The Hootie and the Blowfish star gets teary eyes as he talks about coaching his son Jack in dealing with police officers if he's ever pulled over by cops.
- Jul 11, 2020
AceShowbiz - Country star Darius Rucker has had a tough talk with his youngest son about interactions with traffic police after revealing he has been stopped by cops just for being black.
The Hootie & the Blowfish frontman teared up during an interview with Harry Smith on U.S. TV show "Today" on Friday (10Jul20) as he talked about the pressures of being African-American in 2020 and the recent Black Lives Matter protests following the death of George Floyd, while he was in police custody in Minnesota.
The singer revealed he's determined to stop pretending racism isn't an issue in the music industry after watching his three kids respond to Floyd's death and the aftermath, admitting the issue reared its ugly head as he started teaching his son, Jack, how to drive.
"We have to talk about, 'If you get stopped, keep your hands on the wheel and don't do anything until they tell you do it,' " Rucker explained.
"We've seen it so many times with something so innocent as a traffic stop or something and then all of a sudden somebody gets shot. I don't want that for my boy. I don't want that for my daughters. I don't want that for anyone."
Rucker admits he's often pulled over for being a black man behind the wheel of a "nice car."
"When they recognise me, everything's cool...," he added. "I got stopped because I was a black guy in an expensive car. It's happened a million times."
