Darius Rucker Supergroup Howl Owl Howl Featuring R.E.M. and Black Crowes Members Announce Tour

Hootie & The Blowfish frontman Darius Rucker has formed a new rock supergroup opposite R.E.M. co-founder Mike Mills and The Black Crowes co-founder Steve Gorman — and they’re going on tour.

The ’90s rockers’ debut single “My Cologne” is slated for an Oct. 31 release. The tour will kickoff at The Vogue in Indianapolis, Ind. on Nov. 3, according to a press release.

“It feels great to be singing with a rock band again. It’s like buddies getting together, but also getting to play with your idols,” Rucker, 59, said in a statement. “The stuff we’re writing is so different than anything I’ve tried to do before.”

“You never can explain band chemistry,” Mills, also 59, added. “We all like each other. And we all admire each other musically. All those things come together and if it weren’t fun, we wouldn’t be doing it.”

Howl Owl Howl “fuses organic roots rock with an open-minded alternative flair, matching a fluid, feel-oriented rhythm section to the barrel-chested vocal rasp of an iconic frontman,” according to a press release.

“There’s not a single guarantee. We’re finally going to get to plug in and let it rip a little bit,” Gorman, 60, said in a statement. The band started playing together in 2021, beginning with “casual jam sessions.”

Rucker, who previously revealed he had moved to London in January, caught up with PEOPLE exclusively at the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen in June about the new music he was working on at the time.

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“I’m working on my album, I’m sure my single’s going to be coming out here soon, you know, and I’m ready for people hear that,” he said. “I’m looking forward to finishing my record and getting that out. I think it’s refreshing, it’s new. I think my fans are gonna be really, really excited.”

He continued, “I went to London to get just a different flavor. And I think I did that. I think people are going to like what we did.”

Rucker was a founding member of Hootie & The Blowfish, with the roots rock group forming in the spring of 1986 in Columbia, S.C. Their hits “Time” and “Only Wanna Be with You” took over the charts in 1994.

Meanwhile, Mills co-founded R.E.M. with friends Bill Berry, Peter Buck and Michael Stipe in Athens, Ga. in 1980, after the group performed their first show at a mutual friend’s birthday party. “Losing My Religion” and “Shiny Happy People” took over the airwaves in 1991.

Gorman served as the Black Crowes’ drummer intermittently from their founding in 1989 until 2015. All three groups carved their own unique niche within the alternative rock scene in the early 1990s, lending to blues traditions and the southern flair of their roots.

All tickets for the Howl Owl Howl Tour 2025 go on sale this Friday, Sept. 26 at 10 a.m. local time. 

See the full tour dates below:

11/3/25 – Indianapolis, IN – The Vogue
11/4/25  – Chicago, IL – Metro Chicago
11/6/25  – Washington, D.C. – 9:30 Club
11/7/25 – Asbury Park, NJ – Stone Pony
11/8/25– Boston, MA  – Paradise Rock Club – Music Hall
11/11/25 – New York, NY– Webster Hall
11/12/25 – Philadelphia, PA –Union Transfer
11/14/25 – Athens, GA – Georgia Theatre
11/15/25 – Atlanta, GA – Variety Playhouse