Darius Rucker: Game of the Week
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And we finish, and Mr. Sinatra stands up, and he makes me come over, and he shakes my hand and says, son, that was great. And it was unbelievable. It was just one of the great days of my life. I'll never forget that day. Hello, everyone. Welcome to Literally. This is a super fun one. Darius Rucker. He's not Hootie. He actually is not Hootie. Hootie's like

It's like saying David Bowie is Ziggy Stardust. They're not the same person, but they are the same person. It's kind of cool. Anyway, I was always a big Hootie and Blowfish fan, and I'm a huge fan of Darius's transition into country music. He's just a stud. And he's a golfer. And he's a Cincinnati Reds fan. What more does a guy want in another guy? I don't think much. Here we go. Well, first of all, you got your PXG hat on, which makes me very happy.

Yes, yes. I love my PXGs. Who doesn't? Yeah, they're great, aren't they? They're great. You know what? Whenever I pull them out of my golf bag, they're like, oh, those PXGs. They're worth it. They're so good. 100%. Worth every penny. They've improved my game so much. It's crazy. No, it's unbelievable. Do you notice what I got on for you? Yeah, I see that. That's very nice. That's very nice. Come on. Are you going to play that?

Have you played? I'm wearing my Augusta hat, and I did. I finally got to play Augusta this year, and it was, you know, it's like playing in the Sistine Chapel or the church. 100%. People always ask me what my favorite golf course is. I say my top three are Augusta, Augusta, and Augusta. It's just that place is special, man. It is. It is. I...

But I'll tell you something. Are you ready for my hot take? Yep. Here's my hot take. I have, let's say I only have one round of golf left in my life. Where are you playing? I'm playing Cypress point. Wow. Really? That's impressive. I'm playing Cypress. I love it. I love, I think it's a wonderful, wonderful golf course, but, uh,

I understand, you know, I understand, but, but it's Augusta for me, but I understand. I know, I know you can't, you can't, you cannot, you cannot go wrong. What is, uh, what are you playing to these days?

I'm a 3.7 right now, I think it is. Oh! I'm not playing to that. I can shoot 85 right now, but that's what it is right now. I love that. Jeez Louise. So you've done AT&T, I'm assuming, all of it. You've done all of them, right? Yep, I've played them all pretty much. Yeah. Okay, so the most insane, obviously, is the Lake Tahoe one, right? That's mental. I've only played that once, and that's a straight-out party right there. Yeah, that's crazy. I...

Okay, I haven't played it, but this is the best. So I was there years and years and years and years and years ago when all the guys I'm about to mention were still playing their sports. So I ended up at a table, gambling table, with Barkley, Sampras, Lemieux, and there's, I want to say this, and there's one other guy

And these guys were betting like that, that place is, it goes off. It's a great place to be. I'm gonna try to play next year. We should play together next year. That'd be cool. Okay. If we see, I'm going to try to get freed up this, it's funny. The, um, the actor's strike has screwed up everybody's schedules. Cause this was the year I was officially going to ask off to play AT&T. This was the year I was doing it. And now I can't, there's no way I can. Yeah. But, but,

But that one's during the hiatus, in theory. It is. See? I'm going to play Tahoe this year. Okay, who's your favorite celebrity and then your favorite athlete to play with? Oh, my favorite athlete to play with is Tiger. I love playing golf with Tiger. Oh, okay. We had to talk about Tiger. I'm glad you're okay. Good. I'm so glad you brought this because I have it in the notes. You guys are close. You've been close for a long time.

We've been friends a long time. Right. Did you sing at his wedding or something? I did. I sang at his wedding. Wow. I sang at his father's funeral. Wow. Yeah. Tiger's my guy, man. That's my brother right there. Dude. Yeah. Okay. There are very few people that I have never met that are my idols. In fact, I don't know. He might be the only one. I've never met him.

