As the lead singer of Hootie and the Blowfish, Darius Rucker watched his debut climb to the top of the charts, selling more than 16 million copies worldwide and becoming the best-selling record of 1995. Seven years later, he went solo as a neo-soul singer, but even with guest turns by Jill Scott and Snoop Dogg, Back to Then couldn't find a place in the market. Now, in his third incarnation, Rucker has come back as a country singer-songwriter, where he says his heart has been all along.

"I've always written country music," says Rucker, talking from his home in Charleston, South Carolina. "Always. Even when I wrote for Hootie, I was writing country songs. That was a joke in our band, that I always brought in country songs, and there's a lot of truth in that. 'Let Her Cry' was a country song. 'Old Man and Me' was a country song that we turned into one of those big Hootie anthems. The first song I learned on guitar was Marshall Tucker Band's 'Fire on the Mountain,' which I played for months straight. And when I started writing, I used those same chords for 'Let Her Cry.' "

Produced by Frank Rogers, who's also produced albums by Brad Paisley, Josh Turner, and Darryl Worley, Learn to Live has already exceeded expectations, going gold three weeks after its release. The first single, "Don't Think I Don't Think About It," reached number one on the country charts, followed closely by his second single, "It Won't Be Like This For Long," which topped the charts six months later. At least three others sound like they could be hit singles, and from start to finish, it's state-of-the-art Nashville country—rich with melodic hooks, clever turns of phrase, and heartfelt, down-home wisdom.

Of the dozen songs, 11 were co-written by Rucker, with another 40 songs left over for the next album, including ones written with Radney Foster, Nanci Griffith, and Jamey Johnson. The songs came quickly, starting with "All I Want," which Rucker and Rogers wrote within 30 minutes of meeting one another. It's a hard country shuffle that's halfway between Foster and Dwight Yoakam—two of Rucker's idols—with a long list of things the singer is willing to leave to his ex, topped by the punchline, "All I want you to leave me / Is alone."
That was the first of seven songs Rucker and Rogers wrote together, and it was all Rucker needed to jump-start his inner country singer-songwriter: a no-nonsense method of writing that was quick, social, and immediately satisfying. "I've never been the kind of guy who's trying to write Abbey Road," Rucker says. "I'm not going to sit around for an hour trying to pick between 'blue' and 'aqua.' I just want to write great songs that make people want to hear them over and over again. That's what I liked when I was a kid, when I heard a song on the radio and knew I just had to hear it again."

At four years old, Rucker already wanted to be a singer, and at 18, as a freshman at the University of South Carolina, he was singing in the shower when a dorm mate—guitarist Mark Bryan—asked if he wanted to be in a band. By the next year, Hootie and the Blowfish had started to gig, and as the set list grew, Rucker found his motivation for learning guitar. "We needed another guitarist in the band, and within months of realizing that, I was playing onstage," he says. "I played every day, the same song over and over, sometimes skipping class just to play guitar all day. Before that, I never had an instrument I could write with—I could come up with a song in my head and sing it, but without having that chord structure, it was too easy to lose the melody. That changed when I started playing guitar."

In Hootie, band members generally wrote on their own, bringing completed songs to the group and sharing writing credits equally. By the band's fifth album, long after they'd reached their peak of popularity, they started to find co-writers and inspiration outside the band. Looking for a new outlet, Rucker stepped out on a limb for 2002's Back to Then, writing nine songs live in the studio, with 14 producers creating the album's backing tracks long after he'd gone home.

"Recording an R&B album is so producer-driven that when you sit down to write, you're really making the record," says Rucker. "The first day, you go in the studio to write and record the basic tracks. The next day, you come in to do your vocals, and after those two days, you're done with the record, and the producers do the rest."
Looking back, the album seems like a lifetime ago to Rucker, who's feeling much more at home as a country singer, with co-writers flying from Nashville to Charleston for writing sessions. He's enjoying the process of meeting people, tossing ideas back and forth, and finishing a new song within a couple of hours. He writes alone, too, mostly during the days, while his children are at school—and especially on Tuesdays, when his favorite golf course is closed.

Apart from a few charity gigs earlier this year, Hootie and the Blowfish are officially on hiatus, and Rucker doesn't expect to record with them again until he's finished two more country albums. He's already finished half a dozen songs for the next album, and the process keeps getting easier.

"Before I started writing this record, I used to think I needed some special kind of inspiration to write," he says. "But after working with these guys, I realize I can write whenever I want. You never know where a great song is going to come from, so you just keep writing, even if some of them suck—even if a lot of them suck. I'll take a hundred that suck for that one hit. And the best part is sitting in a writing session when some line comes into my head, like 'It won't be like this for long.' Right there, I've got the hook, and that's all I need."

DARIUS RUCKER'S GUITARS AND GEAR

• ACOUSTIC GUITARS: Onstage, Darius Rucker relies on several Gibson J-45 acoustics, switching to a Fender Hot Rod Telecaster for a song or two each night. At home, he plays a custom Taylor jumbo built out of koa, and when he wants to write, he reaches for a 1941 Martin 00-18, which he bought after hearing Nanci Griffith's "Listen to the Radio," which includes the line, "I've got a double-o-eighteen Martin guitar in the backseat of the car / I'm leaving Mississippi with the radio on."
• ACOUSTIC STRINGS: D'Addario EXP17 coated phosphor-bronze medium-gauge and occasionally D'Addario EXP19 coated phosphor-bronze light-gauge top/medium-gauge bottom.
• PICKUPS: The Gibsons use factory-installed Fishman and L.R. Baggs active bridge pickups.
• WIRELESS: Shure UHF-R wireless system on all instruments.
• CAPO: Dunlop.
• PICKS: Custom-imprinted picks by Dunlop, with Rucker's name on one side and the University of South Carolina gamecock on the other.