Hootie & The Blowfish announces 'Group Therapy Tour' to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their debut album

Hootie and Blowfish accept the award for Best New Artist in a Video at the 1995 MTV Video Music Awards in New York. In 2019, the band will launch its first major tour in more than a decade.

Hootie and Blowfish accept the award for Best New Artist in a Video at the 1995 MTV Video Music Awards in New York. In 2019, the band will launch its first major tour in more than a decade. (Photo by Bebeto Matthews / AP)

George Varga George VargaContact Reporter

Hootie & The Blowfish, which has maintained a very low public profile for at least the last decade, will set up a big tour in 2019 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their debut album, "Cracked Rear View." In addition, South Carolina pop -rock band, which has not released a new album since "Looking For Lucky" since 2005, has signed a new contract with Universal Music Group Nashville and is scheduled to release new music later this year. .

Hootie, led by singer-turned-country music star Darius Rucker, will kick off his "Group Therapy Tour" of 44 cities on May 30 in Virginia Beach, Virginia. The tour, which was announced on Monday morning, concludes in September. 13 in the band's hometown in Columbia, South Carolina. All dates and cities appear below.

The extensive concert tour will include five shows in California, beginning June 21 at the Credit Union Amphitheater of the North Island of San Diego (the place formerly known as the Mattress Signature Amphitheater).

The other California dates are: June 23 at the FivePoint Amphitheater in Irvine; June 25 at the Hollywood Bowl; June 28 at the Toyota Pavilion in Sacramento; and on June 29 at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View.

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The Canadian band Barenaked Ladies will be the opening act of all the shows of the tour fueled by nostalgia.

Launched in 1994, Hootie's album "Cracked Rear View" sold between 14.5 and 16 million copies, according to the source, and produced such successful songs as "Hold My Hand" and "Only Wanna Be With You".

Hootie's representatives stress that the "Group Therapy Tour" is a concert tour designed to commemorate the 25th anniversary of "Cracked Rear View", not a reunion tour.

That can be technically correct. But since Rucker launched his successful solo career in the country more than a decade ago, the number of Hootie concerts has dramatically decreased. In fact, the band does not seem to have acted between August 2008 and August 2012.

Since then, the group of four men has played live only a handful of times each year.

"You know, life is going pretty well for everyone right now, so we do not die to get back together and do a tour or something," Rucker told abcnews.go.com in 2017. "But, you know , someday,"

Hootie's "one day" comes six years after Rucker became a member of the Grand Ole Opry in 2012.

"We never stopped being a band," Hootie bassist Dean Felber said in a statement posted Monday morning.

"There's nothing like playing live music," added guitarist Mark Bryan. "For the first time in almost 20 years, we will return to Columbia, South Carolina, where it all began."

Tickets for the "Group therapy tour" go on sale on Friday at 10 a.m. to the general public at ticketmaster.com and livenation.com, and by phone at (800) 745-3000.

An online pre-sale for members of the Citi card and members of the Hootie fan club starts today, Monday at 10 a.m. and it extends until 10 p.m., on Thursday, on citiprivatepass.com.

Tickets for the band's concert on June 21 in San Diego are priced at $ 25 to $ 149.50, plus service charges.

Hootie & The Blowfish Itinerary "Group therapy tour"

·         Thursday, May 30 Virginia Beach, VA Veterans United Home Loan Amphitheater

·         Friday, May 31: Raleigh, NC, Coastal Credit Union Music Park

·         Saturday, June 1: Atlanta, GA, Lakewood Amphitheater

·         Thursday, June 6: Orange Beach, AL, The Wharf

·         Friday, June 7: Tampa, FL, MIDFLORIDA Amphitheater

·         Saturday, June 8: West Palm Beach, FL, Coral Sky Amphitheater

·         Thursday, June 13: Austin, TX, Austin360 Amphitheater

·         Friday, June 14: Houston, TX, Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion

·         Saturday, June 15: Dallas, TX, Starplex Pavilion

·         Wednesday, June 19: Phoenix, AZ, Ak-Chin Pavilion

·         Friday, June 21: San Diego Amphitheater, North Island Credit Union

·         Saturday, June 22: Las Vegas, NV, T-Mobile Arena

·         Sunday, June 23: Irvine, CA FivePoint Amphitheater

·         Tuesday, June 25: Los Angeles, Hollywood Bowl.

·         Friday, June 28: Sacramento, Toyota Pavilion.

·         Saturday, June 29: Mountain View, Shoreline Amphitheater

·         Thursday, July 11: Englewood, CO, Green Amphitheater of the violinist

·         Friday, July 12: St. Louis, MO, Hollywood Casino Amphitheater

·         Saturday, July 13: Rogers, AR, Walmart Amphitheater

·         Saturday, July 20: Cincinnati, OH, Riverbend Music Center

·         Sunday, July 21: Pittsburgh, PA, KeyBank Pavilion

·         Friday, July 26: Cleveland, OH, Blossom Music Center

·         Saturday, July 27: Bristow, VA, Jiffy Lube Live

·         Sunday, July 28: Camden, PA, Pavilion BB & T

·         Friday August 2: Gilford, NH, Bank of New Hampshire

·         Saturday, August 3: Boston, MA, Xfinity Center

·         Sunday, August 4: Saratoga Springs, NY, SPAC

·         Thursday August 8: Columbia, MD, Merriweather Post Pavilion

·         Friday, August 9: Rochester, NY, CMAC

·         Saturday, August 10: New York, NY, Madison Square Garden

·         Friday, August 16: Detroit, MI, DTE Energy Music Theater

·         Saturday, August 17: Indianapolis, IN, Ruoff Home Mortgage Music Center

·         Sunday, August 18: Des Moines, IA, Iowa State Fair

·         Thursday, August 22: St. Paul, MN, Minnesota State Fair

·         Friday, August 23: East Troy, WI, Alpine Valley Music Theater

·         Saturday, August 24: Chicago, IL, Hollywood Casino Amphitheater

·         Thursday, August 29: Toronto, ON, Budweiser Stage

·         Friday, August 30: Hershey, PA, Hershey Park Stadium

·         Saturday, August: 31 Hartford, CT, XFINITY Theater

·         Thursday, September 5: Charlotte, NC, PNC Pavilion

·         Friday, September 6: Birmingham, AL, Oak Mountain Amphitheater

·         Saturday, September 7: Nashville, TN, Bridgestone Arena

·         Friday, September 13: Columbia, SC, Colonial Life Arena