Darius Rucker Surprised With Invitation To Join The Grand Ole Opry

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Darius Rucker is officially a member of the Grand Ole Opry. The longtime Hootie & The Blowfish frontman started exploring his passion for country music a few years back, and the transition has proven to be very successful. He’s sold out numerous concerts, moved a ton of albums and now, been welcomed into the most exclusive club in Nashville, Tennessee.

According to The Tennessean, the invitation was offered during Rucker’s performance on Tuesday. The singer was in between songs when Brad Paisley suddenly stood up in the crowd, asked if he could ask a question and offered up an Opry membership. Shocked but elated, Rucker immediately accepted. Later, he found out his wife, his children and even his buddies from South Carolina were all told about the impending honor ahead of time, and they were there to greet him as soon as he got off stage.

"The Opry is the heart of country music, and I’m a member now. That means they’ve accepted me even more. It’s huge for an artist to know that what they’re trying to do, they’re succeeding with it."

Rucker has always been one of the good guys in music. He remained humble after Hoote & The Blowfish sold millions of albums, and he even remained good spirited after people inexplicably and stupidly turned against the band for being too radio-friendly. Good for him for getting his Opray membership card. No doubt he will pay tribute to all the legends who stood on that stage before him for the rest of his life.

Mack Rawden
Editor In Chief

Mack Rawden is the Editor-In-Chief of CinemaBlend. He first started working at the publication as a writer back in 2007 and has held various jobs at the site in the time since including Managing Editor, Pop Culture Editor and Staff Writer. He now splits his time between working on CinemaBlend’s user experience, helping to plan the site’s editorial direction and writing passionate articles about niche entertainment topics he’s into. He graduated from Indiana University with a degree in English (go Hoosiers!) and has been interviewed and quoted in a variety of publications including Digiday. Enthusiastic about Clue, case-of-the-week mysteries, a great wrestling promo and cookies at Disney World. Less enthusiastic about the pricing structure of cable, loud noises and Tuesdays.