Darius Rucker Enjoys Firsts on New Album ‘When Was the Last Time’

When someone has been making music as long as Darius Rucker, there could be the tendency to get a little complacent, but that’s just not in the South Carolina born entertainer’s nature. On his new album, When Was the Last Time, Rucker works with a different producer for the first time in his country career, and he also crossed an item off his bucket list when he wrote with one of his favorite songwriters.

“When they said, ‘Do you want to write with Dean Dillon?’ I couldn’t believe they said that, and I was like, ‘Yeah! Could we do it like for the next three weeks straight?’” Rucker says with a big smile. Dillon has penned such legendary country hits as Kenny Chesney’s “A Lot of Things Different,” Keith Whitley’s “Miami My Amy,” Vern Gosdin’s “Is It Raining at Your House” and multiple George Strait hits including “The Chair” and “Marina Del Ray.”

Rucker, Dillon and Josh Thompson penned two songs on When Was the Last Time — “Another Night With You” and “Count the Beers.” “It was great to write with Dean and Josh,” Rucker tells Sounds Like Nashville. “I’d known Josh since I came to Nashville and the two songs we came out with were I just thought were great. About ‘Count The Beers,’ I like the whole sentiment of that. A lot of songs I love the most have a twist in the lyric. When it’s the first time you hear it, they are making you think one thing that it’s all about and with this one, when you get to the pay off it’s ‘She don’t count the beers.’”

When Was the Last Time is Rucker’s fifth country album, and the project has already yielded his eighth number one single with the hit “If I Told You.” The follow up single, “For the First Time,” is currently climbing the chart. “Derek George brought it in to me when we were writing together,” Rucker recalls of the song he penned with George and Scooter Carusoe. “He had this idea and had this chorus about doing stuff for the first time and I thought it was a great idea. I had to Google it [to make sure] no one had really written song called ‘The First Time,’ and so we wrote it… I love it and when I listen to that track I love what he did with it. You cannot say that this is not country music even though it has this backbeat that is a little not what we’re used to it. But the way the fiddle and guitar double up at the beginning, I love that song and I’m glad I get to sing it every night.”

On the new album, Rucker worked for the first time with writer/producer Ross Copperman (Dierks Bentley, Brett Eldredge, Keith Urban). “It’s my first time doing anything without Frank,” he says of Frank Rogers, who produced all his previous country albums. “Frank is my brother and I’m sure we’ll do a lot more stuff together, but we’ve done five records with him [including] the Christmas record. Me and the label were talking and we were like, ‘Let’s try somebody else,’ and I’ve always had so much respect for Ross. When I met him I went, ‘Yeah! I’ve got to work with this dude.’ He’s great.”

Copperman also co-wrote five of the 12 songs on When Was the Last Time, among them “Life’s Too Short,” “Bring It On” and “If I Told You.” The album includes more outside cuts than Rucker usually records. Shane McAnally, Jon Nite, Zach Crowell and Josh Osborne wrote “Twenty Something,” a thoughtful ode to the swift passage of time. Chris Tompkins and Rodney Clawson penned “She.” Adam Doleac, A.J. Babcock and Pete Good wrote “Don’t.” “This is the first record that I didn’t write 90% of,” Rucker says. “I think I might have co-written five or six songs on this record. These songs just kept coming in. Usually I can say, ‘Nah, I’m not going to cut that I’ll cut something else,’ but these songs kept coming in like ‘She’ and ‘Don’t’ and I’m like, ‘Yeah! I’ve got to cut these songs!’ For the first time making a record I felt like the universe was telling me what I wanted to say. It really felt that way.”

One of the highlights on the album is the Kevin Kinney-penned song “Straight to Hell,” previously recorded by Drivin N Cryin. Rucker recruited special guests Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan and Charles Kelley for his version. “I’ve been meaning to cut ‘Straight To Hell’ since I came to Nashville. I’ve said that every single record,” Rucker grins. “It’s been such a big part of my life since ’89, and with this record Charles Kelley calls me out of the blue and says, ‘Hey man, do you know that ‘Straight To Hell’ song? I just heard it.’ He was like, ‘You’ve got to cut it and let me sing it with you.’ I took that as the universe saying, ‘Go in and cut this damn song!’ So we cut it and when Charles got on it, it was great. Me and Charles talked about it and said, ‘Let’s get Luke! Luke’s our boy!’ We got Luke and once Luke got on it, I was hanging out with Jason and I kept hearing Jason’s voice and was like, ‘Man, would you come sing on this record with me?’ So there’s the four of us on there and man, when the first chorus hits I swear it’s like we’ve been signing together our whole lives. It sounds so perfect to me.”

Rucker is excited about the new music getting out to his fans. “This record is so much about life,” he smiles. “It’s about life. Are you going to live it or you just going to be in it? It’s about the ups and downs. I’m just so proud of this record and I can’t wait for people to hear it.”

When Was the Last Time is available in stores and online now.