Darius Rucker’s memoir is so honest he waited until his children were grown to write it
Darius Rucker reveals how writing his memoir helped him deal with traumas stemming from his father, older brother, substance abuse and more.
Darius Rucker found a therapeutic way to deal with his past traumas. The country singer sat down and wrote about them.
Since releasing his new memoir, “Life’s Too Short,” the former lead singer of Hootie & The Blowfish has opened up about the honesty contained within the pages.
“I guess not a lot of people know a lot about me. They know my music and what I do. I hope my journey pleasantly surprises people,” he told People magazine.
Speaking to the Washington Post about the book, he said “the one thing I always said to myself was that I was going to be honest. … So I just figured I had to say it. I had to tell the story.”
In the memoir, dubbed “vulnerable” and “honest,” Rucker chronicles his life growing up in South Carolina as one of six children raised by a single mother, his rise to fame, and the subsequent pitfalls — including substance abuse that nearly claimed his life.
“Hootie & the Blowfish reigned supreme in two not altogether unrelated areas: selling records and doing drugs,” he told the Post.
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Rucker leans in on details of his life, discussing the estranged relationship with his late father, their complex reunions, and the challenging dynamic with his older brother. Rucker was surprised by his personal reaction in exploring and writing about the relationships, particularly the one with his father.
“When I did write about it, I started thinking about, ‘Wow, that really affected me a lot more than I thought it did,’” he told People.
He also doesn’t shy away from darker moments, like when he says his ex-wife saved his life.
“The one thing I hope came across in the book [was] she was a wonderful human being,” he told People.
Rucker shares daughter Carolyn, 29, with his ex-wife Elizabeth Ann Phillips, and shares daughter Daniella, 23, and son Jack, 19, with his ex-wife wife Beth Leonard. He says he might have prevented generational trauma from afflicting his children. He could have written the memoir much earlier but waited until his children were older, wanting to spare them from embarrassment or shame.
“You don’t want your kids to be going to high school hearing, ‘I read your dad’s book,’” he told People. “I knew I was going to tell the truth, and the truth [can] sometimes be out there. I just wanted them to be old enough to handle it.”
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