Really? He'd love them. And I know I would. I just know. I actually followed him at the Genesis. Yeah. And I got to go actually between the ropes. But he's so locked in. So there was no... Like, I've met other guys like that. Like, you know, like at the FedEx Cup, I walked with the leaders one year down in Atlanta. And...

People might acknowledge you. Tigers, he's locked in. He's got the eye. Oh, yeah. He's very, when he's playing a tournament, he's very, yeah, he doesn't know anybody else is around. It's just him and the golf course. And, you know, I guess that's why he's the greatest of all time. What did you, I got to know, so what did you sing at the wedding and what did you sing at the funeral? Oh, the wedding was a bunch of, a hootie played, basically. Oh, you played? We played a concert. Yeah. Okay, great. Yeah, yeah.

It was a great day with him and his family. I don't want to go too much into this. That was a great day. That was a great day. Do you think he will ever have another win? You don't want to count him out. You don't want to count him out because he's Tiger Woods. And if he could go in one of those runs like he did in Augusta and win. But with the injury and everything...

I hope he wins again, you know, but I don't know. I don't know how much more he wants to play. How about this? How about if he goes to the champions and can ride, then what do you think? Well, he would win every major. Yeah, I think he'd dominate the Champions League for a minute. Absolutely. He's going to be 50 in three years. He's 50. He's going to be 50.

It's, it's unbelievable. He's my favorite, by far my favorite athlete by, by, by far, you know, of, of the gender of, of this last 25 years. Like there's nobody close who I'd rather watch electrifying, you know, I'm so you'll have to introduce me. Okay. That's, that's, that's going to be on you. That's going to be, that's my ask deal. Um,

I, you have done so many amazing things in your life and in your career. You've raised so much money and we'll get into that, um, for, for, for amazing causes, mostly in South Carolina, but, but not just in South Carolina. What I was going to say, I was going to say, and you've, I was going to say, you've conquered such and such genre and then you've conquered country, but we got to figure out what the genre of Hootie and Hootie was.

What was, cause that was such a specific moment. What would you call that genre?

I guess people called it pop rock, but you know, I don't... Pop rock. Yeah, we were playing rock and roll and it got real popular. So yeah, pop rock, we'll go with that. You know, yeah, that was a different time, man. That was a different time. It's so... I think I would... If I had to pick a band that was emblematic of that time, for sure, I feel like it's you guys. For sure. You know, that's one of the things...

That's crazy to me because, you know, I mean, Crack for Review is the biggest selling record of the decade. And it's, I don't know, I kind of, I mean, you know, grunge will always be remembered as a big thing. And, you know, but there was a moment there where, you know, Hootie and the Blowfish was having a real good time. Oh, dude, listen, without Hootie and the Blowfish, there's no Dave Matthews Band. Yeah. We used to play frat houses with Dave. No way. Yeah. Yeah.

That's how long we've known each other. Yeah. So you guys were, did you form the band in college, right? You formed it in college. So you guys all actually went? Yeah. Oh, we all went. Yeah. We actually met in a dorm. That's so sick. It was crazy. You know, none of us were really looking to play. It just ended up that way. Unbelievable. And

You're on your, is it the 30th anniversary of Cracker Review? Is that right? Yeah. Just thinking about that is crazy, man. Next year will be 30 years. Yeah.

Yeah. I love the fact that it's like your alter ego. It's like you're not Hootie, but you are Hootie. So you're touring with Hootie, and yet you are Hootie, which I like. Yeah. You know, the messed up thing is when I named the band Hootie and the Blowfish, I never thought people would call me Hootie. I'm a frigging idiot. I'm an idiot. I'm so bad at myself right now. But yeah, you know, it's actually...

You know, I've thought about, you know, saying to the guys, you know, let's just call it and stop, you know, doing these things. But...

