Darius Rucker’s New Album Features Collaboration with Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan, and Charles Kelley
After putting off the recording of "Straight to Hell" for years, Rucker decided it was time to lay down the track with the help of his good friends in country music.
After careful consideration and a peer pressure nudge from Charles Kelley, Darius Rucker took it upon himself to record a track called “Straight to Hell” with a little help from his friends.
For a while, Rucker wrestled with the idea of cutting the track and ended up never getting around to it. But Kelley stepped in after giving “Straight to Hell” a listen and decided to campaign for its recording after becoming a fan of its message.
“I get a phone call from Charles Kelley out of the blue. But I’d been meaning to cut ‘Straight to Hell’ for every record I’ve put out. Every record I go I’m going to cut ‘Straight to Hell,’ but I just never do. And Charles Kelley calls me out of the blue and goes, ‘Hey man, I was just listening to that Straight to Hell song, you should cut it and I should sing along to it.’ I took that as the universe saying ‘Dude cut the song,’” Rucker explained to Sounds Like Nashville and other media at a recent event.
To really get things swinging on “Straight to Hell,” the guys thought about the possibility of getting some of their famous friends to contribute their vocals to the track. Thankfully, Luke Bryan decided he wanted to put his name on the project and hopped into the whole mix after Rucker and Kelley extended the friendly invitation.
“I remember calling Luke up late one night after we both got off stage, and he calls me back and we’re talking. I told him I was doing it. You know, that’s the great part of Nashville, the biggest star in the business. He went, ‘Absolutely.’ And he shows up,” Rucked chronicled.
It didn’t end there, though, as the trio of country guys thought they needed one more ingredient to throw “Straight to Hell” together and that missing piece just so happened to be the likes of their buddy, Jason Aldean.
“We got the three of us cut, and it was great, but there was something missing, and I was drinking with Jason [Aldean] one night and tell him, you know Jason and I have this big fight because he didn’t put me in the ‘1994’ video. We fight about that all the time, and so we’re sitting around talking and it hit me that Jason’s voice, the four of us are so tight that Jason’s voice needed to be on that, and once he got on it and hit that first chorus, and it sounded like we sang together our whole lives. It really sounded like we sang together our whole lives. And so that song…I really hope we can take a chance with that one,” explained Rucker.
Rounding out the loaded list of songs on Rucker’s forthcoming record, “Straight to Hell” marks the only vocal collaboration on the release. When Was the Last Time is slated to hit stores and online retailers on October 20.
Track List for WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME:
1. “For the First Time” (Darius Rucker, Derek George, Scooter Carusoe)
2. “Bring It On” (Ross Copperman, Ashley Gorley, Dallas Davidson)
3. “Life’s Too Short” (Copperman, Jon Nite, Jaren Johnston)
4. “If I Told You” (Copperman, Shane McAnally, Nite)
5. “Don’t” (Adam Doleac, A.J. Babcock, Pete Good)
6. “Twenty Something” (McAnally, Nite, Zach Crowell, Josh Osborne)
7. “Straight to Hell” with Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan and Charles Kelley (Kevin Kinney)
8. “Count the Beers” (Rucker, Dean Dillon, Josh Thompson)
9. “Another Night With You” (Rucker, Dillon, Josh Thompson)
10. “Hands On Me” (Copperman, McAnally, J.T. Harding)
11. “She” (Chris Tompkins, Rodney Clawson)
12. “Story to Tell” (Copperman, Gorley, Rucker)
