Darius Rucker to Debut Charitable Song at ACMs

Darius Rucker will to perform a new song at Sunday's Academy of Country Music Awards, along with 25 of the tune's co-writers.

The song, 'Music From the Heart,' was written by numerous young adults with development disabilities, along with Chris Young and Brett James, at the ACM Lifting Lives music camp last summer in Nashville.

The debut performance of the extraordinary tune by Darius and his special guests will benefit the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center and its objective to improve the lives of the developmentally disabled. Viewers will be able to make a $5 donation by texting DREAM to 27722, calling 1-888-9-LIFTING or logging on to acmliftinglives.org.

Darius is making a career of giving back to those not as fortunate. He recently announced the second annual Darius and Friends concert, which will benefit St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, taking place Monday, June 6 at the Wildhorse Saloon. "It's extremely important to me to grow our annual benefit for St. Jude, as I pledged to help each year with their fund-raising efforts," explains the singer. He also helped clean up the Ninth Ward neighborhood in New Orleans earlier this year, and he is donating proceeds from the iTunes sale of his single, 'Together Anything is Possible,' to benefit several charities across the country.

The 'This' singer was also among the artists taking part in the Kennedy Center gala, 'All Together Now: A Celebration of Service,' honoring former President George H.W. Bush for his volunteerism. "I've always been about giving back," Darius says. "And I try to do everything I can to help people that help ... that's a good citizen to be celebrating I think." By the way, the special airs tonight at 8:00 PM ET/PT on NBC.

Previously announced ACM performances include Jason Aldean, Toby Keith, Miranda Lambert, Brad Paisley, Taylor Swift, Keith Urban, Alabama, Dierks Bentley, Ronnie Dunn, Sara Evans, Martina McBride, Reba McEntire, Blake Shelton, Carrie Underwood, Sugarland with Rihanna and Zac Brown Band with James Taylor.