Depending on your age or location, you might know Darius Rucker as lead singer of the massively popular 1990’s band Hootie and the Blowfish; or, you’ll recognize him as the solo artist who defied stereotypes and expectations to become one of country music’s most prominent black voices for many years. I don’t think we would’ve been the touring band or the stage band that we were if we had made it early because all that came from years of playing small stages and bigger stages, and trying to figure out how we do what we do and all that work for seven or eight years helped so much when we finally made it because all the stuff that we would’ve had to learn about playing, we were already doing.