September 22, 2025 • 8 mins
In this unforgettable episode, country star Scotty McCreery sits down with the iconic band Hootie & the Blowfish to talk about the magic behind their recent collaboration. From the first spark of inspiration to the final mix, the guys break down the creative process and share stories from the studio that brought the song to life. Scotty opens up about what it meant to work with Darius Rucker and the band he’s admired since childhood, reflecting on how their music shaped his own journey. It’s a heartfelt, behind-the-scenes look at the making of a track that bridges generations and genres. Whether you're a longtime Hootie fan or a Scotty devotee, this episode is packed with insight, laughter, and a whole lot of musical soul.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Scotty, it's been a minute since we saw you c
m a fest Darius. Obviously, we saw you at the
Rhyman show for Saint Jude again.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
This year again. Man, dude, it's it's an absolute pleasure. Man.
Uh let me, Scotty.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
I'm gonna start start with you, because anytime a song
is referenced, I'm gonna use the word older, but no
offense to the band, Okay, But anytime a song that
is I almost said classic. Anytime a song that is
referenced that was impactful, that's.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
What we're gonna say. Uh uh.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Usually like it's just referenced, or it's sampled, or it's covered.
At what point did you know that that this song
was gonna fit into Bottle Rockets?
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (00:46):
Well, you know, I mean I grew up in North Carolina,
and I mean these guys right here are huge everywhere,
but in the Carolina's especially all the royalty, you know.
So I grew up hearing their songs in restaurants and bars,
at baseball games wherever you go. There UI was playing,
So I heard cracked review everywhere I went. So we
were writing Bottle Rockets. We were talking about reminiscent on
(01:07):
summers and the soundtracks of those summers, and I was
the one that blurted out. I mean I listened to
Hooti and the Blowfish when I was growing up. And
then Frank Rodgers is the one that kind of went
in to hold my hand after the chorus, and we
were like, well that kind of works, so.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
We went with it.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
But why include the band? You could have easily just
covered it, Like why were you?
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Like?
Speaker 2 (01:26):
No, do I want these guys a part of this project?
Speaker 5 (01:28):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (01:29):
I don't think we ever even thought about just pulling
it from the record or sampling it. I mean to
us that I did the demo just myself singing it
and it didn't quite have the magic. But I just
wanted to see if they'd be willing to come on
the song. And you know, I know this song's got
to be one of y'all's babies, so I was kind
of nervous to ask, if I'm honest, But luckily they
(01:50):
loved it and wanted to jump on, and it took
it from a song I really loved to one of
my favorite things I've ever done.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
It's it's such a great song.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
And now, Darius, you guys, when when the call came
in that Scotty didn't just want to sample it. He
wanted you guys to physically get together and be a
part of it. What did that mean to you guys
as a whole?
Speaker 6 (02:08):
Oh, Frank Frank Cole Frank called me in and said
they had the idea, you know, And I told him,
you know, Scotty and I were friends a long time,
and I was like, you know, I love the idea.
Speaker 7 (02:20):
You know, we got to send this a song. And uh,
he said a song. I loved it. And then he
said to these guys and it was just like it
made sense.
Speaker 6 (02:29):
It just made sense.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
I was recorded to you were saying you are already
in the studio, I mean together as a hole in
Charleston when when we were in the studio about to cut.
So kind of just worked out and I sure did.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
And let me just put on record that this Bottle
Rockets is a great song. We didn't need to help
him hold my hand on its sou So the fact
that you guys included us is just such an honor.
And it's a little butter and gravy on top of
what is already a great song.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
Yeah, I appreciate it, man.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Thank you knowing that you know.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
And and I say this with all the respect in
the world for Hooting in the Blowfish, because that Cracked
Rearview album raised me more than my own parents did
at one point. So, but to know that when you
hear like like samples or songs that have inspired other people,
you're hearing George Straight, You're hearing you know, all these
(03:20):
all these legendary names, and then to hear an artist
go hey, like Hooting in the Blowfish, This is like
an inspiration to me. What does that mean to you
to be that George Straight to a guy like Scotty, Oh.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
My gosh, it's an honor.
Speaker 5 (03:32):
It's Darius was close. He said it was thirty years ago.
It was thirty six years ago when Blowfish first started
playing the song. Now, nobody in the world had heard
it because we had about eighteen fans, but it was
thirty six years ago we started playing it together. So
to hear something that feels old and by us recording
with Scotty, it feels nostalgic. Instead of feeling like it
(03:56):
was sample, it actually feels like we were there and
we were so I think that's what changes the vibe
a little bit. It throws back literally to another time
that we're all sort of trying to recapture.
