Word: rucker
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...copies in the U.S. than any single album by Pearl Jam, U2, the Rolling Stones and even the Beatles, the Hootie backlash has begun. A page surfaced on the Internet recently calling for readers to join PAHB--Peoples Against Hootie & the Blowfish. This week the New York Times dismissed Rucker as rock's "reigning crybaby," a reference to his emotive lyrics. Some of the criticism cuts deeper. A writer for the Village Voice compared the band to a minstrel show, and Saturday Night Live did a sketch where Rucker leads beer-swilling white frat boys in a countermarch to Louis...
...band sometimes takes the criticism hard. "I've always wanted Dean to be in Bass Player magazine," says Rucker, who is great friends with Hootie's bassist and shares a house with him. "But he showed me this article the other day in that magazine where this guy does this whole Toad the Wet Sprocket review, and at the end he says the only drawback with Toad is that they toured with the worst band in the world--Hootie & the Blowfish. I mean, why do you have to go out of your way to bash us? I honestly believe that...
...more sadness and struggle than the band's detractors are willing to admit and fans are prepared to accept. Three of the band members come from comfortably middle-class upbringings--Felber and Bryan grew up in Gaithersburg, Maryland, and Sonefeld hails from the cozy Chicago suburb of Napersville, Illinois. Rucker's upbringing in Charleston, South Carolina, however, was poorer and harder. His mother was a nurse and his father was "never there"; money was tight and times were hard. "The only time I really dealt with my dad was Sunday morning before we went to church when he sang with...
...Rucker, Felber, Bryan and Sonefeld met in 1986 as undergraduates at the University of South Carolina at Columbia--the band's name came from nicknames given to two university classmates, one with owl-like glasses and another with full cheeks. Making the cultural transition from the North to the South was a difficult one for the group's three Yankees. At the university at that time, band members recall, whites would sometimes be kicked out of frats for having too many black friends. Hootie & the Blowfish's very first gig was held at an off-campus fraternity with a reputation...
...music, however, remains the biggest factor in Hootie's rise. Cracked Rear View featured 11 strong, tuneful songs, with brawny guitar work, commanding percussion and Rucker's low, gruff, charismatic voice, which made it all come together. And despite the ebullient sound of the music, some songs were lyrically downbeat. Let Her Cry was about a love affair torn apart by drugs and alcohol; Not Even the Trees was a tribute to Rucker's late mother. Another song, Drowning, decries the flying of the Confederate flag above the South Carolina statehouse. Rucker has received death threats for singing...