Darius Rucker Breaks His Silence on February Arrest: 'I'm Paying the Price and We'll Move On' (Exclusive)

Darius Rucker may have been arrested earlier this year, but he’s no country outlaw.

The Grammy-winning singer found himself in a strange sort of legal limbo this past winter: though he’d been pulled over in February 2023 and released without charges, he learned months later that there was a warrant out for his arrest.

“It was so awesome,” Rucker, 58, recalls to PEOPLE. “I mean, I looked back at that and I was like, ‘I got stopped by a police officer and I had a little bit of pot, and I think a little bit of some mushrooms or something in the car, and he let me go.’ And a year later I got a phone call from a buddy that said, ‘I think I just saw an arrest warrant for you.’ It shocked me.”

The “Wagon Wheel” singer, whose memoir Life’s Too Short is out now, says he’s still not quite sure what exactly prompted the arrest warrant, but is dealing with it with the help of his legal team.

“My friends who were in the police department were like, ‘Have you pissed somebody off up here? Because this is crazy that they’re doing this a year later,’” he says. “But I think somebody wanted to make an example out of me, and they did. And I’m handling it with my lawyers, and paying the price, and we’ll move on with our lives.”

Rucker was arrested in February 2024 on two counts of simple possession/casual exchange of a controlled substance and one count of a violation of Tennessee’s vehicle registration law, the Williamson County Sheriff’s Office told PEOPLE. He was taken into custody and released on a $10,500 bond.

TMZ reported at the time that he’d been pulled over for expired tags in February 2023, and authorities found marijuana and psilocin in his car. Though he was released without charges, a warrant for his arrest was issued in December 2023, and he reportedly turned himself in in February.

“It sucks,” he says now. “Fifty-seven years, never seen inside of a police car or jail, and I get busted for that.”

Recreational marijuana is legal in 24 states, though not in Tennessee.

For now, Rucker is focused on the release of his new memoir, which covers all aspects of the musician’s life, from his humble beginnings in South Carolina to the hard-partying peak of his Hootie & the Blowfish fame. It also covers his past issues with substance abuse during Hootie’s heyday, and the ultimatum his ex-wife Beth gave him that helped him quit hard drugs, and which he now credits with saving his life.

“I hope my journey pleasantly surprises people and makes them go, ‘Wow,’” he says. “Not a lot of people know a lot about me. They know my music and what I do, but they don’t know how you got there.”