Hootie and The Blowfish perform at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, Calif. on June 29, 2019. Steve Carlson/STAFF.

Back when Hootie and the Blowfish were first blowing up, after the release of their 1994 debut album, Cracked Rear View, their big tours consisted of crisscrossing the country on a bus.

Thirty years later, South Carolinians Darius Rucker, Mark Bryan, Dean Felber and Jim “Soni” Sonefeld are still at it; just not as often. And they get their own buses, now.

“I can actually bring my family, where I had to leave them at home before,” Bryan, 57, said in a video call from Charleston. The band’s guitarist was on his way to a Petco to get food for his golden retrievers, Riggins and Rosie, who are coming on tour with him. “I’m buying like three of the big old, huge packs of dog food.”

Hootie and the Blowfish, known for massive hits like “Hold My Hand,” “Let Her Cry” and “Only Wanna Be With You,” blending rock with folk, pop and blues, have released six albums, the most recent of which was 2019’s Imperfect Circle. While none reached the same level of success as the double-diamond-certified debut (still one of the top 10 best-selling albums ever), the band’s signature sound kept demand up.

Hootie and the Blowfish, courtesy Todd and Chris Owyoung.

Their summer-long, 43-city Summer Camp with Trucks Tour includes Atlanta rockers Collective Soul and fellow South Carolinian Edwin McCain. All three acts are friends, with Hootie and McCain coming up in the same scene, playing Hilton Head, S.C. around 1992. Both would play late into the night, while McCain sometimes also played right on the beach in the daytime. So, they saw a lot of each other.

“We just started hanging out with him, and he’s so talented,” Bryan said. “Then, all of a sudden, Cracked Rear View popped, and we got the opportunity to go on a huge national tour. So we thought, ‘Who better to bring out and show the world but Edwin McCain?’”

On that tour, the band’s then-label Atlantic fell in love with McCain and signed him as well.

“Next thing you know, ‘Solitude’ happened, and then ‘I’ll Be,’ and all that. He’s had a great career,” Bryan said.

Collective Soul (who just released a double album, Here to Eternity) was also signed to Atlantic back then, releasing some of the best Southern pop-rock around the same time. Still, the two bands didn’t know each other until Collective Soul frontman Ed Roland invited Bryan to his home studio in Atlanta in the late ‘90s.

Mark Bryan, courtesy Jonathan Boncek.

“It was this beautiful sort of estate outside of town, and the whole downstairs was his studio. … I think his wife cooked us some dinner,” Bryan said. “He’s a super nice guy, great host and very intense about music, like I am. We both have home studios. We talked about gear for hours.”

The bands reconnected at a gig in 2023, where the groundwork for this tour was laid.

The tour kicked off in late May, after the band made an appearance on the season finale of “American Idol,” performing a medley of their hits with runner-up Will Moseley. Bryan said they ran through the songs together only three times because Moseley nailed his parts so quickly, but called the experience nerve-racking as well because of the live TV component of it.

Hootie and the Blowfish also released a cover of Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth” as a lead-up for the tour, a song with which each member in the band shared a connection.

“I loved that song since I was a little kid; I think I first heard it on ‘The Muppets,’ I kid you not,” he said. “It’s a good fit for our sound.”

It’s the only new material for the band in 2024, and no other album is in the works as of this time. But each member is busy creating in his own life. Rucker published a new book, “Life’s Too Short,” in May, and the country music star is now working on his next solo album, Bryan said. Sonefeld released a single, “I’ll Always Remember,” in April.

And Bryan is also releasing a solo album, his fifth, this fall. The folky POPPED has 12 songs, six of which he plans to release over the summer, starting with the carefree “Coastin’.”

“I can feel myself developing and getting better with age, and it’s like, ‘God, I wish I was this good when I was in my 20s,’” he said. “I just have such a better grasp on how to write a great song and play a bunch of different instruments. Lyrically, I have more to say than ever because I’ve lived more, and I have more experience. I’m just really enjoying the process more than I ever have.”

Music is only one part of the band members’ lives. They’re involved with several charitable and business projects as well. Bryan, for example, founded a nonprofit afterschool music recording and technology program in Charleston that helps children get into music. His most recent venture is with THC-infused beverage Hi Seltzer, which he’s passionate about.

“There’s no alcohol, no sugar, no carbs. It’s clean as a whistle,” he said. “I’ve been charged with bringing it to South Carolina, but we’re already in like 20 other states. A big part of this product is educating people in this conversation. … It’s been a life-changing thing to be involved with. … A percentage of people in the country are making a shift away from alcohol and looking for a healthier choice.”

So, how do the members of Hootie and the Blowfish balance all these creative interests while the band is together?

“Carefully,” he said. “I make Hootie the priority; that’s the easy answer to that question. Whatever we’re doing with Hootie is the priority.”

Follow editor Roman Gokhman at Twitter.com/RomiTheWriter.