Darius Rucker Shares Cover Of R.E.M.’s “Everybody Hurts” To Kick Off ‘Songs I Wish I’d Written’ TikTok Series

This new era of Darius Rucker is intriguing.

The 59-year-old artist and former frontman of Hootie & The Blowfish (to be clear, he isn’t Hootie) has had a lot of new things happening in his life as of late. Not too long ago, he hard-launched a relationship with a younger woman named Emily Deahl. She’s a content creator and singer that also hails from the great state of South Carolina (Darius lived in Charleston before moving to London earlier this year). Deahl’s age is unclear, but she appears to be in her late 20s-early 30s.

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A post shared by Darius Rucker (@dariusrucker)

Then came the exciting news that Darius Rucker would be forming a new supergroup called Howl Owl Howl.

The rock group – which is the second band that Darius has been in with an owl-adjacent name – consists of Rucker, R.E.M. co-founder and bassist Mike Mills and The Black Crowes co-founder and drummer Steve Gorman. As Rucker explained the team-up, it’s just a group of friends joining forces to play some rock music:

“It feels great to be singing with a rock band again. It’s like buddies getting together, but also getting to play with your idols. The stuff we’re writing is so different than anything I’ve tried to do before.”

Rucker, Mills and Gorman… how about that for a 90s supergroup?

Since the news apparently had Darius Rucker in the reminiscing mood, the country-and-rock artist took to his TikTok account to share a cover of a song that his now-bandmate had a part in bringing to life. Rucker is calling the series “Songs I Wish I’d Written,” and he kicked off “Episode 1” with his own rendition of the R.E.M. track “Everybody Hurts.”

It’s a song that everyone has heard before, and despite it’s popularity and longevity, it only ever peaked as high as No. 29 on the Billboard Hot 100. Despite that, it’s an all-time classic track, and one that a lot of artists wish they could have thought up themselves…. including Darius Rucker:

“In honor of announcing my new band Howl Owl Howl with Mike Mills & Steve Gorman, here’s episode 1 of ‘Songs I Wish I’d Written.'”

@dariusrucker In honor of announcing my new band @howlowlhowl ♬ original sound – dariusrucker

Darius Rucker can do it all.

Some people prefer his Hootie era, while others (like myself) are big fans of his country music career. It looks like this Howl Owl Howl project will harken back to the times of Hootie & The Blowfish, and it’ll be interesting to see what the supergroup plays night in and night out. They’ve got a lot of catalogues to dip into if they so choose, and if you go and see them at one of their tour stops, I’d bet you are likely to hear “Everybody Hurts.”

Howl Owl Howl Tour 2025:
November 3  ||  Indianapolis, IN  ||  The Vogue
November 4  ||  Chicago, IL  ||  Metro Chicago
November 6  ||  Washington, D.C.  ||  9:30 Club
November 7  ||  Asbury Park, NJ  ||  Stone Pony
November 8  ||  Boston, MA  ||  Paradise Rock Club – Music Hall
November 11  ||  New York, NY  ||  Webster Hall
November 12  ||  Philadelphia, PA  ||  Union Transfer
November 14  ||  Athens, GA  ||  Georgia Theatre
November 15  ||  Atlanta, GA  ||  Variety PlayhouseThe post Darius Rucker Shares Cover Of R.E.M.’s “Everybody Hurts” To Kick Off ‘Songs I Wish I’d Written’ TikTok Series first appeared on Whiskey Riff.