LIFE

'One night only': Darius Rucker announces Hootie & the Blowfish plan for 2018 reunion

Noah Feit
The State
Hootie & The Blowfish, from left, Jim Sonefeld, Darius Rucker, Mark Bryan and Dean Felber, show the two Grammys they won in 1996. The four former University of South Carolina students had just hoped to make a living playing music to put off getting real jobs.

Hootie & the Blowfish fans rejoice.

For one night this summer, you can put that old, scratched CD away and listen to the real thing.

That's because the band's front man, Darius Rucker, announced a Hootie & the Blowfish reunion.

"It's one night only," the South Carolina native and University of South Carolina alum said in a message posted on Twitter.

While Rucker has gone on to become a country music superstar, he has not performed often with former bandmates Mark Bryan, Dean Felber and Jim Sonefeld since they group went on hiatus in the early 2000s. That will change in three months.

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"I'm really excited to announce, that I talked to my boys Mark, Dean and Sony and we decided we have a good time with Jason Aldean," Rucker said of plans to reunite Hootie & the Blowfish, even if briefly.

The reunion will be a part of Aldean’s High Neon Tour, which will continue across the U.S. through September. Rucker and the rest of the Blowfish will get together for Aldean's performance in Atlanta on July 21.

The concert will be at SunTrust Park, the new home of the Atlanta Braves. In addition to Aldean and Hootie & the Blowfish, Luke Combs and Lauren Alaina also are scheduled to perform as part of the concert.

"I can't wait. It's one night only," Rucker said. "We're getting the band back together to play with Jason. So it's going to be a great time and I'll see all you guys there. So come on out."

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In addition to the reunion show, Rucker is about to embark on a summer tour with co-headliners Lady Antebellum.

Rucker and bandmates formed Hootie & the Blowfish while they were students at the University of South Carolina. The Hootie & the Blowfish album “Cracked Rear View” went platinum 16 times in the U.S., became the best-selling album of 1995, and was one of the fastest-selling debut albums of all time.

Aldean's latest album is set to be released on Friday. It's title could be a nod to Hootie & the Blowfish's mega hit, as it's named "Rearview Town."

Rucker has said in the past he and Sonefeld, Felber and Bryan have no plans to mount a full-scale reunion.

“You know, life's going pretty good for everybody right now, so we're not really dying to get back together and do a tour or anything like that. But, you know, someday," Rucker said to abcnews.go.com in 2017.