We do it so little, and when we do it, it's so much fun that I keep telling myself, why quit it when we could do whatever we feel like doing it? That's a pretty cool thing. Yeah, I mean, A, you guys are all... You have a history. It's not like you answered an ad in Billboard to form the band. You guys are old-school homies, and people love it. They're never going to not love that music, ever. But we are in an era, man, where...

It's like I remember Mick Jagger saying, I don't want to be playing Satisfaction at 64. Well, you're playing it at 74. I'm playing it at 80. Yeah, and great. And doing it great, too. And great. But isn't it interesting how when you think like, I mean, guys are a generation or two older than you and me are reinventing what it means to be a rock star.

Oh, absolutely. It's totally uncharted territory for guys in their eighties. And there's Bruce Springsteen. He's still out there doing his thing. You know, he's, it's unreal. 100%, man. Like I went to see Kiss the other day. Wow. And you know, in Gene 74, Gene 74, and they were frigging unbelievable. I mean, I've seen him, you know, four or five times we were managed by the same guy for a long time. And it's like,

They were so amazingly great. I'm like, he's 74 and he's up there on those platforms and he's, they're bringing it and Paul's up there dancing his butt off at 70, whatever he is. And I'm like, man, that's because, because for me, I never thought about playing at 74. You always think, nah, man, my sixties, I'm done. But like, now you look at those guys and you go, wow, wow.

You know, if they could do it like that, I hope I can still do it like that when I'm 74. You think you're mad at yourself for calling yourself hootie? Can you imagine how mad at themselves they are for going, we're only going to wear makeup. But it works so well. I know it does. So well. Now, am I crazy? Am I imagining this? Didn't they have a moment where they're like, fuck the makeup. We're done with it. But they would still kiss.

This is a true story. I mean, you're right. They were still kissed. And for years, more than a decade, they went without makeup. And, you know, the first time they put the makeup back on was at the Grammys when they were presenting an award with Tupac. And it was an award of who did the Blowfish one. And that was the first time they were in makeup since like 79 or something. It was crazy, man. That was so awesome. I mean, look, it's like Tiger in his Sunday Red.

Like, you want to see Kiss with the makeup. You want to see Tiger with the red and black. You just do. Absolutely. Absolutely. And that's what, and watching, you know, it was just, but watching Kiss and those, like all these rockers we're talking about, you know, makes you think, you know, wow, that's pretty awesome because people are still going to see them. Yeah.

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Do you find that when you sing songs that you wrote when you were a much younger man, that the meaning changes for you when you sing them? Because I find that with artists that I've loved and grown up with, is like, I know the lyrics. They're the same lyrics that I was listening to when I was 18. They haven't changed them. But now I'm hearing them sing them as a different place in their life. I'm hearing it in a different place in my life. Exact same song means a completely different thing to me.

All the time. You know, for me, like when I wrote a song, I let her cry. I was such a different guy. I was, I was, I was a young drunk kid, you know, and I sing that now with, with two daughters, uh,

And, you know, after living all the, you know, it just means something different. But that's the great thing about music. That's the great thing about lyrics. I agree with you all the time. I mean, all those bands I used to listen to back in the day, R.E.M. and The Dead and all those bands, all those lyrics that I thought meant something, mean something totally different. I just saw Neil Young play at the Roxy. It was like, it was insane. I mean, he's in his 80s and, you know, he's out there with that guitar. It's like, you know, it's gnarly. He's one of the best shows I've ever seen.

Neil?

Yeah, yeah. One of the best shows I've ever seen. Great. It's interesting because he's a showman in such a different way than other people because he gives off very much I don't give a fuck energy. It's like... Yes. Do you know what I'm saying? It's like... And yet he is a showman. By the way, the band... By the way, what's the opposite of tight band? Like... Because, bro, dude, I'm telling you, it was...

It was, like, I'm no aficionado. I know my way around music a little bit, but it, I mean, ragged doesn't even begin. Like, Bruce Springsteen, who I know well, he would commit ceremonial suicide before he would play a set like Neil Young did. Dude.