Speaker 6 (04:08):
And the thing that was really amazing to me was
Frank Rodgers.
Speaker 7 (04:12):
I mean it sounds exactly like the record. Yeah, I
mean it's shocking for me, you know when people come
to me and said, that's a great samp hole, Like
that's not a sample when it's sung it again, but
it just sounds so great. It's also it's like the record.
It just fits in there so perfectly.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
I love this all when it comes to to what
Hooty and the Blowfish have meant to so many people.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
And obviously you're on the song with Scotty.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Every artist you don't have a you don't have a
song you dislike, right, Like there's no ugly babies is
what I always like to say. But if anybody was
going to bring a song back to life and make
it a part of country radio today, would you each
have picked this this to be the one with Scotti?
Speaker 7 (04:53):
Oh?
Speaker 6 (04:53):
I would probably pick learn Cry?
Speaker 7 (04:55):
But yeah, yeah, but hold my hand.
Speaker 4 (04:57):
Bits right, it's been raining all nay. I thought we
were going to school.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Is that the same for you guys as well? Like
you let her cry or hold my hand.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
I think we you know, we have some actually pretty
cool cuts that were that lent themselves to the Americana
country role on our albums that we never really explored
as the time that we could pull back on.
Speaker 5 (05:23):
That'd be fun.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
But you know, as songwriters were, I was looking to
write the best new song ever that's ever been written
out there. So that's kind of where my head's out
a little bait, he goes, I mean, let her cry
definitely seeing.
Speaker 5 (05:37):
I think, uh, anytime you hear an old song start
a new life again, whether it's.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Just the chorus or pre chorus or the whole.
Speaker 5 (05:44):
Thing, it just gives a good feeling of your hard work.
And uh, in songwriting sometimes can last decades. You know,
sometimes nobody cares, but it's always nice when something gets
a new life every few years. I know the Award Show,
the Country Award Show years back, it was done as
the cold opening with with.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
That, it's it's wild as well because when you guys
put that album out, it was more like rock ish
our our alternative or adult contemporary. But now you fast
forward to where it falls more in line with what's
happening with country. Is that weird to watch music you
(06:26):
created at one point, almost like change genres without your control.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
It's funny, It's like it's it shows you that that's
just semantics, right. Music's what's what everybody feels, and that's
the most important thing. And so it's the fact that
we made such a timeless record.
Speaker 4 (06:42):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
You know, I think we felt that while we were
making it. I don't think we knew it was going
to be uh, you know, to the extent that it
has been to our culture. It's so it's a wonderful feeling.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
You know, Scotty, you are a guy who is no
stranger to the country radio.
Speaker 6 (06:56):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
But you also know, sometimes things move quick, and sometimes
they move extremely slow.
Speaker 7 (07:02):
Most of the time, most of the time they moved
extremely slow.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
I wasn't trying to call us out like that, but.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
I think at one point I had the record for
the longest chart run ever, the number one.
Speaker 7 (07:13):
I was like, it got there.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Well, you know, it's okay, you've went from having a
baby to a middle.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Schooler, but it's got the number one.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
What does it mean for you to see this song
moving It's one of your faster moving songs of your
career chart wise, and to be able to share it
with guys that you looked up to when you were younger.
Speaker 4 (07:31):
It's not even closed. I think this has beaten my
next fastest song by like twenty spots, so from from
where we put it out to now. So I don't know,
I've just never gotten a response to a song like this.
I think, you know, like Sony said, we got a
new song, but it makes people kind of reminisce, you know,
and to go back in time and that nostalgia feel
to it. So I've had more people stop me on
the streets about bottle rockets, more people tweeting, more people
(07:55):
passing me on their boat on the lake just bumping
bottle rockets. I'm like, my word, like this song. He's
everywhere right now. So so it's it's been really cool
for me and for me as a fan to have
a song.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
With these guys.
Speaker 4 (08:06):
I've been I've been I never listened to my own music,
but I've been listening to.
Speaker 7 (08:13):
For me, it's been crazy, you know, I've been out,
you know, playing some shows and summer and every you know,
talk to everybody in radio, all the fans and were saying,
you know, so and so on, and that's pretty cool
thing pink part of them.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
But it's funny because, like y'all had mentioned, it had
been thirty plus years since this song came out.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Uh to Hoody and the Blowfish at any point where people.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Are like, oh, that's that's that's that Scotty McCreery's song,
and you're like, well, hang on.
