Darius Rucker was honored on Monday as he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
The Grammy-winning singer, who is best known as the lead singer and guitarist of Hootie & the Blowfish, and for songs like “Wagon Wheel” and “True Believers,” was celebrated by his friends and family, including his children, and his Hootie & the Blowfish bandmates.
Rucker’s star, which is the 2,766th star on Hollywood Boulevard in the category of recording, has a special location on the iconic street, because it is located near his mentor, Charley Pride.
Darius Rucker attends the ceremony honoring Darius Rucker with a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Dec. 04, 2023 in Hollywood, Calif.
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“This is stuff you don’t even dream about when you’re from South Carolina,” Rucker began. “You know, struggling, growing up, and just wanting to be a singer — that’s all I ever wanted to be was a singer. But you never dream that this stuff is going to happen.”
“I’m walking the streets the other day, and I’m seeing Marilyn Monroe and Charley Pride and seeing Buddy Hackett, and I’m just like, these are names that are stuck in my mind because they were big stars,” he continued. “To be here, right here with a star on the Walk of Fame, I said over there, it’s the biggest thing that’s happened to me.”
The singer also thanked his children, and his ex-wife, Beth Leonard, who he said “raised my kids while I was out chasing my dream.”
“Carrie, Dani and Jack are my heart, they’re my soul,” Rucker said about his children, Daniella Rose Rucker, Jack Rucker and Caroline Rucker. “They’re everything to me and everything I do is for them.”
(L-R) Caroline Rucker, Darius Rucker, Daniella Rucker and Jack Rucker attend the ceremony honoring Darius Rucker with a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Dec. 04, 2023 in Hollywood, Calif.
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He then turned to them and said, “It’s just been an amazing thing to be your father. As great as all this stuff is, it’s not as cool as being your dad, and I really mean that. I love you guys so much.”
Rucker ended his speech by thanking all his fans.
“That is what it’s all about in our business,” he said. “And I want to thank everybody who comes out every year to see us play. I can’t say thank you enough and I still can’t believe I have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.”
Rucker and Leonard met in 1998 and tied the knot on Dec. 9, 2000. In 2020, they announced that they made the decision to “consciously uncouple.” They share two children together, Daniella, 22, and Jack, 18. Rucker shares daughter Caroline, 27, with Cary Phillips, from a previous relationship.
Darius Rucker and his band attend the ceremony honoring Darius Rucker with a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Dec. 04, 2023 in Hollywood, Calif.
Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Mike Dungan, the chairman and CEO of Universal Music Group Nashville, honored Rucker and called him “one of the nicest men I have ever met” who “absolutely loved country music.”
“You’re the lead singer of a band whose first album sold more than 20 million copies — one of the biggest selling records of all time,” Dungan began. “The music and the band were simply, everywhere in the nineties and as it happens in our culture, the band was so big that the name Hootie & the Blowfish became a punchline for late night TV hosts, and those who simply cannot accept with a straight face that anything is just that big.”
“Add in the obvious fact that this man’s face was Black, and the artist of color didn’t have much presence in the world of country music — like none at the time — and the mere thought of a career in country music appeared very unlikely,” he continued. “But to me, the man’s phrasing was that of a country singer. And to me, he possessed the undeniable, the thing that I value the most, the immediately, recognizable voice.”