Hootie & the Blowfish’s Darius Rucker Speaks Out on Drug Arrest

Country music star Darius Rucker has spoken out for the first time about his confusing arrest warrant after being jailed on minor drug charges in Tennessee earlier this year.

The Grammy winner was arrested on two counts of simple possession or casual exchange of a controlled substance and one count of violating the registration law after being stopped in February by police, who found marijuana and psychedelic mushrooms in his car. (Recreational marijuana is legal in 24 states, but not Tennessee.)

“It shocked me,” Rucker told PEOPLE of the arrest warrant, adding that he wasn’t sure what prompted it. Despite having already been arrested in early 2023 for expired tags, Rucker was released without charges at the time. “My friends who worked in law enforcement were like, ‘Have you upset anyone here?’ Because it’s crazy that they’re doing this a year later. But I think someone wanted to make an example of me, and he did.”

“I’m handling it with my lawyers,” Rucker said. “And pay the price, and we will move on with our lives.” He added of his recent drug arrest: “It sucks. Fifty-seven years old, never seen in a police car or in jail, and I’m getting arrested for this.

The ‘Wagon Wheel’ singer is currently celebrating the release of his memoir Life is too short (available now), about his life and music as the leader of Hootie & the Blowfish and a solo artist. “I always said I would write (a memoir) when my kids were old enough to handle it,” Rucker said in a recent interview with Weekly Entertainment. “I had a great relationship with my kids, and there’s nothing they probably don’t know. I always said if I wrote it, I was just going to tell the truth. And that’s is what we did.”

Hootie & the Blowfish is also set to embark on a 43-city tour of the United States and Canada, kicking off May 30 in Dallas.