Do you know what I mean? And they're both great. Yeah, I know what you mean. I know what you mean. I know exactly what you mean. But that's one of the cool things about Neil. They play so loose and, you know, his voice carries it all. I mean, that's Neil. But I know exactly what you're talking about. So David Foster, the music producer and great arranger, is an old, old, old great friend of mine. And he did the Canadian We Are The World song. Do you remember this? Yeah.

It was, everybody had did their, we are their world. There's the Irish, the Canadian, there's like apparently a thousand of them. So David produces the Canadian and he's got Neil in the vocal booth. Now, David famously doesn't get three chord rocker hates it. Like, like proudly doesn't get the same three chords over and over. And he has perfect pitch.

So this is the worst marriage ever made. Ever. Ever made. Yes. And sure enough, Dave was like, Neil, okay, on line three, you're flat on the word Bill and then a little pitchy on the second lyric. And Neil's like, it's my style, man. But I just love the notion of you're flat and you're pitchy to Neil Young on a charity record.

Yeah, that's awesome. I love it. It's such a good one. I, in looking over some of the

on you today, I learned, because I'm a big, what's the word I'm looking for? I mean, kind of like a music trivia guy. Like, who's saying background? Who are the session players? Like, I love all that shit. I love it. I can't get enough of it. Okay, yeah. And I didn't realize who the co, one of the co-writers was on Wagon Wheel. Dylan, yeah. I said, no. I didn't know. Dylan, yeah.

Yeah. This kid, he's not a kid anymore, but he was a kid when he wrote the song. He's the guy who plays with the Oak Grove Medicine Show. Just the Rock Me Mama Like a Wagon Wheel, just that little verse. You know how they put out those box sets albums and just put everything on it? Yeah. That was just a little demo. Just Rock Me Mama Like a Wagon Wheel is basically what he was singing.

And Dylan just put it, and they put it on one of those Dylan box sets. And just that snippet of it. And Kat's a 17-year-old kid said, I'm going to go finish a Dylan song. And he wrote that monster. Yeah. I mean, see, this is like a goose, goose flesh. I mean, this is what's, I love these. He's 17. 17. Years old. And he goes, you know, I'm taking this Bob fucking Dylan song.

I'm just going to do my thing on it. I'm going to finish it. Yeah. I'm going to finish it. And it's one of the top five best-selling songs of all time. Your cover's great, by the way. It's great. It's so good. Thank you very much. Thank you. Yeah, that song took a mind of its own. That was a lot of fun. I mean, but you know what? It's also not taking away from anybody who covers it, but that song is so fucking irresistible.

It's like a mathematical equation. Two plus two is always going to be four. Absolutely. Like that song's great. Do you know what I'm saying? I'm with you 100%. And that's the beauty of it. People say you never know what a hit is. You hear that, it's a hit. I mean, it's a song that everybody's going to want to listen to.

And, you know, it's going to be so big, people will get tired of it. No. That's what happened. You know, it's just an amazing song. It is interesting songs that you don't get tired of. I don't know what to attribute. It's like I can hear Rocketman by Elton. A million times. A million times. Doesn't matter. I've never turned it off. I agree. I've never changed the thing. Never. Never.

I agree.

To run all of those together and find out what cracked that code. Can you imagine if you had that code? Oh, good, yeah. Can you imagine? Yeah. I mean, yeah. Well, some people have it. I always thought, like, guys like, I think, like, Sting. Sting literally, I think, at one point said, I have to stop myself from writing hits. I have to. I remember that time, yeah. Do you know what I mean? Yeah.

Absolutely. I really do think that some people just can't help them, so they just write fucking hit after hit. Yeah. And they're like, they're just like, I'm not doing this anymore. When you say Sting, that was one of those, always one of those things about me, about the early Police records and, you know, the songs that they didn't put out of singles were just amazing.

