After Hootie & the Blowfish went on indefinite hiatus in 2008, most of us believed that we saw the last of the American rock band. It turns out that we were wrong since Darius Rucker, Mark Bryan, Dean Felber, and Jim Sonefeld recently met up and decided to get the band back together.
According to the press release, Hootie & the Blowfish will embark on a tour in 2019, their first in more than a decade, while also presenting a new studio album.
“We’ve been talking about doing this for a while and the 25th anniversary of Cracked Rear View just seemed like a good time to make another record and go out on tour and play for all the folks that used to come out and see us all the time. We haven’t been on tour in 12 years, so it just seemed like the right time to do it,” said singer Darius Rucker.
According to Rucker, despite the long hiatus, the new material will have that Hootie & the Blowfish signature sound.
“We’ve been writing a bunch of different stuff, and I’m really happy with the songs,” – he added. “No matter what we do we’re a rock and roll band, so it’s going to sound like Hootie & the Blowfish.”
The band’s new tour, titled Group Therapy Tour and featuring Canadian rockers Barenaked Ladies, will kick off May 30th, 2019 in Virginia Beach and see them playing in more than 40 U.S. cities before wrapping up the journey on September 13th in Columbia, South Carolina.
Before the hiatus, Hootie & the Blowfish released five studio albums, most of which ended up having strong commercial success. The band managed to sell over 21 million records in the United States while also being fairly popular in Canada. They also have two Grammy Awards, Best New Artist and Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals for the song “Let Her Cry,” both won in 1996.
