"The first time I ever heard 'Hold My Hand' on the radio, Dean and I were driving to the golf course," he recalled. "You have to realize we were a band nine years before we got a record deal so we had been playing 'Hold My Hand' for five years. It came on the radio and we turned it [off]. That was us back then."

Hootie & the Blowfish's debut single, "Hold My Hand," was released July 1994 and though it felt like it was everywhere that summer, the song surprisingly only peaked at No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The song helped propel their album Cracked Rear View to go platinum 16 times in the U.S.and later become the best-selling album of 1995.

But just because Rucker wasn't listening to "Hold My Hand" when it came on the radio doesn't mean he turns off his country songs now.

"I don't turn it [off] now. I listen to them now, absolutely," he said. "I'll never forget the first time I heard 'Don't Think I Don't Think About It' on the radio. The feeling was unbelievable. That was my song on the radio and it sounded awesome."