Darius Rucker has been a trailblazer for Black artists in country music ever since 2008, when he signed with Capitol Records Nashville and navigated a seamless transition from the jam-band college circuit to the Grand Ole Opry. That year, the on/off Hootie and the Blowfish frontman scored a No. 1 hit on the Billboard country chart, becoming the first Black singer to do so since Charley Pride had achieved that feat in 1983.
But some Rucker fans might forget that it was three years earlier, often during commercial breaks for the country reality TV competition Nashville Star, that the artist formerly/incorrectly known as Hootie was first seen in cowboy mode. In fact, Rucker forgot about the moment himself, amusingly failing to include it in his just-released autobiography, Life's Too Short.
We are, of course, referring to Rucker's bonkers, bacon-filled 2005 ad spot for Burger King.
"No, I didn't talk about that [in my book]. I should have, though! I didn't even think about that until you just said it," Rucker laughs, speaking to Music Times ahead of Black Music Month and his book's release. "I really should have."
The cult-classic commercial starred a 10-gallon-hatted, Nudie-suited, six-string-strumming Rucker — tenderly crooning "Tendercrisp Bacon Cheddar Ranch," set to the melody of the 1928 Harry McClintock folk song "Big Rock Candy Mountain" — taking viewers on a magical, mystical journey to some sort of Willy Wonka-meets-Hee Haw wonderland.
We're talking the sort of Technicolor tinsel-town where bacon tumbleweeds drift down cheddar-paved yellow brick roads; Brooke Burke, Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders, and other country fillies with "nice cabooses" wade in ranch-dressing rivers; "French fries grow like weeds" (ahem); and "breasts" (chicken breasts, that is!) grow on trees.
Nineteen years ago, the acid-trippy ad spot hardly seemed like the auspicious start to a barrier-breaking country music career, and it generated confusion and even backlash. But Rucker believes it was ahead of its time and would probably go over better in today's post-ironic pop-culture climate.
"I'm still proud of it. It was hilarious. David LaChapelle did it," Rucker says, referring to the renowned photographer/director whose work has been described as kitsch-pop surrealism. "They told me that David LaChapelle was doing it, and I was a big fan. He talked about what he's going to do and I was like, 'That'd be a lot of fun. Let's go do it!'"
The now-established crossover country star, who's one of only three Black artists to win a vocal performance country Grammy and has won two CMA Awards and one ACM Award, says he has never regretted rocking that star-spangled purple suit and shilling bacon for Burger King. He even jokes about shooting a sequel with LaChapelle. "I'll call David up!" he laughs. "I don't regret it. I don't regret anything I've done. I think [the commercial] has aged well."
A lack of regret is a common theme running throughout Life's Too Short, despite the book's somewhat glaring Burger King omission. "I said that whatever did, I was going to tell the truth," Rucker says of his approach to his memoirs. "It was very therapeutic, and I think there'll be a lot of stories that people are surprised about it."
However, Rucker did wait until his three children, who now range in age from 19 to 29, were grown before he decided to publish his life story. "[The Blowfish] went pretty hard. When I talk about that, I talk about the days when we were going hard and I talk about me as a person, and I didn't want [my kids] to deal with that until they were old enough," he explains.
Rucker's children had the opportunity to read Life's Too Short before it was published, and he tells Music Times, "They weren't surprised. They knew most of it because I talked to them a lot about things, so they weren't surprised — but there were some things that made them go, 'Oh wow, Dad!'"
No word yet on how Rucker's children reacted if they ever saw "Tendercrisp Bacon Cheddar Ranch" on YouTube.
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