Rascal Flatts News
All
Rascal Flatts news below from the Rascal Flatts
official site
FLATTS THANK THE DOG POUND
posted: 5/18/2005
Scoring a historical first, Rascal Flatts thanked
their street team during their ACM...
ACM THREEPETE
posted: 5/17/2005
Rascal Flatts has become just the 2nd band in history
to take the ACM Vocal Group of the...
HERE'S TO YOU VIDEO DEBUTS ON CMT.com
posted: 5/10/2005
The brand new video from Here's To You , featuring
members of the Flatt Dog Pound, debuts today...
FLATTS GO TOP TEN IN 7 WEEKS
posted: 5/10/2005
Fast Cars And Freedom, the new single from the Feels
Like Today album, crashed into the Top...
FLATTS COVER COUNTRY WEEKLY
posted: 5/9/2005
The boys will be featured front and center in the
May 23rd edition of Country Weekly! Stay...
WAKE UP WITH RASCAL FLATTS
posted: 5/9/2005
Good Morning America's "Summer Concert Series"
will host Rascal Flatts on May 27th! If you're...
VOTE FLATTS!
posted: 5/2/2005
CMT.com's daily poll asks, "Which of these
recently released singles do you like best?"
...
WIN A TRIP TO THE ACM AWARDS!
posted: 4/21/2005
The Flatts are giving away a trip to the 2005 ACM
Awards! For your chance for a trip to sunny...
Forgot Your Username or Password?
posted: 4/20/2005
Click here to be sent a reminder email. (Note -
reminder emails will only be sent to the email...
FLATTS TAKE HOME CMT GROUP VIDEO OF THE YEAR - AGAIN!
posted: 4/11/2005
The Flatts are the #1 Group/Duo of the Year, according
to the fans, for the 3rd straight year in...
Rascal Flatts “HERE’S TO YOU”
Tour Plays For Quarter Million Fans
posted: 3/23/2005
NASHVILLE – (March 23, 2005) - Headline act
RASCAL FLATTS wrapped their first leg of...
Vote for Rascal Flatts at CMT.com!
posted: 3/17/2005
The final nominees have been announced and Rascal
Flatts' video "Feels Like Today" is up...
LIVE STUDIO WEBCAM
posted: 3/16/2005
The Flatts are in the studio RIGHT NOW with their
new producer Dan Huff, recording a brand new...
NEW PHOTOS ADDED
posted: 3/14/2005
Newhaven & Biloxi, MS both got a taste of Rascal
Flatts this past weekend, and we've got the...
RASCAL FLATTS NOMINATED FOR GROUP, SONG & SINGLE
OF THE YEAR
posted: 3/3/2005
Rascal Flatts, the reigning ACM Top Vocal Group
Of The Year, have taken home another round of...
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Rascal Flatts is:
Gary Levox and Jay DeMarcus along
with good friend Joe Don Rooney
Rascal Flats Bio
The origins of the group begin with
co-founders, Gary LeVox and Jay DeMarcus, second
cousins and close friends from Columbus, Ohio. "I
grew up in a very musical family," says Jay
DeMarcus about his musical roots. "My earliest
memories are of us sitting around the living room
on Friday and Saturday nights and everybody coming
around to the house and picking up whatever instrument
was laying around and playing music all night long."
"My story is almost the same as Jay's,"
says Gary LeVox. "I have a very musical family,
both my dad and my mom. Our mothers were cousins
but close as sisters. We spent a lot of weekends
at Jay's house as kids, doing kid stuff and making
music."
Growing up in Picher, Oklahoma, Joe Don Rooney's
musical influences first came from his brother and
sisters. "They were all into music when I was
growing up so I went through a lot of different
musical genres," Joe Don explains. But he got
his mainstream country experience in Grove, OK.
"There was a show called the Grand Lake Opry,
believe it or not. Kind of like the Grand Ole Opry.
It was really cool. When I was nineteen I worked
there and every month we'd have a Grand Ole Opry
star from Nashville, like Porter Wagoner, Connie
Smith and Merle Haggard, come down to sing and perform."
In 1992, Jay DeMarcus packed up his music skills
(vocals, bass, guitar, keyboards, mandolin and more),
and was the first to move to Nashville. In 1997,
Jay finally convinced his cousin Gary LeVox to give
up his day-job back in Columbus and bring his incredible
voice to Nashville. "When Gary moved to Nashville,
we started writing together," says Jay. "We
caught up on lost time. We sang every chance we
got. We just hit it hard. We'd stay up endless nights
writing music and playing together."
Jay and Joe Don met when they got jobs last year
in Chely Wright's band. Meanwhile, the cousins were
also gigging in Nashville's infamous Printers Alley
with a part time guitarist. When their guitarist
couldn't make it to a show one weekend, Jay invited
Joe Don to sit in with them. None of them expected
the magic that would make Joe Don a permanent member
of the band. "That night really worked out
special," Joe Don recalls.
Jay knew that I sing high and he had been taking
the high part above Gary the whole time they had
been singing together. That night, he decided to
take the low fifth." Jay pipes in, "I
was happy to take the low fifth. I heard Joe Don
open his mouth and I was like, "thank you,
Jesus!" And, the first night that we sang together,
we stopped and looked at each other on-stage, like
-- that was kind of cool, let's do that again! It
really, really was magical. We honestly didn't have
to work hard at it. It was so natural and so much
fun."
The trio went into the studio and recorded some
rough demos with Bright and Williams that were played
for producer Dann Huff. Even though Huff was not
involved with the project, he was so excited by
Rascal Flatts' powerful vocal harmonies and stellar
musicianship that he called Lyric Street Records'
Senior VP of AandR, Doug Howard, and said, "You
have to hear this group." Four days later Lyric
Street had completed demos in their hands and a
new group to sign.
It is impossible to pinpoint just one element that
makes Rascal Flatts' music so special. "We
just really jelled because of our influences; pop,
RandB, country, gospel, bluegrass roots," says
Joe Don. "We've always liked to try to be different,
even if we were just playing at some little dive,"
Jay explains. "When someone listens to Rascal
Flatts, they're going to hear a lot of harmony,
a lot of funkiness because we love to groove.
It's so encouraging for us to see country music
going more that direction." "We felt like
Lyric Street really had a great grasp on the way
that country music was going with SHeDAISY,"
Gary continues, "and from the beginning we
felt like we wanted to be there because of that."
And Lyric Street has the power of Disney behind
them," adds Jay, "which is really exciting."
Rascal Flatts is the perfect New Millennium group
signed to the most forward-looking new label in
Nashville. They were deeply influenced by musical
family roots that stretch back to the beginnings
of country music itself, and they were influenced
by music-making parents and siblings that passed
on the contemporary country influences of the latter
part of the century. What Jay, Gary and Joe Don
have done is add all their individual influences
and creativity to a potent, new musical brew seasoned
by all that made country music great in the 20th
Century, yet is immediately as fresh and exciting
as the 21st Century. |
