If you're in your local Starbucks and you just happen to see Darius Rucker walk by, go ahead and yell "Hey, Hootie!" No, we're not trying to punk you. He actually doesn't mind that, these days. In fact, he kind of likes it. Rucker, who propelled to mega-stardom in the mid-'90s as the frontman for Hootie and the Blowfish, tells Spinner that people don't mistakenly call him Hootie much anymore.

"But if they do, I'm glad because they still know who I am and they're calling me. I'm down with that," he says. "After being in the limelight for 15 years, you're just glad that people still know who you are. Especially when I've lost some weight and I'm not the fat hippie anymore."

Of course, we don't only remember Rucker in the role of Hootie; we also remember him as being the fat hippie in the Burger King commercial. The one that, when it came on, we always said, "Hey look! Hootie is doing a Burger King commercial!"

But get it in now on the Hootie hoots while you can -- Rucker also tells Spinner that, apart from their annual charity gigs, Hootie and the Blowfish will be taking a five or six year hiatus while he pursues a solo career in country music. If you think we saw any of this coming, you thought wrong.

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