Darius Rucker recalls how Woody Harrelson saved him from drowning

Darius Rucker is recalling some of the fascinating stories he wrote in his new memoir, “Life’s Too Short.”

In the book, the country singer reflected on a time when Woody Harrelson saved his life.

He said it happened in the late ’90s when he was “touring nonstop” with his band, Hootie & the Blowfish, after they released their third studio album, “Musical Chairs.”

Rucker, who wrote he was “fried” at the time, said he needed a break from being on the road and decided to visit Harrelson at the actor’s house in Hawaii. That’s when they decided to go for a swim around a nearby “little island.”

“I’ll never forget this,” Rucker said on the 3rd hour of TODAY. “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 the book, Rucker compared the sensation of the “ferocious” current to a “horrific giant squid” tightening around his body and dragging him farther under the water. Eventually he heard the voice of his friend Harrelson, whom he described as his “brother” during his visit to TODAY.

“He came back, and we were trying to get out,” he told co-hosts Al Roker, Craig Melvin, Dylan Dreyer and Sheinelle Jones.

“It was probably a good 40 minutes of trying to get out. And then finally, I looked at him, 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.'”

When asked if the pair ever talked about that moment, Rucker said he’s seen Harrelson “a million times” since then, but they have “never talked about” his near-death experience.

“He’s so humble,” he said of Harrelson. “He wouldn’t want to talk about it.”

This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY: