Woody Harrelson Risked His Own Life To Save “Brother” Darius Rucker From Drowning

Woody Harrelson once risked his own life to save his close friend, Darius Rucker, from drowning, and he was too “humble” to speak of it again. 

Darius wrote about the terrifying experience in his recent memoir, Life’s Too Short, and expanded on it while visiting the Today Show. He explained that it happened in the ’90s when he was in his prime with Hootie & The Blowfish. 

The now country singer was “fried” from touring and needed a break. So he visited Hawaii to see his friend and “brother,” Woody, and the two decided to take a swim in the ocean.

“I’ll never forget this,” Darius said. “He told me what to do, and I was fine. I’m a good swimmer, but then I dove in the water, and I opened my eyes and all I saw was no bottom, fish. All I saw was a bunch of fish, and I panicked. Then, I got caught up in this current that was just killing me.”

In his memoir, Darius wrote that the current was dragging him further and further under. Then he heard Woody’s voice.

“He came back,” he continued. “And we were trying to get out. It was probably a good 40 minutes of trying to get out.”

Darius Rucker didn’t believe they could both survive—so he asked Woody Harrelson to let him go.

“And then finally, I looked at him,” he shared, “and this is so vivid to me. I looked at him, I said, ‘Man, we both don’t have to die out here today.’ I was like, ‘You’ve got to let me go.’ And just like Woody from Cheers, he looked at me and said, ‘Not on my watch.'”

Darius said he and Woody have seen each other “a million since” since the near-drowning. But the actor never brought up the selfless act again.

“He’s so humble,” Darius added. “He wouldn’t want to talk about it.” 

This story’s featured image is by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images.