Darius Rucker’s Next Album Features Ed Sheeran Collab, Rihanna Cover

Darius Rucker's first album in six years will drop this fall. The previously announced Carolyn's Boy pays tribute to his mother, Carolyn. She died in 1992, before his success with Hootie and the Blowfish.

On Friday (Aug. 4), the "Fires Don't Start Themselves" singer shared more details of Carolyn's Boy. It will be released on Oct. 6 and feature 15 songs, including his current radio single, the No. 1 hit "Beers and Sunshine" and "Ol' Church Hymn," a collaboration with Chapel Hart that dropped in 2022.

Rucker first revealed that he planned to tribute his mother last fall, sharing the album cover art with fans on Instagram.

• Rucker's mother died of a heart attack in 1992.
• She was a nurse, but that was more than just a job. "Her compassion for people was something she taught all of us — telling us to care about other folks and try to help," he once told Southern Living.
• Carolyn was a single mother and little is known about Rucker's father and his relationship to the singer.

Rucker helped write 12 of the 15 songs on Carolyn's Boy, an album produced by Ross Copperman, Frank Rogers and Dann Huff. This is his sixth, non-holiday country studio album and the first since When Was the Last Time in 2017. Prior to that he was the lead singer of Hootie & the Blowfish, famous for the double-Diamond certified album Cracked Rear View.

A new song called "Have a Good Time" was released alongside of the news of the album's release date. Previously, Rucker had leaked several other songs that made this project, including "Sara," a song about his elementary school girlfriend that Ed Sheeran helped write, and "Lift Me Up," a song Rihanna first recorded for the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever soundtrack.

Charles Kelley from Lady A, Hardy and Old Dominion's Brad Tursi are three more artists with writing credits on Carolyn's Boy.

Darius Rucker's Carolyn's Boy Tracklist:

1. "Beers and Sunshine" (Rucker, JT Harding, Josh Osborne, Copperman)
2. "In This Together" (Rucker, Derek George, Bobby Hamrick, Joy Williams)
3. "Never Been Over" (Rucker, Lee Thomas Miller, John Osborne)
4. "Fires Don't Start Themselves" (Ben Hayslip, Jacob Rice, Dan Isbell)
5. "Ol' Church Hymn" (Feat. Chapel Hart) (Rucker, Greylan James, Hayslip, Josh Miller)
6. "7 Days" (Rucker, Copperman, Ashley Gorley, Charles Kelley)
7. "Same Beer Different Problem" (Rucker, Topher Brown, Sarah Buxton, Brad Tursi)
8. "Sara" (Rucker, Joel Crouse, Kyle Rife, Ed Sheeran)
9. "Have a Good Time" (Rucker, Monty Criswell, Derek George, Hamrick)
10. "Sure Would Have Loved Her" (Rucker, Wyatt Durrette, Levi Lowry)
11. "Southern Comfort" (Chris LaCorte, Matt Rogers, Josh Osborne)
12. "3AM in Carolina" (Rucker, Copperman, Michael Hardy)
13. "Live Me Up" (Temilade Openiyi, Robyn Fenty, Ryan Coogler, Ludwigh Goransson)
14. "Sargazing" (Rucker, Brinley Addington, Jess Cayne, Matt Morrisey)