Darius Rucker can inspire a “Masterpiece,” but he “can’t play piano like Ray Charles”

When Darius Rucker sings “I can’t play piano like Ray Charles” in his latest hit, “My Masterpiece,” he’s telling the absolute truth.

But it’s not for lack of trying.

“The one thing that I’m starting to do… is I’m learning to play piano,” he told reporters in August of 2020. “I got this big keyboard in my house…And so finally, I’m going online and taking probably, you know, an hour a day, four or five days a week, and trying to learn how to play that thing.”

By February of this year, however, Darius confessed he hadn’t exactly been keeping up with his piano lessons.

“Oh, of course, I didn’t stick with it, come on!” he laughs. “This is me. Come on! Of course, I didn’t. I took two lessons and haven’t been back on the piano since.”

The experience did inspire a line in his latest single, however.

“The funny thing is, one of the guys I write with saw an interview with me and he was talking about me playing the piano,” Darius explains, “And… one of the lines I used was, ‘I can’t play piano like Ray Charles.’ And now that’s like the big payoff in the song… because it was just so funny.”

Darius adds, joking, “I can’t play piano like, you know, David Charles right now. I’m awful! I didn’t even stick with it. I should have.”