, Beth has taken care to be mothering to Carolyn Pear. The music of Darius Rucker is often reflective of the happenings in his life. His 2008 song, Alright was in honor of Beth while his 2009 song It Won’t Be Like This For Long, was inspired by his second daughter Daniella Rose.
After twenty years together, Darius Rucker and Beth Leonard decided to get a divorce. They made this announcement on the 11th of July 2020 in a joint post on social media.
Thank you for supporting our family, always. – Darius pic.twitter.com/tSgtHRStK6
— Darius Rucker (@dariusrucker) July 11, 2020
They assured the public that this happened on amicable terms and that they will remain good friends and are committed to being good parents to their children. When the divorce was announced, Darius Rucker got an outpour of sympathetic messages from fellow celebrities and fans alike.
A Look At His Net Worth and Achievements
As a solo artist and as a member of a band, Darius Rucker has had a very successful career. He has been nominated for more than ten awards and has won more than five of these nominations – including double Grammy awards in 1995 for Best New Artist and Best Pop Performance By A Duo Or Group and also Best Country Solo Performances from the Grammy Awards in 2013. All of the work Darius Rucker has done has given him a net worth of $14 million.
He is also known to be a philanthropist who gives back to his community. Darius Rucker is a member of the MUSC Children’s Hospital Board, the hospital his mother used to work at. As a member of this board, he has helped with the fundraising of millions of dollars. He works with charities for children and does a number of benefit tours.
The Early Days of His Career and formation of Hootie & the Blowfish
The hallmark of Darius Rucker’s career as a musician straddles the work he has done as a solo artist and with Hootie & the Blowfish. The band was created in 1986 when Rucker met Mark Bryan, Dean Felber, and Jim Sonefeld when he was a student at the University of South Carolina. Before the band came to have four members it was just Bryan and Rucker.
The former heard the latter singing in the shower and decided that they should start making music together. They initially started by making covers of R.E.M songs. Three years later in 1989, Felber and Sonefeld were employed. The group has created 6 albums all of which were critical successes. Rucker is the frontman of the band, the tone of his voice, which has been described as being ingratiating, helped in giving the band visibility.
As a group, they have sung the national anthem at the World Series and performed at Frank Sinatra’s birthday party. In 2001, he decided to branch out on his own and start his own career as a solo act. He has created 7 studio albums, 24 music videos, and 17 singles.
