As a Grammy-award-winning artist, you’ve probably got plenty of stories to tell about your life and career.
That’s why Darius Rucker wrote a memoir, titled Life’s Too Short, and detailed a lot of the big moments of his life. With his storied tenure as frontman for Hootie and the Blowfish in addition to his successful solo career as a country artist, Darius certainly has plenty of stories to fill up a book, and he did just that.
Life’s Too Short opened up its very first chapter with a non-music-related story, and it was a wild one to say the least. Remember learning in school that you should grab the attention of your reader when you first start out? Rucker accomplished that and then some telling the story about how Hollywood actor Woody Harrelson once saved his life.
When Rucker stopped by Today to talk about his new book, he was asked about that story, and he happily got into some of the specifics of the scary event during the interview:
“Woody is my brother. Woody and I are really, really close, and I went to visit him in Hawaii and we went swimming. And I’ll never forget this. He told me what to do, and I was fine. I’m a good swimmer. I dove in the water and I opened my eyes and all I saw no bottom (and) fish. All I saw was a bunch of fish, and I panicked.”
Growing up in Charleston, South Carolina, Rucker was likely exposed to plenty of opportunities to become familiar with the water. He even said in the interview that he’s a proficient swimmer. But the artist must have underestimated the power of the current in the ocean, as he went on to explain:
“I got caught up in this rip current, and it was just killing me. He came back and we were trying to get out. It was probably a good 40 minutes of trying to get out.
Finally, I looked at him, and this is so vivid to me, I looked at him and said, ‘Man, we both don’t have to die out here. You’ve gotta let me go.’ And just like Woody from Cheers, he looked at me and said, ‘Not on my watch.'”
Wow…
Shoutout to Woody Harrelson for being an action star both on the big screen and in real life. That right there is definitely “first chapter of your book” worthy. Those on Today were astounded by the story, and asked if Rucker and Harrelson ever talk about that harrowing moment.
As you might imagine, Harrelson is apparently “too cool” to touch on the rescue when the pair cross paths:
“I’ve seen him a million times since then and we’ve never talked about it. He’s so humble, he wouldn’t want to talk about it. For him, I’m sure he’s like, ‘We got out of there.'”
Pretty on brand for Woody Harrelson.
You can hear more about the incident, as well as other topics that Darius Rucker touches on in his new memoir, in the interview below:
