As Hootie & the Blowfish hits DTE, reflections on boom times, bad times

It was 25 years ago this summer that Hootie & the Blowfish began its march to musical domination — rising out of the Carolinas club circuit to notch one of the bestselling albums in U.S. history.

In retrospect, the band's breezy, soulful pop-rock seemed custom-made for its era, and Hootie became inescapable in the mid-'90s, as hits such as "Hold My Hand" and "Only Wanna Be With You" ultimately helped move more than 16 million copies of the quartet's debut album, "Cracked Rear View."

But within a decade, the once-ubiquitous band had lost its momentum, quietly slipping off the radar while vocalist Darius Rucker gambled on a country-music detour that paid off in a big way.

Still, there's nothing like a long absence to rebuild appetites, and this year's Hootie reunion tour — its first full-scale outing since 2008 — has been a booming success, pulling packed crowds and big box-office dollars as the band traverses the country, including a scheduled Friday show at DTE Energy Music Theatre.

The band's Group Therapy Tour will be followed by the Nov. 1 release of "Imperfect Circle" (Capitol Nashville), Hootie & the Blowfish's first album in 13 years. A sneak peek of the upcoming record reveals warm, melodic songs that sound plucked right from 1995.

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This 25th anniversary of "Cracked Rear View" has the group in a reflective mood, and drummer Jim (Soni) Sonefeld spoke with the Free Press to look back as he tours the country with Rucker, guitarist Mark Bryan and bassist Dean Felber.

QUESTION: Thinking back on that massive success 25 years ago, what were you guys doing that resonated so widely?

ANSWER: Audiences are always on the lookout for the next new sound. What sounds fresh? What sounds, “Ooh, I haven’t felt that before"? I think we offered that to them, which goes against what we were later accused of — which was being too simple, too melodic, not rebellious enough.

But the fact is, our music was going against what was currently swamping the airwaves, which was grunge. Maybe we weren’t reinventing the wheel, but we were showing people something they needed.

Q: Is there a specific moment you recall when it hit you guys: "This thing is really taking off"?

A: Something that strikes me, which I’ve been thinking about lately, is the record-sales tabulations coming in by Christmas of ’94, on an old Xerox’d copy that was faxed, and seeing just how playing on David Letterman affected our numbers. Our spins on the radio really started ramping up, as did our weekly sales in record stores. And that was like, “Wow, this is actually blowing up!”

But we didn’t get to see the physical audiences manifest until the summer of ’95, when we did an amphitheater tour.

Q: Were you conscious then of taking in the moment, or did life become a big, rushed blur?

A: I’ve spent the last year digging through old calendars trying to get some perspective on that. It’s really exciting to see just what we did, how fast we were moving, how much we were willing to work, because we just loved what we were doing. That period when we were still playing clubs in the summer of ’94, going up and opening for Big Head Todd and Toad the Wet Sprocket for several months as 1995 rolled in — that was just blissful music-making for all of us. 

We’d been touring the Southeast and Northeast. Now suddenly we're in the Midwest and Texas, and had the opportunity to go west to new audiences who knew ("Hold My Hand"), which was crazy. It was very joyful. We had our first tour bus. Cell phones had not crept in to ruin our lives. (Laughs)

Q: Things cooled down by the mid-2000s. When the group eventually fell away, was it a band decision, or driven strictly by Darius’ solo move?

A: It never felt like Darius was going to strike out on his own. He’d put out a more urban-themed record in 2002. He spent a lot of time working on that. Yeah, we were more separate than we used to be, but frankly, we all had something on our plates — for me, it was starting a family. Same with Mark and Dean. And you're trying to define your musical status in your own way.

So when he started making his (2008) country record, it didn’t feel any different than that. Everybody has a responsibility for discovering who they are along the way, and that’s especially important when your crowds are shrinking up and you don’t have a record label dictating some of your movements.

I’ll take either credit or blame for helping set those dominoes going forward. I was ready to get off the road by the beginning of 2008. I was finished with it. I addressed the band, hoping Darius would support the idea, because he’d already recorded his country album. The idea was to take some indefinite time off — no timeline to get back together, which is scary. We would continue to do our (South Carolina) shows for the Hootie foundation, but other than that we weren’t going to do anything. We decided, as a band, that would be our next move. I think I just kicked that first domino over.

Q: You’ve been pretty open about the battles (with alcohol) you’d had at that point.

A: After a couple of years of being sober, I just began to discover myself. And part of what I discovered is I didn’t feel like touring anymore. (Laughs)

Q: The truth is, there was no way at the time to know that Darius would go on to have the success he did in the country world.

A: Oh, absolutely. I remember listening to (the album) the first time, thinking this is some really quality stuff. But I had no idea what a country audience might think of it. A guy from rock, an African-American, isn’t the typical artist country radio was playing. I thought, man, this is a cool album and I hope he does well, but no guarantees.

Q: When did you start kicking the tires again on a full-blown reunion?

A: Five years ago, when the 20th anniversary of “Cracked Rear View” passed, it forced us to say, “Wow, how many years do we want to let go by?” We had to ask that question. At that point we started eyeing 2019 as the 25th anniversary, and thought that might be a good place. But we still had to see. We were having serious conversations by the time 2018 rolled around.

Q: And I imagine there had to be a couple of factors in play: One was obviously you guys and your willingness to do it. But you would also want confidence the audience was going to be there.

A: We had more questions than answers, for sure. Is there an audience? Is there a record label that would want to put out a record and support it? How do we feel about writing when a dozen years have passed? We called Maverick Management, which manages Darius, and asked Clarence Spalding, “Would you please help captain this ship?”

Really it was about listening to us and what we hoped to do. Was it achievable? You can have great dreams of a comeback, but that doesn’t mean it lines up with reality. We had to let them investigate how close we were to reality in the picture we were trying to paint.

Q: Well, it seems like it was a good call.

A: It absolutely was. We weren’t sure how that would all pan out, but honestly, it's surpassed what we thought could happen on some levels. We’ve made an incredible record. We have audiences just cramming these places we’re playing. And that’s indescribable.

I’m feeling fresh. I feel like I have a gift staring out at me every night — the fans, our family that gets to travel with us. We’re well-oiled because of Maverick. It’s all so very, very good.

Contact Detroit Free Press music writer Brian McCollum: 313-223-4450 or bmccollum@freepress.com.

Hootie & the Blowfish

With Barenaked Ladies

7:30 p.m. Fri.

DTE Energy Music Theatre, I-75 at Exit 89, Clarkston

248-377-0100

$29.50 and up