Of course Darius Rucker cried on TV. He’s South Carolina’s biggest fan

Darius Rucker had to play a charity concert last Friday. The country singer and ex-Hootie and the Blowfish frontman performs the night before the Bulls Bay Intercollegiate Golf Tournament every year, and usually, taking the stage around 7:15 p.m. isn’t an issue. This year, however, was different: South Carolina was playing Baylor in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament at exactly the same time.

Rucker is arguably the biggest South Carolina fan on the planet. An alum of the school, he’s good friends with head coach Frank Martin and regularly goes to games, visiting the team in the locker room whenever he swings by. He wasn’t about to miss watching the Gamecocks, but he also couldn’t push the concert back. So he did what any die-hard fan who has to play a concert while their team is playing would do: installed TVs on the stage so that he could watch the game and make music at the same time.

I caught up with Rucker — who was spotted crying when the Gamecocks made it to Final Four after beating Florida at Madison Square Garden last weekend — about how many times he messed up during that concert, how psyched he is that both the men and women of South Carolina are in the semifinals of March Madness, and why South Carolina is better than North Carolina.

(Let the record show that I did not ask questions solely using Hootie and the Blowfish lyrics — “Did your tears fall down like rain?” — but I also didn’t not think about it. This interview has been edited and condensed.)

So this is pretty exciting, your team is just killing it this season.

Darius Rucker: I think it’s a testament to Coach Martin, and a testament to this team that has bought into everything Coach Martin is teaching and implementing in terms of what he wants them to do off the court. Defense wins championships, they say, and we’re playing great defense.

You’ve been playing great offense, too. The team is definitely more defensively stacked, but they’re holding their own. I feel like it’s the kind of team you don’t count out until they actually lose, because they don’t seem to be about to do that.

DR: Absolutely. The mentality these kids have, that comes from the coach. I remember being in the locker room after they won the game against Marquette, and Coach Martin said, “Why not win it all?” And I was like, “Wow, he means it.” You get to this point, and it’s great because they’re not happy just to be there. They’re not happy to just make the Final Four. I mean great, great, we won another game, but they feel that they can win it all.

And that’s great to see, and great to be a part of. I hope they’re right. Let’s go win it. Right now, we’re the best basketball school in the country. Our men in the Final Four and our women are in the Final Four. I’d love to find out what it feels like for both of them to win, that’d be pretty awesome.

Have you always been a big basketball fan? Or are you more about supporting the school in everything?

DR: Everything. I do love Gamecock basketball. But I love Gamecock football, Gamebock baseball, Gamecock volleyball. It’s more about supporting the school, but I’m a big basketball fan. Coach Martin and I have been friends ever since he came to the school, and this whole thing has been amazing to be a part of and watch.

I loved the video that hit social media after they won and moved on to the Final Four, where you’re with your son and you’re tearing up. It was very moving.

DR: You know, I was surprised I reacted that way. I really was. I started thinking about Coach Martin and all the naysayers that were there when he first came and said he was going to turn it around. Because had so many people come and say they’re going to turn it around, and no one did. I was thinking about what being a Gamecock used to mean. My freshman year, our football team beat the No. 2 in the country, then our football team got blown out by Navy. I was thinking about having a great basketball team in the mid ’90s, and being a No. 2 seed, and losing in the first round to Coppin State. I was thinking about all those things, and here we are. Going to the Final Four. We just won in the Garden to go to the Final Four. That’s pretty amazing.

Tell me a little bit about your friendship with Coach Martin.

DR: He comes to my shows when I’m around. One time I was in Vegas gambling, and someone taps me on my shoulder, and it’s Coach Martin and his wife. I was like, “What are you all doing here!” So we hung out and had a great time. And I know I can call Coach anytime, and Coach knows he can call me anytime. I’m there for him, there for the team. When I go to basketball games I go into the locker room. I think what he’s doing is absolutely amazing for our school and for our state. And I love Frank Martin. He’s one of the best.

So you recently performed a concert and were watching a game at the same time? The Baylor game?

DR: [Laughs] Yeah we did, we did. We had a couple TVs on the stage for the Baylor game. We couldn’t miss it. It was a charity show we do every year, and we had to play that show. We couldn’t really postpone it or play later, because it’s a golf tournament, and the golfers are there, and they have to go to sleep. We can’t start playing at 10 o’clock. So we decided it was best to just put TVs on the stage, and we did it.

Was it hard to focus? When they did something good would you, like, inadvertently yell or something?

DR: We got lucky, because that game wasn’t close. [Laughs] If it was close, it would’ve been a lot harder to concentrate. I think I only missed one line in one song because they hit a big three, and I went to high five one of the guys in the band, and I missed a line of the song. But that was all we did. It was a good night.

If you had to choose any one of your songs, in either your solo career or a Hootie song, to describe the run of this team, what would it be?

DR: “History in the Making.” That’s what I feel like is happening. It’s just history in the making.

If they win it all, will you sing “One Shining Moment”?

DR: If they win it all, I will sing anything anybody wants me to sing. Absolutely.

You’re going to the Final Four, right?

DR: Absolutely. I’ll be at the game, yeah.

How do you think a North Carolina- South Carolina final matchup could go?

DR: That would be epic. [Laughs] That would be epic. The only words I can think of for that. Goodness gracious, yes. We already have a nice rivalry with barbecue and everything else — I can’t image what that would be like. There’s just that question of which is a better state, which is easy. I mean, South Carolina is a much better state. But just that rivalry of having the same name, with one north and one south. We get along, it’s great, but it’s that rivalry that’s always gonna be there. It’s like when you have that rival high school, or rival college. We’re the rival states.