Watch Darius Rucker Solve a Sizzling Mystery in New Music Video

Darius Rucker toes the line between serious and silly in his high-concept new music video for “Fires Don’t Start Themselves,” a single he put out back in April.

The clip stars Rucker as a police detective who must solve the mystery behind a series of inexplicable fires that keep popping up — without any apparent cause — all over town. With his incompetent, donut-obsessed partner by his side, Rucker follows the trail from a home to a car to a bar to a hotel room, all of which have been damaged by the mysterious blaze.

Of course, knowing the lyrics of the song — and seeing some of the fire’s origin story, which is linked to a couple who just can’t keep their hands to themselves — viewers know that this mystery has a little something to do with love. Rucker soon catches on to that, too, thanks to a few clues: For example, he keeps finding Conway Twitty records at the scene of the crime.

Rucker tells CMT that he wanted to channel a sultry throwback vibe for the making of this clip. “You get so many songs when you’re making a record, and that one came in, and it was such a ’90s groove,” he explains.

“We cut it, and I was trying to channel my inner Josh Turner for a minute. The songs is about fires don’t start themselves,” the singer adds. “It’s about what you think it’s about.”

Fun fact: Rucker’s role as a police detective in this music video isn’t all that dissimilar from the character he played during a guest spot of the ABC drama Big Sky. So if his acting skills look polished, it’s no wonder — he’s had recent practice!

Written by Dan Isbell, Ben Hayslip and Jacob Rice, “Fires Don’t Start Themselves” will be on the tracklist of Rucker’s next album, Carolyn’s Boy. It’s also the inspiration behind his current Starting Fires Tour, which will continue into the fall and wrap with a Nashville stop on Oct. 14.