Co-writers join Rucker at Number One party
Darius Rucker, Derek George and Scooter Carusoe were honoured at a Number One party, hosted by ASCAP and First Tennessee Bank held at ASCAP’s Nashville office. ‘For the First Time,’ Rucker’s ninth Number One, produced by Ross Cooperman, is the second single from the album, ‘When Was the Last Time’ (Capitol Nashville).
‘For The First Time’ is the third Number One for Derek George as a writer. For Scooter Carusoe, the song is his fifth as a songwriter and his fifteenth as a publisher.
Before the award ceremony, Darius, Derek and Scooter sat down to take questions from music industry journalists.
Darius recalled the writing session during which ‘For The First Time’ was written. “For me, we started out with just that first line, I mean, I didn’t even need to hear the chorus. I’m like, that’s cool,” he said. “It was one of those songs; I was just writing about me again, once we started writing. It’s a song that, at this point in my career, it was a really cool song to write. To have so much fun as I’ve had, thinking about all the things I said I was going to do when I was a kid, if I would ever make it, and now, everything in that song came from my bucket list.”
‘That never, ever get’s old’
Asked what it felt like when he heard that the song had reached Number One, Darius said with a chuckle that he found out when he was on the road. “I want to say something that Charles Kelly said to me that will always stand the test of time. He said, ‘that never gets old.’ And I was like, yeah, that never, ever gets old. It’s always awesome.”
Darius was asked how his life has changed since switching to Country music. “Oh goodness,” he said, then added, “Totally! I mean at that point in my life and my career, I had young kids. I think my daughter was seven, my son was three and my oldest daughter was thirteen. Now they’re ten years older. The biggest change career-wise… I mean here I am twenty-five years after I started I’m still here, with another Number One song and It’s amazing to me that this is still happening. It’s still fun. I feel I’m a young fifty-two years old because I still get to do music on this scale. When George Strait announced that he was going to retire, Charles Kelly called me and said, ‘Hey man, you’re the oldest man on Country radio!’ And I can’t believe I’m still doing it.”
Playing UK and Europe
Darius is headed over the pond to play some dates in the UK and Europe. After talking about some of the items on his bucket list, he was asked if meeting the Queen was one of those bucket list items. “Well, you know, if she gave me a call, I’d be glad to go over and have some tea! This time, I’m taking my boy Jack with me so we’re going to go over there and see everything. See Big Ben, all that stuff. The thing I’m looking forward to most, what I do whenever I’m over there is go to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. Studying and seeing all that stuff in school as a kid, then you walk in and see all those paintings. It’s pretty unbelievable.”
Rucker’s co-writers were asked what it was like to hear the finished recording of the song they’d written together. “Every time Darius and I write a song, every time he sings it, it becomes SO him,” said Derek George. “His voice is so unique, he just owns it. It always becomes something special.”
“You write songs, you get them recorded, and it’s rare but sometimes you think, ‘I don’t know,’ added Scooter Carusoe. “But the first time I heard this recording, I thought, ‘Man! This just feels perfect!’ It felt like it was geared for something great to happen. I was just bouncing up and down. I’ve got to tip my hat to Ross Copperman who produced it. He did a great job.”
Remembering Hootie
Darius commented that younger fans are going back and listening to songs he recorded with Hootie and the Blowfish. “It’s been crazy,” he said. “When we played with Jason Aldean, all the kids that were up there, they were singing along with songs that were twenty-five years old. That was a lot of fun. With Hootie, we had our ups and downs. At the end when we were winding down, we’d been doing it for so long and it wasn’t as big as it once was. We were out there and just doing a job I think. And now, looking back ten years later, I’m thinking, ‘Man, that was a really great time.’“
As one of the few artists who have successfully crossed over from pop to country, Darius was asked if he could recall any ‘best’ moments. “There are so many moments,” he said. “Being inducted into the Grand Ole Opry. Winning that CMA for Best Artist then hugging Zac Brown. That’s a moment I’ll remember forever. Sitting in the back of a car and my publicist starting to cry and saying ‘You’ve just won a Grammy.’ I’ll never forget that. Those are career moments that …” He shook his head and added, “It’s been a crazy, awesome ten years.”
Darius was reminded that he’ll be performing in Amsterdam on Halloween and was asked what he was expecting to happen there. Darius noted that people don’t dress up for Halloween in Europe like they do here. He recalled playing a date in Shepherd’s Bush, London, on Halloween that might have confused the audience. “We came out on stage as The Village People. There were just two other people who were dressed up in the whole audience!”
