Hootie & the Blowfish Singer Darius Rucker Breaks Silence on Drug-Related Arrest

Darius Rucker is owning up to his past.

Several months after he was arrested on misdemeanor drug-related charges in Tennessee, the Hootie & the Blowfish singer made his first comments about the incident and shared the arrest actually stemmed from an incident a year prior.

"I went down and we handled it," Darius told Craig Melvin of his ongoing case on Today May 28. "My lawyers are taking care of it. It is what it is."

The Grammy winner revealed what led to the incident that occurred Feb. 19, 2023, per TMZ, for which he was charged with two counts of simple possession or casual exchange, as well as violation of registration law, the Williamson County Sheriff's Office confirmed to E! News following his arrest.

"It was funny because I was going to a friend's house, they were moving and asked me to take some stuff," he recalled. "I did and got pulled, got stopped. And the crazy thing was, they let me go."

"And it was a year later that I get a phone call that said there was a warrant for my arrest," the 58-year-old continued. "So I went down. Fifty-seven years, I've never seen the inside of a jail cell."

As for why Darius held onto the substance as a favor for his friends?

"They were moving and couldn't fly with it," he explained. "They said, 'Can you take this?' and I said, 'Yeah.'"

Darius has always been candid about his past substance abuse with mushrooms, ecstasy, cocaine and more, he revealed in his upcoming memoir Life's Too Short. And he credited his ex-wife Beth Leonard—with whom he shares kids Jack, 19, and Daniella, 23—for encouraging him to quit.

"When I quit, I quit," he explained. "It was one of those things where one day I was just told that I had to quit, so I walked away from it. And it was the best thing that's ever happened to me. I say all the time that Beth saved my life when she did that."

The "Let Her Cry" singer is grateful that he and the rest of the band—Mark Bryan, Dean Felber and Jim Sonefeld—have changed their lives for the better.

"We sit around and we talk," Darius, who is also dad to Caroline, 28, with ex Elizabeth Ann Phillips, noted. "We're happy all four of us are still together and can do this because one of us could not be here real easy."

E! News has reached out to reps for Darius, the Franklin Police Department and the Williamson County Sheriff's Office and has not heard back.

(E! News and Today are part of the NBCUniversal family.)

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