ABC/Image Group LA For the 8th year of his annual benefit for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Darius Rucker is getting an upgrade.
“I’m excited this year, because we’re doing it at the Ryman [Auditorium],” he says of Monday night’s show. “It’ll be the first time we have not done it at the Wildhorse [Saloon]…We’re putting together some big names, so it’s going to be a lot of fun.”
Dan + Shay, Michael Ray, Country Music Hall-of-Famer Ronnie Milsap and John Oates — half of Rock and Roll Hall-of-Famers Hall & Oates — are just some of the stars who’ll take the stage at the benefit.
Darius recalls he first played the legendary venue back in the heyday of his pop/rock band Hootie & the Blowfish.
“It’s the Mother Church of Country Music!” he adds excitedly. “It’s that place that is known all over the world for country music, and to be moving our Darius & Friends there means the world to me… It sounds amazing, and you feel the religion when you’re on that stage.”
The benefit kicks off at 7:30 p.m. CT tonight in downtown Nashville, with Darius also hosting a charity golf tournament tomorrow. Between the two events, he’s raised more than $800,000 for the Memphis hospital that works to cure childhood cancer.
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