When Darius Rucker discovered that a warrant was issued for his arrest in December 2023, he was caught off guard. The musician was taken into custody in February 2024 on charges of simple possession, casual exchange, and violation of registration law — one year after he was pulled over by police in Williamson County, Tennessee, for expired tags. “It shocked me,” Rucker told People in his first interview about the incident.

“My friends who were in the police department were like, ‘Have you pissed somebody off up here? Because this is crazy that they’re doing this a year later,’” he added. “But I think somebody wanted to make an example out of me, and they did. And I’m handling it with my lawyers, and paying the price, and we’ll move on with our lives.”

Recalling the initial police stop and subsequent warrant, Rucker shared: “I mean, I looked back at that and I was like, ‘I got stopped by a police officer and I had a little bit of pot, and I think a little bit of some mushrooms or something in the car, and he let me go.’ And a year later I got a phone call from a buddy that said, ‘I think I just saw an arrest warrant for you.’”

Authorities had discovered marijuana and psilocin in the 58-year-old’s vehicle, though he remains unsure why the arrest warrant was issued nearly a full year following the stop. Rucker was released on a $10,500 bond on the same day of his arrest in February. “It sucks,” he said. “Fifty-seven years, never seen inside of a police car or jail, and I get busted for that.”

Additional insight into the musician’s life have been written into his first memoir, Life’s Too Short, out now. “This book is the story of my life as told through 23 songs that took me away, soaring, starting at ground level, living in a poor but happy home, never wanting for much more, enjoying what I had, even when times got tough, because I had my escape, my refuge, my music,” Rucker said in a statement earlier this year.