4 ARTS & CULTURE
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2019
ARTS & CULTURE 5
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2019
Homecoming Hootie:
Columbia reflects on the band’s legacy F
ew bands see their music passed d o w n t h r o u g h g e n e r at io n s , sta nding t he test of t ime. According to M ichael M iller, Hootie & The Blowfish is one of the rare groups that has done just that, and nowhere is it s legac y st ronger t ha n t he cit y of Columbia. Miller was the entertainment editor at The State when Hootie was just a cover band, play ing most ly at fraternit y and sorority parties on campus. He remembers when they started writing their own music, and he remembers when they signed with At lant ic Records. He remembers how, through it all, they stayed true to the place where it all began. “I mean, they’re kind of South Carolina’s band at this point,” Miller said. “They always were proud to be from Columbia, and they were proud to be from USC. They had Gamecock stuff on in those ‘95 and ‘96 tours when they were going out and playing to thousands of people.” The band started to take shape in 1985 when freshmen Darius Rucker and Mark Br yan met at USC. Jan Smoak, current director of scholar programs at USC, was also a freshman at the time. In one of her earliest college memories, Smoak recalled meet ing a f riend at The Honeycombs, student housing once located where the Honors Residence Hall now stands, during COURTESY OF MICHAEL MILLER her first two weeks of class. “During our evening, there was just a The members of Hootie & The Blowfish have had a lasting impact on the Columbia community ever since meeting at USC. group of guys and girls who had assembled Despite this apparent loss of a major hit, the other local bands as they raced to see who in somebody’s room,” Smoak said. “They Tootie and the Jones’ lead singer, Murray would score a record deal first. started playing and just singing songs, right? Baroody, said there are no hard feelings I n 1994, bot h bands received a major Just kind of like this really impromptu little between the two groups. platform on which to showcase their music. “They have been so gracious to me over Blightobody won a competition to perform t he years,” Baroody sa id. “I’ve had t he on “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” and opportunity to sit in and play just a few songs Hootie received a call on behalf of David here and there throughout their tours over Letterman to appear on the “Late Show.” the last 25 years and been able to go, kind “We played, and then the following week of, travel some shows with them, and I was was when Hootie & The Blowfish played on fortunate enough to get to spend a little Letterman,” Furr said. “And the difference time with them on this tour, as well.” was that when we did it, it was the beginning Many of Columbia’s residents recount of the end of our music career, and when similar stories of generosity extended from they did it, it was the beginning of their the members of Hootie. superstardom.” Furr lived next door to Rucker and Felber Hoot ie was sudden ly at t he center of a rou nd 1989, when he was i n t he ba nd national attention, but the band didn’t forget Blightobody. He said there was a healthy its friends in Columbia. competition between himself, Hootie and Hootie bought a new Gamecock garnet
“I THINK IF I HAD A VOTE, I WOULD’VE SAID, ‘NO, THAT’D BE A HORRIBLE NAME FOR A BAND,’” SONEFELD, WHO STILL LIVES IN COLUMBIA TODAY, SAID.
music circle, and Mark and Darius were part of that little circle of friends that we were all hanging out with.” This music circle was just the beginning of Bryan and Rucker’s collaboration, as the two would soon join up with fellow students Dean Felber and Brantley Smith to form Hootie & The Blowfish, whose name was inspired by two of Rucker’s friends from Carolina Alive. It wasn’t until 1989 – long after the name was settled – that Jim Sonefeld filled in for Smith on drums. “I think if I had a vote, I would’ve said, ‘No, that’d be a horrible name for a band,’” Sonefeld, who still lives in Columbia today, said. Regardless of his thoughts on the name, Sonefeld would eventually join Hootie out of a shared interest in writing original music. At the time, Sonefeld was a member of Tootie and the Jones, another USC band, and was sitting on a track that would one day become one of Hootie’s most recognizable hits: “Hold My Hand.” In a maneuver John Furr, a friend of the band, calls the “Hootie-Tootie Shuff le,” Sonefeld left Tootie and the Jones to join Hootie & The Blowfish, bringing “Hold My Hand” with him. The track would go on to chart in Billboard’s Top 10 in 1995 and find a spot on the band’s 21-time platinum album, “Cracked Rear View.”
we knew them when... Mark Berson “One of the memories that I know that was really
funny – it was a secondhand story, but Jim’s roommate was Dave Golan. And Dave also, of course, played for me, and Dave went on to coach for many years as a coach in division one. And when they were roommates, one of the stories that Dave told me that I thought was really funny was Jim was playing, was working on a song, and said to Dave, ‘What do you think of this? What do you think of it?’ And Dave was like, ‘Nah, I don’t, I don’t think – I don’t know, it’s OK.’ And it was ‘Hold My Hand.’” COURTESY OF TODD AND CHRIS OWYOUNG
Hometown: Silver Spring, MD Major: Broadcast journalism Role: Lead guitarist
Jim sonefeld
COURTESY OF MICHAEL MILLER
Hometown: Lansing, MI Major: Media arts Role: Drums and percussion
Mike Miller “One winter I went over [to England]. I had a friend
Mark Bryan, Dean Felber, Darius Rucker and Jim Sonefeld have reunited after a decade-long hiatus.
