Darius Rucker: Nice Guys Finish First

Darius Rucker photo courtesy of Capitol Nashville.

Aug. 21, 2009 — The site: Sambuca, a trendy restaurant at the edge of downtown Nashville.

The scene: Doc McGhee, the manager of Chris Cagle, is having dinner with Mike Dungan, the head of Capitol Records. Somewhere along the way, Doc and Mike begin talking about another of Doc’s clients, Hootie + The Blowfish. From the conversation comes an idea to sign the ‘90s pop band’s lead singer, Darius Rucker, to a country deal.

Thursday, Darius, Mike, Doc and a contingent of music-industry well-wishers returned to Sambuca, the place where the idea was hatched, to celebrate the platinum status of Learn To Live. Capitol brought out plaques to commemorate a million sales of the CD for Darius, Doc and producer Frank Rogers in an event that became a tad emotional for the label head.

Like every other industry, the music business has been hit hard by the struggling economy. Making it more difficult, the digital revolution has led many music fans to download singles instead of the entire album. Executives have said it requires as much as $1 million just to market a new artist, and Darius was a risk. He had a history in another genre, and country fans can be skeptical about artists trying to cross over. In addition, only one African-American artist, Charley Pride, had ever had consistent success in the genre, and his heyday was 25 years ago.

"We had plenty of people in the early days that told us that they had doubts about this," Mike said, "and that this just would not work."

Mike rightly called the album’s sales, which have now reached 1.3 million copies, a "milestone" for the company, and that’s where his words stumbled. He lauded the platinum award and added that the project had launched three No. 1 singles.

"Through it all, Darius showed us one thing prominently and always, which was that he was a nice guy," Mike gushed. "The nice-guy part of him carries through everything that he does. And more than anything, I’m proud that in addition to our accomplishments here today, I’m friends with a really nice guy."

Sappy? Well, yeah. And Darius could have potentially shrugged it all off. Platinum? He’s seen that before. Hootie’s Cracked Rear View was certified for sales of 16 million copies. But he recognized that Capitol had wagered much more on him than he had risked on them.

"If this hadn’t worked for me, it would’ve been a flop and I’d have gone on and I’d have spent my millions and lived my life and been fine," he said. "But [Dungan], man, took a chance on somethin' that nobody really wanted. You talk to anybody that’s runnin’ a label right now and they’ll tell you they would’ve signed me. And they’re all lying. [Mike] took a chance, and I say to people all the time, ‘I’m happy for me, but damn, am I happy for Mike Dungan!’"

Darius won’t have the opportunity to hang his plaque at home in South Carolina for some time. He’s in Hampton Beach, N.H., on Friday and Hyannis, Mass., on Saturday. He returns to Nashville for a Monday show at the Grand Ole Opry House as part of the Samsung/AT&T Summer Krush free concert series.