It was like, wow. Being in that room trying to decide what a single is must be pretty hard. But great songs are great songs. I actually went back and found and listened to the Dylan Wagon Wheel. You're right, it's just that chorus basically. Yeah. That's all it is.

And it's from the sessions of Billy, the kid and Pat, Pat Garrett, which I'm knocking on heaven's door comes from. Yeah. That's a really good record. Yeah. And that's a great record. That record is literally all just courses. There's not a bridge in it. Yeah. I mean, literally there's no bridge in that song. It's chorus, chorus, chorus, chorus songs over. Yeah. Yeah. Um,

Who is your favorite? You've written with everybody. Who blew your mind when you sat in a room to write with? Ashley Gourley really blows my mind every time I write with him. He's such a great songwriter. Ed Sheeran blew my mind. I was going to ask you about Sheeran because he seems like an absolute genius, obviously. He's a genius. His melodies and the way he sees lyrics and sees things, the kid's a genius. I was just blown away writing with him. Big time. Yeah, he's...

He's one of the guys, he's an instant all-timer, right? I mean. Absolutely. Instant all-timer. That's the best way to say it. Instant all-timer. Right. He's great.

Yeah. Oh, why are you a fan of the Cincinnati Reds? Now, the reason I ask you this is I grew up in Dayton, Ohio, during the Big Red machine. So I lived, breathed, and I'm still friendly with the current owners of the Reds, and I will always love the Reds. But eventually living in LA and then living through the Marge Schott Reds era, eventually the Dodgers beat me into submission, and I'm now...

diehard Dodger fan when they were rivals. Interestingly enough, they're not rivals anymore. They're not in the same division. There's a lot of reasons, but it's not what it used to be. How did you get to be a Reds fan? Because there are not so many of them nationally, really, I don't think. You know, when I was a kid, I guess around six and seven, I started playing all the organized sports.

The Big Red Machine. You know, my favorite player ever is Dave Concepcion. He's still my favorite. Dave, you come at me with Dave Concepcion. He's my favorite man of all time. Dave, why? Okay, hang on. Why Dave Concepcion? Listen, I love Dave Concepcion. Who doesn't?

I mean, first of all, he was a vacuum. But every time, you know, every time I played baseball, I was, I always played in the infield. And no matter where I was, when the ball was hit to you, that's what I always said. Dave Concepcion. Dave Concepcion. And he was my favorite player. Absolutely. He was my favorite. And so, and I'm pretty loyal to my teams. And I started liking them when I was like six or seven. And I've been a big fan ever since. Did you ever go to Riverfront back in the day? Oh, yeah. I'm friends with, back in the day, I went to a couple games. But, you know, I'm friends with the owners. Okay. I go to, I try,

I tried to go to a game or two every year. I didn't get to get there this year because I was touring so much, but I love them. You know, I was hoping they got in the playoffs this year. I know. You know, that would have been so awesome. But of course it didn't happen. I need to look up your swag. I need to look up pictures of it.

what your sports swag you're doing all there's some new launch are you doing now all 30 NFL teams is that what it is I have all 30 NFL teams yeah all Major League Baseball teams with Fanatics

And, uh, okay. So what's your take on it? What's, what's your secret sauce? Oh, the one thing I always do is like, I got to want to wear it. Yeah. So that's a big thing. That's a big thing. But you know, I don't know. It's just, uh, you know, I love what we're, what we're designing. I love what we're putting out. It's, I don't know if it's a secret sauce or anything, but it's just, you know, it's stuff that you would want to wear to the game.

That's important to me. So when you make, yeah, for sure. So when you make a license agreement with NFL or MLB, what stipulations, if any, do they have? There has to be some creative guy like, you can't turn the Cincinnati Reds C backwards. I mean, there has to be something, right? No, you have to be true to all the logos. Yeah.

