Just getting started

Darius Rucker, Fri., Jan. 20, 8 p.m., F.M. Kirby Center (71 Public Square, Wilkes-Barre.). Tickets: $52-$92 via Ticketmaster, box office. Info: dariusrucker.com

Darius Rucker doesn’t mind if you call him Hootie. Despite the fact that his post-’90s solo career has seen him become one of the most popular country-music singers touring today, Rucker is well aware that some people still know him best as “that guy from Hootie & the Blowfish.”

“It’s good to know I’ve left an impression,” Rucker says with a chuckle. “It’s better than not being remembered at all.”

Since his days as a Blowfish, Rucker has played just about every kind of venue imaginable, from large arenas to smaller theaters. With that in mind, Rucker says he enjoys the personable atmosphere the latter provide and is looking forward to his upcoming concert at the F.M. Kirby Center in Wilkes-Barre on Friday, Jan. 20.

“This kind of show is so intimate, it’s great,” Rucker says. “You get to see everybody up close. The whole crowd’s right up on top of you. It’s really cool and really laidback. I love it.”

“Laidback” seems an ideal phrase to describe Rucker himself. The 45-year-old singer speaks in a friendly tone and has a relaxed, roll-with-the-punches demeanor, which suggests that this chart-topping hitmaker hasn’t let celebrity go to his head.

Just the opposite, Rucker says his successes have done much to keep him humble. Such successes include a pair of Grammy Awards, which Rucker earned in 1996 as part of the hugely popular rock group Hootie & the Blowfish.

In 2008, Rucker reinvented himself as a solo country singer. His album “Learn to Live” won both audiences and critics over, spawning three singles that went to No. 1 on the Billboard country-music chart. In 2009, Rucker subsequently became the first black performer to win the Country Music Association’s New Artist Award.

Rucker’s 2010 follow-up, “Charleston, SC 1966,” yielded two more No. 1 singles and cemented the singer’s place in the current country-music scene. For Rucker, who professes a lifelong dream of being a country-music star, the significance of his achievements is not being taken for granted.

“More than anything, I’m grateful just to be able to play music for a living,” Rucker says, acknowledging that the opportunity to make a career out of an artistic passion is something not everyone has the good fortune to experience.

His gratitude has driven him to lend his talents to a number of charities over the years, including the MUSC Children’s Hospital Fund, for which Rucker will perform a benefit show in his hometown of Charleston, S.C., in February. Acts of altruism such as this, Rucker explains, are important to him and are something he actively pursues.

“It comes from how I was raised,” he shares. “I just like helping people.”

This year, Rucker plans to continue making the most of his blessings. Not only will he continue touring, Rucker is also set to perform a free concert in Indianapolis as part of the Super Bowl lead-in week festivities. Most promisingly, Rucker is working on material for his third country album, which he expects will be finished sometime later this year.

“There’s not much I can say about it yet,” he says. “We have a lot of stuff written, but you don’t really know what you have until you start cutting it together. I just want to write songs that people want to listen to. It’s all about the songs.”

Laidback as ever, Rucker shrugs off the notion that he’s already achieved his dream of country music greatness.

“I still have a long way to go,” he says. “Hopefully, five years from now, I’ll look back and say, ‘I did it,’ but, for now, I’m just getting started.”

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