Darius Rucker and Friends Are Going ‘Straight to Hell’ in New Western-Inspired Video

Darius Rucker enlisted the help of Luke Bryan, Jason Aldean and Charles Kelley for a prohibition-era video for "Straight to Hell."

Written by Lauren Laffer
Darius Rucker and Friends Are Going ‘Straight to Hell’ in New Western-Inspired Video
Charles Kelley, Darius Rucker, Luke Bryan, Jason Aldean; Photo Credit: Eric Adkins

Darius Rucker and his band of Troublemakers are in a whole lot of trouble in the new music video for “Straight To Hell.” In the prohibition-era video clip, Rucker, alongside Jason Aldean, “Cool Hand” Luke Bryan and “Klepto” Charles Kelley take charge of an underground speakeasy.

Hilariously, the group planted an Easter egg for fans at the top of the clip, with the password to enter the bar being “the dolphins make me cry,” a lyric from a Hootie & The Blowfish song “Only Wanna Be With You.”

Getting to film the Western clip with his buddies was a long awaited moment for Rucker, who wanted to film the video regardless of whether or not the song ever hit country radio.

Charles Kelley, Darius Rucker, Luke Bryan, Jason Aldean

Charles Kelley, Darius Rucker, Luke Bryan, Jason Aldean; Photo Credit: Eric Adkins

“I went to [my label] Capitol and I said I’ve never asked for anything. If you guys would just do me a favor, whether ‘Straight to Hell’ is a single or not, I really wanna make a video. I want it to be a Western video, I was thinking horses and stuff. I’m really glad they weren’t thinking that, ’cause I don’t wanna be riding nobody’s horse out there, I would kill myself. It was so much fun,” Rucker recalled with a laugh while talking with Sounds Like Nashville and other media backstage at the 2018 CMA Music Festival.

The opportunity to also work with three of his best friends and Georgia natives was an opportunity Rucker could not turn down.

“There’s never really a day where the four of us have gotten to just sit together all day and just we did almost every scene together,” he shared. “It was all of us together. We had just a man, there was some funny stuff said that day. I was losing my mind laughing. That was a fun day. The video turned out … it’s by far my favorite video I’ve made in country music.”

Rucker’s co-star, Aldean, quickly agreed with the fact that the day was filled with laughter as the four buddies got to combine work with play for the extravagant clip.

“The video, I probably never had more fun cutting a video ever,” recalled Aldean. “And I think what you see in the video is what you get with us, it’s just fun and anything goes kind of thing, so … and I think when you can do collaborations like that and you do it with people that you, not only a fan of their music and … but you like them as people and you like hanging out with them and it’s fun, it’s a good time, it just makes it easy.”

“Straight To Hell” is featured on Rucker’s latest album, When Was The Last Time, and is a cover of the 1989 Drivin’ And Cryin’ original.