With songs like “Hold My Hand” and “Only Wanna Be with You,” it’s hard to nail down which of Hootie & the Blowfish’s tracks is their best — but you have to admit, “Let Her Cry” is pretty special. In the latest episode of Us Weekly’s “Anatomy of a Song,” Darius Rucker shared some insight into what went into creating the hit tune.
As it turns out, “Let Her Cry” — the band’s second single from their debut album, 1994’s Cracked Rear View — was actually inspired by another ‘90s song. “I went out one night and my buddy — who now runs my life, that’s how long he’s been with me — was a bartender at the time. I was [at his bar] drinking and he played ‘She Talks to Angels’ by The Black Crowes,” the singer told Us. “I made him play it several times.”
“I went to the next bar, made them play it, next bar, made them play it,” Rucker continued, noting “She Talks to Angels” was “just the greatest song I’ve ever heard at that point.”
As he tells it, a “pretty drunk” Rucker went home that night, put on a Bonnie Raitt album and played Madden. But then, “The record ended,” he shared. “I remember saying, ‘I’m going to write this song and figure out the chords.’ It was a stream of consciousness.”
Rucker played the song a few times before retiring to bed — but the next morning, he remembered he had written what would eventually become a fan favorite. “I was living with our bass player Dean [Felber] and I was like, ‘Dean, I wrote a song, we gotta listen to this,’” the “Wagon Wheel” singer continued, noting the pair agreed it was “actually pretty good.”
The music video for “Let Her Cry” was the second one the band had filmed at the time. “We made it at this old house in upstate South Carolina,” the Charleston native shared. “I remember it being hot and we had a great day, but we were so new to it, you could have done anything with us.”
“That’s still one of my favorites,” he added, noting getting a Grammy for “Let Her Cry” is among one of his top career moments, in addition to Cracked Rear View being certified 21-times platinum.
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Three decades later, Rucker and the band are still rockin’. On May 30, Hootie & the Blowfish are hitting the road for the first time since 2019 for the Summer Camp With Trucks Tour with supporting acts Collective Soul and Edwin McCain.
Rucker is also releasing his new book, Life’s Too Short: A Memoir, on May 28 — and he’s excited for loyal fans to learn more about him. “You learn a lot about my childhood, how Hootie got to where we are and how hard we partied,” he added. “The one thing I wanted to do when I decided to write the book is, I wanted to tell the truth — so that’s the one thing [fans] are going to get.”
Life’s Too Short: A Memoir is available for pre-order now.
