Hootie & The Blowfish Announces Two Virginia Shows

VIRGINIA—Hootie & the Blowfish, the Grammy-winning ‘90s rock band with mega-hits including “Hold My Hand,” “Let Her Cry” and “Only Wanna Be With You,” is getting back together for a new album and tour. The 2019 “Group Therapy Tour” will travel to dozens of cities, including in Virginia, and will feature a special guest — the Barenaked Ladies.

Hootie will play at Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater in Virginia Beach on May 30, 2019 and Jiffy Lube Live in Bristow on July 27, 2019. Tickets go on sale to the general public Friday at 10 a.m., though pre-sales are already available for Citi card members and Hootie fan club members. Click here to find tickets right here on Patch and enter the coupon code “PatchTickets10” to receive 10 percent off.

Hootie told NBC’s “Today” show Monday they’re making a thank-you album for the fans. They’ve already begun writing songs.

“For us, making a record is fun. But we’re not doing it for us. We’re doing it for all those people who use to plan their vacations around the Hootie & the Blowfish tour,” said frontman Darius Rucker. The band wrote in an Instagram post that it’s “time to celebrate.”

The band members met as students at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. Hootie hit it big in 1994 with the album “Cracked Rear View,” which has been certified 21-times platinum, according to The Associated Press. The album even earned a spot on the Recording Industry Association of America’s top-10 most popular albums ever.

Since then, the band has put out five studio albums and some live albums, with the most recent coming in 2006. They haven’t toured in more than a decade.

Rucker, who has earned solo fame with country music hits such as “Wagon Wheel,” told AP “nothing has changed.” They’re the same band, he said. “just older now.”

“There’s a lot less alcohol,” he told AP.

Hootie played a reunion concert in Atlanta over the summer followed by two more shows, one in Clarkston, Michigan, and another New York City.

The tour begins May 30 in Virginia Beach, Virginia. It will also head to Los Angeles, Las Vegas, New York City and Nashville, Tennessee before ending in Columbia, South Carolina, on Sept. 13.

Patch national staffer Dan Hampton contributed to this report.

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Image via Sean Rayford/Invision/Associated Press