Speaker 4 (08:37):
No, I have not had that yet.
Speaker 7 (08:40):
I'm sure we'll tell me. I'm sure there'll be some
twelve year old kids.
Scotty, it's been a minute since we saw you c
m a fest Darius. Obviously, we saw you at the
Rhyman show for Saint Jude again.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
This year again. Man, dude, it's it's an absolute pleasure. Man.
Uh let me, Scotty.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
I'm gonna start start with you, because anytime a song
is referenced, I'm gonna use the word older, but no
offense to the band, Okay, But anytime a song that
is I almost said classic. Anytime a song that is
referenced that was impactful, that's.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
What we're gonna say. Uh uh.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Usually like it's just referenced, or it's sampled, or it's covered.
At what point did you know that that this song
was gonna fit into Bottle Rockets?
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (00:46):
Well, you know, I mean I grew up in North Carolina,
and I mean these guys right here are huge everywhere,
but in the Carolina's especially all the royalty, you know.
So I grew up hearing their songs in restaurants and bars,
at baseball games wherever you go. There UI was playing,
So I heard cracked review everywhere I went. So we
were writing Bottle Rockets. We were talking about reminiscent on
(01:07):
summers and the soundtracks of those summers, and I was
the one that blurted out. I mean I listened to
Hooti and the Blowfish when I was growing up. And
then Frank Rodgers is the one that kind of went
in to hold my hand after the chorus, and we
were like, well that kind of works, so.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
We went with it.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
But why include the band? You could have easily just
covered it, Like why were you?
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Like?
Speaker 2 (01:26):
No, do I want these guys a part of this project?
Speaker 5 (01:28):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (01:29):
I don't think we ever even thought about just pulling
it from the record or sampling it. I mean to
us that I did the demo just myself singing it
and it didn't quite have the magic. But I just
wanted to see if they'd be willing to come on
the song. And you know, I know this song's got
to be one of y'all's babies, so I was kind
of nervous to ask, if I'm honest, But luckily they
(01:50):
loved it and wanted to jump on, and it took
it from a song I really loved to one of
my favorite things I've ever done.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
It's it's such a great song.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
And now, Darius, you guys, when when the call came
in that Scotty didn't just want to sample it. He
wanted you guys to physically get together and be a
part of it. What did that mean to you guys
as a whole?
Speaker 6 (02:08):
Oh, Frank Frank Cole Frank called me in and said
they had the idea, you know, And I told him,
you know, Scotty and I were friends a long time,
and I was like, you know, I love the idea.
Speaker 7 (02:20):
You know, we got to send this a song. And uh,
he said a song. I loved it. And then he
said to these guys and it was just like it
made sense.
Speaker 6 (02:29):
It just made sense.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
I was recorded to you were saying you are already
in the studio, I mean together as a hole in
Charleston when when we were in the studio about to cut.
So kind of just worked out and I sure did.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
And let me just put on record that this Bottle
Rockets is a great song. We didn't need to help
him hold my hand on its sou So the fact
that you guys included us is just such an honor.
And it's a little butter and gravy on top of
what is already a great song.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
Yeah, I appreciate it, man.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Thank you knowing that you know.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
And and I say this with all the respect in
the world for Hooting in the Blowfish, because that Cracked
Rearview album raised me more than my own parents did
at one point. So, but to know that when you
hear like like samples or songs that have inspired other people,
you're hearing George Straight, You're hearing you know, all these
(03:20):
all these legendary names, and then to hear an artist
go hey, like Hooting in the Blowfish, This is like
an inspiration to me. What does that mean to you
to be that George Straight to a guy like Scotty, Oh.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
My gosh, it's an honor.
Speaker 5 (03:32):
It's Darius was close. He said it was thirty years ago.
It was thirty six years ago when Blowfish first started
playing the song. Now, nobody in the world had heard
it because we had about eighteen fans, but it was
thirty six years ago we started playing it together. So
to hear something that feels old and by us recording
with Scotty, it feels nostalgic. Instead of feeling like it
(03:56):
was sample, it actually feels like we were there and
we were so I think that's what changes the vibe
a little bit. It throws back literally to another time
that we're all sort of trying to recapture.
Speaker 6 (04:08):
And the thing that was really amazing to me was
Frank Rodgers.
