Though it's named after his late mother, Darius Rucker's new album Carolyn's Boy (out Oct. 6) serves its purpose as a divorce album following Rucker's split in 2020 from Beth Leonard, his wife since 2000 and the mother of his two youngest children.
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"You try to express those feelings, and it's hard to say and it's hard to put that on paper," Rucker told People. "You try to do it as real as you can. I'm not a big talk-to-you guy, but I can sit down and write a song about it."
In the same interview, Rucker got candid about his still-pending divorce.
"That stuff hurts and you feel like a failure," Rucker shared. "But we're still a family— a piece of paper is not going to change that. We're still a family, and that's all because Beth is awesome. She knows it's the best for the kids, and she's a great human being."
Rucker is focused on remaining friends with his ex —and he's avoiding dating— for the sake of his three adult children: his kids with Leonard, Daniela and Jack, and a daughter from a prior relationship, Carolyn.
"It was tough growing up without a dad. I hated it," he said. "I had a lot of great father figures in my life, but not having him there was s---ty, and I don't ever want my kids to not know where their dad is or how they can get in touch with him, because I never knew how to get in touch with mine.
"With a job like mine, you travel a lot, but the one thing is, [my children] always know where I am," he continued. "I think that's directly from the fact that I never knew where [my father] was."
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