You know, that's part of the deal. And you can't, you know, you can't mess with anybody's brand or anything like that. It's got to be. And when you do it, it all has to be uniform. If you do it for one thing, you have to do it for all. And so that, you know, that's pretty cool. And for me, I wouldn't, you know, I want to go do all the throwback stuff. Okay. Okay. This is my thing. Can I just say something? I told the owners this. I hate the Reds.

ye olde, like, sideshow barker, riverboat gambler font with a passion. Do you know what I'm saying? I know what you're talking about. I want, I don't like Mr. Red with a handlebar mustache. Yeah. I want the old school Mr. Mr. Red where he's running. Yep. Yeah.

You're the one. I know you know what I'm talking about. I know exactly what you're talking about. I want those like road, those slate road gray uniforms. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Right? 100%. With just Cincinnati over the front. That's all we need. Yes! Absolutely. And the low stirrup sock. Because you love sports and you love sports uniforms. You're the perfect guy to ask about this. Yeah.

You look at the Laker era and those guys wore those super, super tight, tight, tight, tight, tight, like tight, tight, tight, tight, tight shorts. Yep. And then all of a sudden they were like balloon shorts that almost went below the knee.

Yeah. And it probably came in with Jordan. Yeah. And do you know why Jordan was the first guy? Because he came up in the era where all the stars were wearing tight, tight, tight, tight, tight. Absolutely. I mean, he's got the tight ones in North Carolina. You know, he's got the tight ones on in North Carolina. And isn't in the NBA. Do you know why? Have you ever heard why? No. Never heard the story, no. Why? He refused to play without his North Carolina shorts on. Oh, under? Yeah. So.

So they had to be longer to cover his North Carolina shorts. Everybody sees that. And now you have, you know, the Fab Five and on and on and on. Isn't that cool? Wow. That is cool. I never do that. I've never heard that story before. That is cool. It's one of those things where like, I've heard it. I know it's true. But then it's been so long since I remember where I heard it that I'm wondering, I'm doubting my own

Oh, yeah. I got those stories. I have decades like that. Are you kidding me? Yeah, I know what you mean. Entire decades. Oh, you sang at Frank Sinatra's 80th birthday party? Yeah, that was one of the great days of my life, man. I'd say. I became kind of friends with George Slater.

And so George asked us, we were hot. We were so hot at this point. So he asked us if we'd play. And I was like, please. And so they asked what song I wanted to play. And I said, Lady is a Tramp. And so they sent us this tape. And I got to hand it to the guy. The arranger did a great job. He arranged it. He arranged it. And it sounded like Only One Will Be With You. I mean, it really did. It was a really cool, it was a rock and roll arrangement of the song.

And we listened to it and I was like, I don't want to do that. You know? And so I called Georgia up and I go, Hey man, you know, we want to do that. Like that Quincy Jones thing from 64. I was like, let's do it with the big band. We'll wear suits. You know, Sony will play the drums and we'll let's do it like that. He said, okay. And so we get there, we rehearse it. It was great. And, uh, and so the, the show starts and I mean, everybody's there. I mean,

Everybody's Dylan Springsteen, Rose, Rose, everybody is there. And so where are you? We're in L.A. We're in L.A. We're in L.A. And so the show starts and Frank's sitting there with Barbara and the show starts and Frank's 80. You know, he's not really he's not really kind of he's not paying attention to backstage. He's got like five TVs up and one of the TVs is always on Frank and you can see it.

And he's not really paying much attention. And Barbara's like, you know, hitting them and he's watching and things go along. So we're like, we're thinking this is going to be a disaster. He's going to hate us. And so we get out there, man.

And we do ladies of travel. We kill it. I mean, the, you know, the horns were amazing. Everything was just perfect. It was great. And we finish and Mr. Sinatra stands up and he makes me come over and he shakes my hand and says, son, that was great. And it was unbelievable. It was, it was just one of the great days of my life. I'll never forget that day. Oh, that's pressure. How fun is that though? Right. That was fun. That was, that's one of the best things I ever got to do. That was so awesome.

