The lead singer of the chart-topping 1990s act Hootie & the Blowfish, Darius Rucker started flirting with a solo career in the early 2000s, while still singing with the band. He first applied his distinctively deep, emotive vocals to R&B songs, and then, after the Blowfish broke up for good, Rucker defied F. Scott Fitzgerald's law against second acts, reinventing himself as a country star and as a successful one at that, his run of hits nearly rivaling his Hootie days.
