Darius Rucker Recalls Meeting A Special Ghost

Darius Rucker appeared on The Kelly Clarkson Show this week and told a story of a very special ghost that visited him one night when he was in college.

Kelly was talking about Halloween with Rucker and asked him if he believed in ghosts and the supernatural. He says, "I do."

He told Clarkson a story about when he was in college, and he and his friend Dean Felber (bass player for Hootie and the Blowfish), moved into a place. Darius said they got a "bunch of beds from my house" that were around, including his grandmother's bed. He explained, "My grandmother had died, and I wake up at three o'clock in the morning, and I looked at the edge of my bed and my grandmother is sitting there." He recalls that he got up, ran to Dean's room, and told his friend that his grandmother's ghost was him his room. He said he he asked to crash in his friend's room. Dean said "no" so the young singer had to sleep on the couch.

Asked if it scared him, Rucker said, "It's scary a little bit, but I believe in that stuff, big time."

Still talking about Halloween, Darius said that his favorite candy is an unpopular one: Candy Corn. He then admitted that, like Kelly, he was poor as a kid and would go to the rich neighbors to trick or treat and get more expensive brands of candy.

Rucker released his first solo album in six years, Carolyn's Boy, earlier this month (10/6). We talked with Darius a few weeks back, and he told us about his new album named after his late mother.

"It's probably the most personal I've ever written. So many things have been going on in the world and in my life in the past six years that I just kept writing songs about what was going on. And once I decided to name it Carolyn's Boy, the personal songs seemed to rise to the top of the heap. And so, (this is a) pretty personal record, but, you know, I love that. I love telling the truth."

Country music has always had plenty of very giving and generous artists who are always first to help those in need.

When Nashville was flooded in 2010, many buildings and homes were destroyed, and lives were changed. It was country stars who came to the rescue even though many of them experienced the flood personally and suffered their own losses. Tim McGraw and Faith Hill immediately announced "Nashville Rising" and gathered many of their famous friends for a benefit concert to help Nashvillians in need. And who can forget watching Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman operating the phones at the telethon to raise money for flood victims?

In 2016, Dolly Parton held a telethon at her own Nashville studio for victims of the Gatlinburg fires in her native East Tennessee. Parton gave each person affected by the fires $1000 a month for over a year and then surprised them with a final payment of $5, 000 bringing many East Tennesseans to tears when she personally handed them the checks.

Days before the COVID pandemic began in March of 2020, when everyone was stuck at home, the Nashville community was already starting to arrange ways to raise money for victims of the devastating tornado that hit parts of Nashville. A total of 25 people were killed by the tornadoes, with an additional 309 being injured and more than 70,000 lost electricity. Miranda Lambert was one of the first people to help out by raising money for displaced Nashville pets. Taylor Swift donated one million dollars to tornado relief at the time.

Every country star helps out at St. Jude's Hospital in Memphis, which helps families deal with childhood cancer. Many artists attend an annual event to raise money and visit with the children there.

While there are so many country stars with big hearts that lend their time and money to charity, we gathered five of country music's top givers.

Carrie has always been a giver and offers her name to several charities. Most recently, she made a significant donation to the Tunnel to Towers Foundation of $420,316. The money was  raised by her fans who bought tickets to her 43-city arena tour, "The Denim & Rhinestones Tour." This contribution will go directly towards supporting America's heroes and their families. Carrie said, "I'm so proud of the fans that came out to the tour and making this donation possible. They have always shown up to support great organizations like Tunnel To Towers, making the world a better place while coming out to see us."

Since early in her career, Underwood has designated a portion of ticket sales from her tours to support worthwhile charities and organizations. In 2009, her C.A.T.S. Foundation was created to help to improve Checotah, Oklahoma, by assisting with causes, fulfilling needs, and providing services to the community and surrounding area.

Brad and his wife Kimberly Paisley started The Store in Nashville, a nonprofit free-referral-based grocery store that they co-founded. Brad said when he and his wife broke ground on The Store in 2019, "Our goal is to give dignity to parents. They can go to The Store and shop in a completely normal way, from choosing the food to checking out, but with no money exchanging hands. The kids can even ride a mechanical pony out in front of The Store – no charge. Kids do not need the stress of wondering how their parents are going to feed them. In Nashville, we have the power of the benevolence of the residents to support The Store."

Miranda's love of animals is legendary in Music City. Lambert's MuttNation Foundation and Tractor Supply Company teamed up for the third consecutive year in June to donate more than $250,000 to animal shelters nationwide. Through MuttNation's Mutts Across America program, one outstanding shelter or foster-based rescue in every state is being honored with a surprise $5,000 grant.

Miranda said, "Mutts Across America is MuttNation's cornerstone – it was our first signature program. These grants give us the chance to show our appreciation and spotlight shelters across the country for their hard work, year-round, to improve the lives of shelter pets. We're so proud to partner with Tractor Supply on this and other programs, allowing us to elevate our goals and increase the number of animals' lives we can change."

Since the initiative's origin nine years ago, MuttNation's Mutts Across America has supported more than 450 shelters with over $1.75 million in grants.

Fifteen years ago, Darius first visited St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. The organization moved him, and he was immediately inspired to pledge his support. Rucker continues to do so via his annual benefit concert, "Darius & Friends."  The shows have surpassed the $3.6 million mark with this year's 14th annual "Darius and Friends" benefit concert in June (6/5). The event is paired with a corresponding golf tournament and silent auction. This year's event raised an all-time high of $560,000 for the cause.

The decade-plus history of "Darius & Friends." Prior guests have included Lauren Alaina, Jason Aldean, Brooks & Dunn, Brothers Osborne, Kane Brown, Luke Bryan, Luke Combs, Sheryl Crow, Charles Kelley of Lady A, Ashley McBryde, A.J. McLean of the Backstreet Boys, Brad Paisley, Kenny Rogers and Tommy Thayer of KISS, among many others.

Dolly's kindness knows no bounds, and she's been giving back since she began receiving early in her carer. Dolly started the Imagination Library in 1995, and since that time has expanded to give books monthly to children all over the world. In 2023, the program has gifted over 213 million books to children.

Then there is the million-dollar donation to Vanderbilt and Moderna for research on the COVID-19 vaccine in 2020. In November of 2022, Parton received the Bezos Courage and Civility Award, which comes with $100 million to distribute to the charities of her choice. Jeff Bezos told CNN, "Look at what she's done, and the way she's led her life and the way she's done is bold things and always with civility and kindness. She's a unifier. You know we have big problems in the world, and the way you get big problems done is you have to work together." He added, "We have too many examples of conflict and people using attacks on social media and so and so. You won't find Dolly Parton doing that."

Bezos' partner Lauren Sanchez added, "And when you think of Dolly, look, everyone smiles, right? And all she wants to do is bring light into other people's worlds, that's all. And so we couldn't have thought of someone better than to give this award to Dolly."