And the best part of it is we're taking a big picture and Don Rickles comes in the room and does 15 minutes on Hootie the Boatman. It was awesome. He crushed us. He just destroyed us. Destroyed you, right? It was awesome. What an honor. I went to Frank's the other day. Frank said, so Frank, what are you doing? He said, I'm calling Hootie. It was awesome. It was really awesome. Yeah, that was a great day. By the way, another great cultural thing is in one of my favorite movies ever, Jerry Maguire.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, that was cool. That was cool. Were you in the theater unsuspectingly watching it, or did you hear about it before you saw it? Oh, we heard about it before. You knew it was going to be a movie? Goddamn. No, we didn't hear about it before the movie. The movie had such a big opening that all of our friends were calling us about it. That's how we heard about it. Yeah. It's such a great moment.

It was funny because when I met Kuba, you know, I was like, it was like, you Hootie? He was like, you Kuba? It was pretty funny. He was a good dude. I am not Hootie. That was awesome.

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All right. You became a member of the Grand Ole Opry in 2012. Tell me about what, give me, I mean, I feel like I know a little bit about Grand Ole Opry, but like,

It was the famous radio show across the South, right? Every, what, Saturday or whatever it was, right? Absolutely. Every Friday and Saturday. And, you know, it was just a big radio show. Everybody, back in the day, early on, it really was the catalyst that made country music as big as it is.

It was that show, had all the big stars on, and you could get it all over the country on AM radio. But yeah, it's the heart of country music, really. It is. And the building's still there, right? It's still the original. The Ryman. Yeah, the Ryman's still there. The Opry's built their own place up at the Opry house, but they have it at the Ryman a couple weeks every year.

Amazing. Tell me about the next tour that you're going out on. When do you head out? Well, you know, next year is the 30th anniversary of Cracked Review. So I think Hootie's going to go out and do another tour. We haven't been out since 19. And 19 was so successful. So I think we're going to get together, go out and do a couple months out there.

That's great. It's probably too small a venue, but hopefully you come to Santa Barbara and play the Santa Barbara Bowl. I love that place. Isn't it great? I love it. I've played so many shows that were told to Westbrook, and I love that place. Tell them to book you. I mean, that's my neighborhood, and it's the best. It's one of my favorite venues ever. I love that place. It's really awesome. I'm going to try to get in there. I like that place a lot. So you'll come up. We'll do Santa Barbara Bowl. I'll take you golf. We'll golf.

Deal. We'll do, we'll do golf day there. We'll do the bowl. There's a lot of good golf up in Santa Barbara. Um, you know, for sure, for sure. And, um, we'll, we'll wear our team PXG shit and, um,

And you'll give me a Reds hat. You'll give me a Reds hat. I will. With no handlebar mustache, Mr. Red. Did you listen to the Reds on the radio as a kid? No. We were, you know, the only way I saw them back then was the Game of the Week. Oh, the Game. Remember the Game of the Week? Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, it was the only way I saw the Reds play. It was the game of the week. And then the playoffs. But we were in the playoffs every year, so. Oh, I got to listen to him. It was great. I had Marty Brenneman and Joe Nuxall, the two best. And Joe Nuxall was just hammered, always. And he had the greatest sign-off ever. Because he was the youngest pitcher, still is, the youngest pitcher ever to pitch professionally in the major leagues. He was 17 years old. Really? Oh, wow. In the run-up to World War II, there were no men.

So he was 17. But his sign-off will be, this is a left-hander rounding third and headed for home. It's pretty sick. I love those guys. Yeah, so good. And then we'll maybe do a Reds thing. Anyway, you and I have a lot in common. It was great having you on this. I was super psyched.

to do this, man. And I'm so happy that you guys are going to be back out on tour. That's really going to be great for you guys and for the audience. They're going to love it. Well, thank you, man. Great talking to you. I'm a huge fan, dude. Yeah, I want to play golf with you. We got to play some golf together. Yeah, no, for sure. You've inspired me

to do Tahoe. Yeah. It's bedlam. It is. The other ones are so buttoned down. It's like, I get Ajita just thinking about AT&T.

