CMA
This week’s CMT Music Awards featured a thrilling live performance of “Straight to Hell,” Darius Rucker’s new single, featuring Lady Antebellum‘s Charles Kelley, Luke Bryan and Jason Aldean. Backstage at Nashville’s Nissan Stadium Thursday night, Darius told ABC Radio he thought they sounded pretty good, considering they’d never played the song before.
“Oh yeah, that was the first time we had played it for an audience,” Darius said, “We rehearsed it once or twice but that was the first time we ever played it together. And it was fun, man. That was awesome!”
Also awesome is the new “Straight to Hell” video, which was just released. It features Darius, Luke, Jason and Charles in a Wild West saloon-type setting, drinking, gambling and generally cutting up — until the police shut them down.
The video also features a clever nod to Darius’ other band, Hootie & the Blowfish: When Charles shows up at the door of the saloon, he’s asked for the password. He answers, “Dolphins make me cry,” which is a lyric from the Hootie hit “Only Wanna Be With You.”
Regarding the video, Darius told ABC Radio that he specifically asked his record label for permission to make it, no matter what:
“I went to Capitol and I said, ‘You guys have to promise me something,'” Darius reveals. “And they said, ‘What’s that?’ And I said, ‘Even if it’s not a single, I want to make a Western video for ‘Straight to Hell.’ And they were like, ‘Okay, we’ll do that.’ And we made it and man, we had so much fun that day!”
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