Darius Rucker to Host New SiriusXM Golf Show
Second only to music, Darius Rucker‘s chief habit is the game of golf. Now, the country singer and single-digit handicap player is getting his own SiriusXM radio show to discuss life on the links. On Par With Darius Rucker will debut July 26th at 3:00 p.m./ET on SiriusXM’s PGA Tour Radio and air monthly on the station.
But Rucker, who is preparing for the release of his fifth country album, says his radio show will also involve music.
“The part I’m so excited about it is you always see golfers with their headphones in hitting balls. I want to know what they’re listening to when they’re doing that,” he tells Rolling Stone Country. “I want to pick their brains about their music, why they like it and what gets them motivated. It’s not ‘Why do you play Titleist?’ It’s ‘Why do you listen to AC/DC?'”
Although the show will initially focus on interviews with PGA and Senior Tour stars, Rucker says he’d like to expand it to guys like himself: devoted players who make their bones in music. “I’d love to interview Justin Timberlake or other musicians who play golf and talk to them about the game,” he says.
Rucker says the game is a metaphor for life and hopes that even non-golfers will tune in for that perspective. “I’d like to catch that fringe person who is kind of interested, because we’ll make it more human than just the game,” he says. “It’s about being a person and not just being into one thing, like golf, but a lot of things.”
Earlier this month, the Grammy-winning Rucker, who famously fronted Hootie & the Blowfish in the Nineties, released his new single “For the First Time,” the follow-up to his Number One “If I Told You.” Along with looking forward to his new album, the South Carolina native is already gearing up for NFL football season, when he finds himself hooked on sports radio.
“When football season comes, I can’t turn it off,” he admits. “I just love the homers – the guy who when the team is 6-2, they can do no wrong, but when they’re 2-6, they can do no right. I love those guys.”