Yes. I mean, I can, I know the one. What about the one at the Memorial? Cause I actually do think I'm going to do the one at the Memorial this year. Cause my friend's going to, he's going to get me. He, this is, um, my guy who started, uh, uh, work week. He that's his, like, he's the funder of it. And he says, I'll get you in and out and I can do this. I think that one I am going to do this year. You should. It's a lot of fun. I played it before. It's a lot of fun. You know, it's one of those really cool laid back ones. It's not really stuffy at all. It's a lot of fun. Right.

Awesome. All right. Well, try to get in it. We'll meet up on the practice tee. For sure. All right, man. Thank you so much. It was great. Really appreciate it. Great talking to you. Thanks, man. Take care. What a great dude. That was so fun. I hope you all learned a lot about golf and swag on that one. Oh, my goodness. Anyway. All right. You know what time it is. It's time to check the lowdown line.

- Hello, you've reached literally in our low down line where you can get the low down on all things about me, Rob Lowe. 323-570-4551. So have at it, here's the beep. - Hey, Rob Lowe. This is Robin Somadi calling from Santa Fe, New Mexico. And you may have mentioned this on your show before, but what is your go-to karaoke song?

Have a nice day. Oh, okay. Hang on. Can you bring me my phone in to the booth? Okay, Robin, I have it on my phone. I decided this year, because I don't know about you, you decide you want to karaoke, you're out, you didn't plan for it, and now the pressure's on. And maybe they have one of those awful books and you're going through all the songs and you don't know what's in your key and then you default to something you've done a thousand times before.

So not that I take it seriously or not, but I have it on my phone. So I'm going to open up my notes and I'm going to answer you literally. I'm literally going to give you the answer. Okay, hang on. Bear with me. Karaoke. There it is. Karaoke. Now, I'm just warning you. Don't judge me. The thing about I think there's a certain thing one needs to be cognizant on of karaoke.

You have to know your audience. Nobody wants you to sing. I will always love you from the bodyguard unless you can really sing. Usually it has to be upbeat, but I don't want to sing some hacky thing that 70,000 people have sung. So with that werewolves of London throw down crackling, Rosie, Neil diamond notice. It's not sweet. Caroline.

No, no, that needs to be retired from karaoke. No one should ever sing that song again. It's a great song. I love that song enough. Come Monday, Jimmy Buffett. Notice it's not Margaritaville. It's Come Monday. Great song. And Come Monday is as close to taking as a serious song as I think anybody should be allowed to sing. Fins, Jimmy Buffett, deep cut. Runaway Train, the 90s song from the 90s. That's a good one. And then I have two deep cut one hit wonders songs.

from my childhood. It never rains in California and the song Indiana wants me. Probably never heard of some of them. Look them up. That's my list. Great question. Thank you for, uh, for, for, for listening. And, and as always, this, this show doesn't exist without you guys out there. And it's really appreciated by me. And I love, um, being out in the world and having people come up and telling me, um, that they're, they're listening to literally and, um,

warms my heart. So please keep it up and join us next week. We got some really good guests coming up and next week's a doozy. See you then. You've been listening to Literally with Rob Lowe, produced by me, Nick Liao, with help from associate producer Sarah Begar, research by Alyssa Grawl, editing by Jerron Ferguson, engineering and mixing by Rich Garcia.

Our executive producers are Rob Lowe for Low Profile, Adam Sachs, Jeff Ross, and myself for Team Coco, and Colin Anderson for Stitcher. Booking by Deirdre Dodd, music by Devin Bryant. Special thanks to Hidden City Studios. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time on Literally with Rob Lowe.

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