Tonight, Hootie and the Blowfish reunites for a rare out-of-state appearance where it all began for them, on the “Late Show with David Letterman. Set your DVRs.
The way the story goes, Letterman summoned the Hootie guys to New York City in 1994 after hearing “Hold My Hand” on the radio, hyping the just-released “Cracked Rear View,” saying, “If you don’t have this album, there’s something wrong with you.”
After their first appearance on Letterman, the guys who started playing gigs in Columbia for beer money went on to have one of the best-selling albums of all time, have been blamed for ‘killing grunge,’ and were named one of five bands it’s OK to hate by Chuck Klosterman. (The others: Nickelback, Creed, Bush, and Limp Bizkit.)
Rucker, now a successful country artist who lives in Charleston, and his Hootie bandmates have been teasing a reunion for some time.
“We know we’re gonna do it again sometime,” Rucker told Jess Oliver of Can’t Kids in March.
Rucker gave initial word of the Letterman appearance to CMT earlier this week.
Over the next few weeks, the Ed Sullivan Theater will play host a number of brand-name musicians stopping in to pay their respects to Letterman before he retires on May 20.
Watch Hootie play “Let Her Cry” on Letterman in 1995:
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