MMA ‘a great step forward’
Songwriters Derek and Scooter were asked what the recent passing of the Music Modernization Act (MMA) meant to them. “I’ve spent a lot of time as a publisher and as a writer,” said Scooter. “I have seen first-hand; I have done a lot of staring at stacks of royalty statements for twenty years, and I saw a decline in royalties, just drastically fall off a cliff. So it’s great. I still think it’s a journey. But I absolutely think it’s a great step forward. I’d be lying if I sat here and said I knew all the nuances of it. I don’t, but there’s real value to that craft and it was jeopardized, taken advantage of for plenty of time.”
“I can only echo what he said,” added Derek. “It’s tough to get in there and grind it out every day. I’ve been doing it since 1992. I can definitely see a decline to what it was back in the nineties. There are some great, great songwriters out there that can’t get deals anymore, because getting an album cut wouldn’t keep them in a writing deal anymore. We’ve got to find a way to get a little bit of money back to the creators or we’re going to lose an entire generation of folks who come here and could really be the next big thing.”
“We went on tour so people would go buy our records. Now the only reason we put out a record is to go out on tour. It’s really shifted that much because the royalties are SO down.” – Darius Rucker
“I agree. It’s a big thing for all of us songwriters,” said Darius. “That was probably the only time in my life that I’ve called my Congressman because that was really important. I’ve seen the decline [in royalties]. I tell people all the time who ask what the biggest difference is in music right now. I say, in the nineties, the only reason we’d go on tour was to advertise our records because we were making so much money from songwriting. We went on tour so people would go buy our records. Now the only reason we put out a record is to go out on tour. It’s really shifted that much because the royalties are SO down.
“This [the MMA] is a great step forward, but we still have a long way to go. I agree with Derek. My fear is, people come here who want to be songwriters but they’re not going to do it because there’s not going to be any place for them to do it. And that’s sad.”
“Don’t ever let them tell you that you don’t belong here.” – Little Jimmy Dickens speaking to Darius at the Grand Ole Opry
Asked when he felt he’d been accepted into the Country music family, he said: “I will tell you the moment in my psyche and my soul when I felt accepted in Country music. I had just finished being inducted into the Grand Ole Opry. When that happens, everyone comes out and we’re having a party for me and I walk off the stage and Little Jimmy Dickens grabs me by the hand and says, ‘Don’t ever let them tell you that you don’t belong here.’ That’s the moment I belonged in Country music.”
I said to Darius, “I’ve known you’ve had the biggest heart ever since we met for the first time at a Golf Tournament for Make A Wish. As we approach the Christmas Season, are there any special charities that you will be working with or anything you want to announce that you’re supporting?”
Rebuilding Children’s Hospital
“The main thing we’re doing right now,” he said, “We’re going to the Children’s Hospital in Charleston, South Carolina, that we’re rebuilding and we’re having a big fundraiser thing for that. And I’m still doing my St. Jude stuff. But my charity stuff revolves around golf so I come in and play a couple of shows and just do as much as I can.”
(Darius’ mother worked at MUSC Children’s Hospital for more than thirty years so that is a cause very close to his heart. He has already helped to raise millions of dollars towards the hospital’s rebuilding project. Additionally, his annual St. Jude event has raised more than $1.6 million for that charity.)
Asked about the number of genre crossover songs and collaborations between pop and country artists, Darius said that he loves that about music. “I think there’s room for both. You can have traditional country music and also new stuff coming in and out. It’s still all music, man. The same bars, the same chords, the same words.”
Finally, Darius talked about Halloween candy. His least favourite? Black licorice. “It’s just awful,” he said with a laugh. “I’ll get a bag of jelly beans and when I’m done, you’ll find a pile of black jelly beans right there!”
Playing the Royal Albert Hall
Darius has gotten to play every venue on his music bucket list except one: The Royal Albert Hall in London. And he will get to do that during his UK and Europe tour in November. “ It’s the last venue in the world that I’ve want to play and haven’t,” he said. “And I cannot wait to get there.”
Preshias Harris is a music journalist and music career development consultant with the emphasis on new and aspiring artists and songwriters. Her book, ‘The College of Songology 101: The Singer/Songwriter’s Need to Know Reference Handbook’ is available at www.collegeofsongology.com Follow her blog at www.nashvillemusicline.com
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