Welcome to a very special Mother's Day edition of Biscuits and Jam from Southern Living.

I'm Sid Evans, editor-in-chief of Southern Living magazine.

I'm thrilled for you to join me along with guests like

Winona Judd, Leon Womack, Ashley McBride, and others as we discuss how their mothers have

influenced their cooking, their music, and their way of life. If you'd like to hear these

interviews in full, subscribe to our program and dig through our previous episodes for more

talk about what being Southern is all about.

Kicking us off this week is a conversation I had with Darius Rucker.

Within the last year of the pandemic, as we've seen firsthand how important nurses are to the well-being of our country,

there's been a lot of well-deserved attention given to those who have been

on the front lines every day. As Darius tells me, he learned all about compassion and empathy

by watching his mom care for everyone around her, whether they were a patient or a family member.

So were you encouraged by your mom or your family to sing as a kid, or was that not something

that came until later? No, my mom always encouraged me to sing. My mom was a great singer. I never

really pigeonhole music like a lot of people do. I never said I can listen to that or I can't

listen to that. It was always, I listened to what I liked.

I never decided what I liked until I heard it. Yeah. You know, and growing up, you know, where I grew up, it was times, even from family members, you know, you get a lot of grief because, you know, why are you listening to that white boy music? You know, I've heard that, you know, as a kid, I heard that a million times. and my mom would always get to take out for me.

Always tell him to leave me alone.

Don't bother him. Let him listen to what he wants to listen to. you know, as a kid, I heard that a million times. And my mom would always take up for me.

Always tell him to leave me alone, don't bother him, let him listen to what he wants to listen to. And, you know, it all paid off in the end, I think. And your mom was pretty busy, right? She was a nurse at the Medical University of South Carolina. Yeah, she worked really hard. You know, you're trying to feed five, six kids, you know, working doubles and stuff like that.

She worked really hard, but she was a great mom. She was always there for it. She was, you know, when she came home, no matter how tired she was, if she wanted some time or attention, she was always there to give it to you. Well, you know, right now we see the nurses are on the front lines more than ever with everything that's going on

I'm just wondering what are some things that you learned from your mom about what it takes to be a nurse

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