van, and when Blightobody’s van broke down, Hoot ie sold its old one to t hem. However, Blightobody couldn’t afford the van just yet, so the members of Hootie said to just pay them back when they were able. This generosity, Furr said, is just who the guys are. Hootie & The Blowfish later brought MTV to Columbia when they performed an unplugged concert on the Horseshoe. Since Sonefeld was a member of USC’s soccer team, MTV did a piece showcasing Stone Stadium. Mark Berson, head coach of the South Carolina men’s soccer team and a mentor to Sonefeld, said MTV’s stop in Columbia was significant for the small city. “To my knowledge, it’s the only stadium that’s been on MTV, which for students right now might be just a blurred memory way back, but at the time it was a pretty big deal,” Berson said. MTV shined a spotlight on Columbia, putting it on t he map as an area worth visiting for its pop culture relevance and vibrant music scene. Perhaps t he g reatest aspect o f t h e b a n d’s success stor y lies in its hard work. Hootie spent years practicing in front of crowds at bars in order to perfect its craft, according to Sonefeld. Their first show at COURTESY OF MICHAEL MILLER Rockafella’s, one of Columbia’s former music venues, saw a crowd of about 25 people. A few yea r s later, t he y were sel l i ng out venues. Nobody can claim they lucked into their success, Miller said. “ I d o n’t k no w who it was, it might COURTESY OF TODD AND CHRIS OWYOUNG have been Soni or Hootie and The Blowfish performs a show earlier this year during its Group Therapy Tour. The tour shares its name with a Five Points bar here in Columbia.
Mark Bryan
COURTESY OF MICHAEL MILLER
COURTESY OF TODD AND CHRIS OWYOUNG
Mark or somebody told me, ‘We toured for 10 years in a beat up Ford van, all of us sleeping in the back of it and smelling each other’s feet and stuff, trying to sleep. If we can get through that for eight or nine years or whatever, this is easy,’” Miller said. “They paid their dues for a lot of years on the road.” After their first record deal fell through with a small label out of California, the band decided to do their own promotion. They sold their EP, “Kootchypop,” at their shows, and their sales picked up so much traction that they caught the eyes of record labels, leading to their deal with Atlantic Records. Sonefeld was one of t he hardest work ing players to ever wear a USC jersey, Berson said, so it was only natural that he’d devote that same energy to his music career. “That was not any surprise that that translated i nto t he t y pe of at t it ude a nd t he t y pe of willpower that you have to have to succeed in something like the music industr y, which is really, obviously, really, really tough,” Berson said. “You not only have to be talented, but you have to be willing to work really hard, and really dedicated.” Hootie & The Blowfish are now on the tail end of their first tour in over a decade, which also happens to be their most successful tour in history, grossing over $10 million. Their three night stop in Columbia this week will round out the North American leg in a series of sold-out shows. “We never felt special,” Sonefeld said. “And we never really even felt that our music was that special, but we had a strong belief that if we got to a bigger audience, that they would eat it up, that they would really like it.” Sonefeld said Hootie & The Blowfish have no plans to continue recording or touring after their Group Therapy Tour comes to an end. However, fans can rest assured that the band won’t be breaking up any time soon, either. “Sometimes when a band’s together for 25 years, you kind of get tired of hanging out with them, but they haven’t,” Miller said. “They’ve had a very strong bond, like a family.” Hootie & The Blowfish will play three nights at Colonial Life A rena Sept. 11 to 13. Their album, “Imperfect Circle,” the first since 2005, comes out Nov. 1.
who lived in Essex outside of London, and I went over a lot in the wintertime ‘cause airfares were cheap and I really got where I enjoyed going over in England and knocking around in the wintertime when there weren’t any tourists around, and Hootie was playing in Cambridge at a place called The Corn Exchange. Well, I didn’t even tell them I was gonna be there, but my friend and I decided, ‘Let’s go up and see Hootie.’ You know, they’re from my hometown and stuff, so she drove, and I rode. We went up to The Corn Exchange in Cambridge one night, and just sort of walked up to the backdoor and said, ‘Hey, guys,’ and they went, ‘Mike Miller, what are you doing here?’ And it was so neat, it was such an interesting evening to just surprise them, to see the look on their faces when I just showed up.”
just call them ‘the guys in the band.’ I don’t think we even really much called them Hootie & The Blowfish, ‘cause we all knew who they were. I guess there’s one other memory that I have of our sorority chapter. We were having a band party, and our band cancelled at the last minute. I think we used to book a lot of bands from a booking agency in Atlanta, and our band cancelled, and I remember somebody just said, ‘Somebody run over and ask those guys in the band if they’re available to play for our band party Friday night,’ which they did.”
COURTESY OF MICHAEL MILLER
HootieGives
Each of Hootie & The Blowfish’s three Columbia shows will benefit a different local charity as a part of their initiative. Wednesday: 9/11 Remembrance Foundation of SC Thursday: Richland County Public Education and SC for Education Friday: Harvest Hope Food Bank
dean felber
Darius rucker
Hometown: Charleston, SC Major: Broadcast journalism Role: Lead vocals and guitar
Jan Smoak “They weren’t a big deal. They were just – we would
Hometown: Bethesda, MD Major: Finance Role: Bass COURTESY OF MICHAEL MILLER