Speaker 7 (04:12):
I mean it sounds exactly like the record. Yeah, I
mean it's shocking for me, you know when people come
to me and said, that's a great samp hole, Like
that's not a sample when it's sung it again, but
it just sounds so great. It's also it's like the record.
It just fits in there so perfectly.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
I love this all when it comes to to what
Hooty and the Blowfish have meant to so many people.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
And obviously you're on the song with Scotty.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Every artist you don't have a you don't have a
song you dislike, right, Like there's no ugly babies is
what I always like to say. But if anybody was
going to bring a song back to life and make
it a part of country radio today, would you each
have picked this this to be the one with Scotti?
Speaker 7 (04:53):
Oh?
Speaker 6 (04:53):
I would probably pick learn Cry?
Speaker 7 (04:55):
But yeah, yeah, but hold my hand.
Speaker 4 (04:57):
Bits right, it's been raining all nay. I thought we
were going to school.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Is that the same for you guys as well? Like
you let her cry or hold my hand.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
I think we you know, we have some actually pretty
cool cuts that were that lent themselves to the Americana
country role on our albums that we never really explored
as the time that we could pull back on.
Speaker 5 (05:23):
That'd be fun.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
But you know, as songwriters were, I was looking to
write the best new song ever that's ever been written
out there. So that's kind of where my head's out
a little bait, he goes, I mean, let her cry
definitely seeing.
Speaker 5 (05:37):
I think, uh, anytime you hear an old song start
a new life again, whether it's.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Just the chorus or pre chorus or the whole.
Speaker 5 (05:44):
Thing, it just gives a good feeling of your hard work.
And uh, in songwriting sometimes can last decades. You know,
sometimes nobody cares, but it's always nice when something gets
a new life every few years. I know the Award Show,
the Country Award Show years back, it was done as
the cold opening with with.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
That, it's it's wild as well because when you guys
put that album out, it was more like rock ish
our our alternative or adult contemporary. But now you fast
forward to where it falls more in line with what's
happening with country. Is that weird to watch music you
(06:26):
created at one point, almost like change genres without your control.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
It's funny, It's like it's it shows you that that's
just semantics, right. Music's what's what everybody feels, and that's
the most important thing. And so it's the fact that
we made such a timeless record.
Speaker 4 (06:42):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
You know, I think we felt that while we were
making it. I don't think we knew it was going
to be uh, you know, to the extent that it
has been to our culture. It's so it's a wonderful feeling.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
You know, Scotty, you are a guy who is no
stranger to the country radio.
Speaker 6 (06:56):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
But you also know, sometimes things move quick, and sometimes
they move extremely slow.
Speaker 7 (07:02):
Most of the time, most of the time they moved
extremely slow.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
I wasn't trying to call us out like that, but.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
I think at one point I had the record for
the longest chart run ever, the number one.
Speaker 7 (07:13):
I was like, it got there.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Well, you know, it's okay, you've went from having a
baby to a middle.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Schooler, but it's got the number one.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
What does it mean for you to see this song
moving It's one of your faster moving songs of your
career chart wise, and to be able to share it
with guys that you looked up to when you were younger.
Speaker 4 (07:31):
It's not even closed. I think this has beaten my
next fastest song by like twenty spots, so from from
where we put it out to now. So I don't know,
I've just never gotten a response to a song like this.
I think, you know, like Sony said, we got a
new song, but it makes people kind of reminisce, you know,
and to go back in time and that nostalgia feel
to it. So I've had more people stop me on
the streets about bottle rockets, more people tweeting, more people
(07:55):
passing me on their boat on the lake just bumping
bottle rockets. I'm like, my word, like this song. He's
everywhere right now. So so it's it's been really cool
for me and for me as a fan to have
a song.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
With these guys.
Speaker 4 (08:06):
I've been I've been I never listened to my own music,
but I've been listening to.
Speaker 7 (08:13):
For me, it's been crazy, you know, I've been out,
you know, playing some shows and summer and every you know,
talk to everybody in radio, all the fans and were saying,
you know, so and so on, and that's pretty cool
thing pink part of them.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
But it's funny because, like y'all had mentioned, it had
been thirty plus years since this song came out.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Uh to Hoody and the Blowfish at any point where people.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Are like, oh, that's that's that's that Scotty McCreery's song,
and you're like, well, hang on.
Speaker 4 (08:37):
No, I have not had that yet.
Speaker 7 (08:40):
I'm sure we'll tell me. I'm sure there'll be some
twelve year old kids.
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