Only Wanna Be with You: The Inside Story of Hootie & the Blowfish

by Tim Sommer

Overview

Experience the exclusive, behind-the-scenes story of one of the biggest bands of the nineties

In 1985, Mark Bryan heard Darius Rucker singing in a dorm shower at the University of South Carolina and asked him to form a band. For the next eight years, Hootie&the Blowfish—completed by bassist Dean Felber and drummer Soni Sonefeld—played every frat house, roadhouse, and rock club in the mid-Atlantic and Southeast, becoming one of the biggest independent acts in the region.

Thirty years after the band's major label debut, cracked rear view, author Tim Sommer pulls back the curtain on the band that defied record-industry odds to break into the mainstream by playing hacky sack music in the age of grunge. Only Wanna Be with You includes extensive new interviews with the band members and some of their most famous fans, as well as stories from the recording studio, tour bus, and golf course. Only Wanna Be with You is essential reading for Hootie lovers and music buffs.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781643362762
Publisher:	University of South Carolina Press
Publication date:	04/05/2022
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	296
Sales rank:	313,939
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

Tim Sommer, a widely published music journalist, has enjoyed stints as an Atlantic Records A&R representative and an MTV and VH1 news VJ and producer.

Table of Contents

Preface: Hootie Is the Name of a Group and Other Textual Notes x

Introduction 1

Part I 1983-1989: Let's See If We Know Any of the Same Songs

1 Man, Was That You Singing? 9

2 As Soon as I Saw the Sleeve, I Wanted to Sing Along 14

3 The Wolf Brothers 18

4 I'll Play Bass Until You Find Someone Else 22

5 We Have to Name the Band 26

Part II 1989-1993 Four Guys Who Wanted to Shoot for the Moon

6 Beach Music and the Charismatic Quirk 37

7 Jim Sonefeld Dreamed of Playing Soccer 41

8 Fifteen R.E.M. Songs and a Promise 45

9 Go Team 49

10 The Johnny Quest Playbook … and Beyond: Lawyers, Cassettes, and Good and Bad Times at the Frats 57

11 Crossing the First Threshold 66

12 The Bill Clinton of Rock Bands 72

Part III 1993-1997: The Ultimate Boon

13 Hacky Sack Music in the Age of Flannel 81

14 A Group the Research Proved Would Sell 84

15 Advance? Just Pay for the Record! 95

16 The Bones Were There 99

17 Green Juice and Post-It Notes: Mixing Hootie Sethe Blowfish 111

Cracked rear view Track by Track 114

18 Unreleasable 120

19 We Viewed Ourselves as Lowercase 124

20 Mission Control 128

21 The Ga-billion People in the Middle 134

22 How A Man Named Gray Almost Shot and Killed cracked rear view 140

23 The Year of Hootie 143

21 Top of the Charts 148

25 To Be Thriller, or Not to Be Thriller? 159

26 Not Allowed to Be Done 170

27 Thou Shall Not Disturb the Flow of Commerce 176

28 The Ride Was Going to End 180

Part IV 1998-2003: The People They Lend Money To

29 Musical Chairs 189

30 Blind(ers) 192

31 A Political Casualty That Still Had a Contract 200

Part V 2003-2008: Paying Dividends

32 Doc 209

33 End of the Never-Ending Party 215

31 Another Tour Would Have Been a Roll of the Dice 218

35 He Just Needs to Be 221

36 Somebody Who Looks Like Me 226

37 Covering Yourself 237

Part VI 2019-2020: The Soundtrack of Your Life

38 Thirteen Thousand Kegs 243

39 Where's Our Country Song? 251

40 An Unfinished Story 255

Discography: 1990-2020 257

Acknowledgments 273

What People are Saying About This

Matthew Goodman

This book isn't just the best thing ever written about Hootie & the Blowfish, although it is. It may well be the best thing ever written about an American rock band, period. Tim Sommer writes beautifully, and knowingly, about music, friendship, money, stardom, the whole rock enterprise; in these pages, almost miraculously, he captures a dream.

Dean Budnick

As the A&R rep who signed Hootie & the Blowfish to their Atlantic deal and then fought behind the scenes to ensure the release of cracked rear view, Tim Sommer offers a unique perspective on the band's narrative. Sommer's lively account demonstrates how Hootie's nine-years-in-the-making "overnight success" was equally unlikely and inevitable.

David Menconi

Tim Sommer's Only Wanna Be with You tells the story of Hootie & the Blowfish's rise in amazing, hilarious detail while also serving as requiem for an era when the record business had more money than sense. Whether you're a fan or not, you'll root for him and them. Essential.

Mark Goodman

Set against the emerging alt-rock scene on the mid Atlantic coast, Only Wanna Be with You is the engaging story of musicians who only wanted to play together. Tim Sommer is the perfect storyteller to chronicle Hootie & the Blowfish's rise—and the bond that exists between them to this day.

Editorial Reviews

Tim Sommer's writing style is breezy and enjoyable.... Only Wanna Be with You reads like you're sitting at a really nice Oyster bar somewhere in Virginia, listening to a well-traveled and enthusiastic journeyman tell the story of one of the best-selling bands of all time.

Rock and Roll Globe

This book not only lovingly details the story of one of the most remarkable bands in American music, but also provides a refreshingly candid insider's look at the music industry of the nineties.

Jersey Beat

Only Wanna Be with You details... the ultimate comeback story.

The State