SC favorite, Hootie & the Blowfish, exclusive biography to hit stores near you soon
Written by the man who first signed Hootie & the Blowfish to Atlantic Records, famous in his own right, Tim Sommer chronicles the life of the South Carolina band that made it big.
Coming online and to a Barnes and Noble near you, “Only Wanna Be With You” hit the shelves for the first time on Thursday.
“Only Wanna Be With You” details the years the band spent together and South Carolina native Darius Rucker’s rise to solo artist success, following the band’s breakaway that ended with the ultimate comeback story.
“Telling their story allows me to tell the story of the extraordinary live music scene and college rock scene that existed in the Carolinas in the 1980’s and 90’s, which Hootie & the Blowfish emerged from,” Sommer said.
The biography recounts a story of friendship, in the notably less-friendly world of music, for one of America’s most well-known bands of their time. The book includes extensive new interviews with the band members who Sommer still remains friends with today, as well as personal stories from the recording studio, tour bus and on the golf course.
Described as “essential reading for Hootie lovers and music buffs,” the story is said to spare no detail.
The story describes the close friendship between Sommer and the band, mistakes made, the proximity of his experiences and reflects objectivity to the sort of “strange, wonderful and horrible things that happened to them.”
“We never lost touch. Being part of the experience, the Hootie phenomenon in 1994, ‘95 and ‘96, we went through that together. I knew at the time that it was something that as a music fan, as a friend of musicians and as a record executive, it was something I would never experience again. So, I stayed very close to it,” Sommer said.
“The thing I say over and over about Hootie & the Blowfish, it’s that rare time when the nicest band you’ve ever met becomes the biggest band you’ve ever known.”
Sommer described the band members’ kindness as an extreme rarity in the music industry and talks fondly of memories from the years he spent with them in the 1990’s as well as the instant pull he had to the group when he met and saw them for the first time in the South Carolina Lowcountry.
“One of the things I say repeatedly in the book is on the first night I saw them in Charleston, SC, in the summer of 1993, I instantly recognized them as people who loved R.E.M. as much as I did and that’s one of the instant things that drew us together,” Sommer said.
Sommer and the band met for the first time that summer night, at a place called Myskyns, in Charleston.
“I instantly decided to sign them, which is not something you’re supposed to do. You’re supposed to run it by your superiors in Los Angeles and New York, but I made an instant decision that I was going to sign that band and that I was going to do what it takes, that no one was going to say no to me. I could be very, sort of, firm in my opinions in those days. I knew instantly.”
“I did not know that they were going to be huge. I did not see that. I did see that they were people that I wanted to work with. I did see that they were people I wanted to have my career associated with. I did see instantly that they were people I wanted to be friends with,” Sommer said regarding the night he saw Hootie & the Blowfish for the first time ever.
“One of the things I say in the book is that Hootie & the Blowfish made history with their sales. Darius Rucker, on the other hand, his success was historic.”
“Hootie & the Blowfish formed a band because they were friends. They would have continued to play even if Atlantic Records had passed on them and not signed them. Even if Atlantic Records put out “Cracked Rear View” and it sold 10,000 copies, not 25 million. Hootie & the Blowfish would have stayed together because they were friends and they wanted to make music together. That’s the story that I wanted to tell. I wanted to tell the story of friends who made music for all the right reasons.”
More about the biography
“Only Wanna Be With You” is a biography written with exclusive, insider knowledge by the man who signed Hootie & the Blowfish and helped them propel their rise to fame.
The band has an origin story dating back to 1985 in the state of South Carolina. It was there where Mark Bryan heard Darius Rucker singing in a dorm shower at the University of South Carolina and asked him to form a band.
Published by The University of South Carolina Press, this 296-page biography pulls back the lid of how the band defied the record-industry odds for its time, the massive success and near-cancellation of their major-label debut, “Cracked Rear View,” their 2008 separation and more.
About the Author
Tim Sommer has been a journalist, musician and record producer. He was also a former MTV and VH1 producer, news VJ, and specialty VJ, among other accomplishments.
Sommer has first-hand knowledge of Hootie & the Blowfish, from a personal as well as professional standpoint, as he worked closely with them over the years. In addition to his already extensive resume, Sommer worked as an A&R executive at Atlantic Records where he personally signed the band to that label. He was directly involved with recording their debut album, “Cracked Rear View,” which was released in the summer of 1994 and has sold over 21 million copies in the United States alone and is one of the top 10 selling records of all time.
“It was something probably since I was 14 years old, I’d dreamed of writing a book. It seems extraordinary that it took me this long to do it, but I was very proud and I am proud to be a footnote in their amazing story,” Sommer said.
“Only Wanna Be With You,” by Tim Sommer, can be purchased at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and select stores.
This story was originally published April 28, 2022 at 5:00 AM with the headline "SC favorite, Hootie & the Blowfish, exclusive biography to hit stores near you soon."
