Swimming with the Blowfish: Hootie, Healing, and One Hell of a Ride

Written by Jim Sonefeld

Narrated by Jim Sonefeld

The ultimate front-row seat to Hootie & the Blowfish and Jim “Soni" Sonefeld’s breathtaking path from addiction to recovery.

For a time, there was no bigger band in the world than Hootie & the Blowfish—rock & roll’s unexpected foil to the grunge music that dominated the early ’90s airwaves. Jim Sonefeld, drummer and one of the group’s principal songwriters,
reveals their humble beginnings, meteoric rise, Grammy Award–winning musicianship, sudden fall, and ultimate rebirth—and opens his heart to readers about addiction, recovery, and faith.

Hootie’s debut album Cracked Rear View was one of the bestselling in the history of rock music. It saturated radio airwaves, television, and culture, and placed the quartet at the center of the American music conversation—for better and for
worse. Though Jim enjoyed the perks that came with fame—the parties, the relationships, the money, the drugs and alcohol—eventually it all became a camouflage that hid a deeper spiritual malady. As his life careened toward
disaster, he sought relief in twelve-step recovery, eventually devoting himself to a loving but by no means uncomplicated home life.

Swimming with the Blowfish is an unpretentious, emotional story of one man’s spiritual path to a more fruitful life. Jim’s journey is staggering and redeeming, and ultimately as comforting as your favorite flannel shirt.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Jun 28, 2022
• ISBN: 9781705063378

Reviews for Swimming with the Blowfish

[Stephen C. Wood · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

What an incredible collection of stories from an incredibly interesting perspective. This isn’t my typical genre of reading, but this book kept me hooked until the end. Well worth the read!

[pomo58 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Swimming with the Blowfish, written and narrated by Jim Sonefeld, is an honest and ultimately very uplifting story.

If you remember Hootie and the Blowfish you likely have strong feelings about them. Loved then very quickly shunted to the sidelines of the fickle pop music world, their star was very bright for a time. What I remember most about the songs I liked, aside from Rucker's voice, was how they seemed to hit me at a deeper level than many of the other songs on pop radio. Sonefeld actually sheds, for me, some light on why they were so passionate.

Life after the group is where the uplifting part of the story takes place, after the not uncommon substance abuse issues. Sonefeld doesn't shy away from telling us about his lows, which no doubt is easier to do now that they are (permanently, one hopes) in the past. For him, a faith-based approach is what helped him. Even if you don't subscribe to any of the various religions, such as myself, there is no denying that his faith helped him. That said, he offers his appreciation and faith without making his story about turning to faith necessarily but about coming to terms in a manner that fits you. I can always respect someone who doesn't try to beat me over the head with what they believe as if I should also believe the same thing.

If there was any drawback to the audiobook it was that even though Sonefeld is the narrator he kept perhaps too even a keel in telling his story. I don't mean to imply he read everything flat, but places I expected some sort of inflection or pitch change there wasn't one, which threw me off. Those moments weren't frequent and didn't detract from the overall pleasure of listening, just a few moments of feeling out of step.

I would certainly recommend this to fans of Hootie and the Blowfish but also to readers who like to read biographies of celebrities who turn their lives around when they see the direction they are going.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.