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Group Members:
Gary LeVox - lead vocals
Jay DeMarcus - harmony vocals, bass guitar, piano, drums, guitar (acoustic and electric)
Joe Don Rooney - harmony vocals, electric guitar, steel guitar, mando
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Rascal Flatts is an American country music band that originated in Columbus, Ohio, United States of America. Since its inception, Rascal Flatts has been composed of three members: Gary LeVox (lead vocals), Jay DeMarcus (bass guitar, keyboard, piano, vocals) and Joe Don Rooney (lead guitar, vocals). LeVox and DeMarcus are second cousins.
Between 2000 and 2010, Rascal Flatts recorded for Disney Music Group's Lyric Street Records. While on that label, the band released seven albums, all of which have been certified platinum or higher by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). In order of release, these albums are Rascal Flatts (2000), Melt (2002), Feels Like Today (2004), Me and My Gang (2006), Still Feels Good (2007), Greatest Hits Volume 1 (2008) and Unstoppable (2009). After Lyric Street closed in 2010, Rascal Flatts moved to the independent Big Machine Records, releasing Nothing Like This in November 2010.
Rascal Flatts' studio albums have accounted for twenty-six single releases. All of these have charted within the top 20 or higher on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, including eleven number ones. The band's longest-lasting number one, a cover of Marcus Hummon's "Bless the Broken Road", spent five weeks in that position in early 2005. The late 2005–early 2006 release "What Hurts the Most" was a number one on both the country and adult contemporary charts, and peaked at number six on the Billboard Hot 100.
Rascal Flatts' founding was at Fiddle and Steel Guitar Bar in Nashville, Tennessee. Gary LeVox and Jay DeMarcus are second cousins from a musical family. (DeMarcus's brother-in-law, James Otto, is also a country music artist.) DeMarcus moved to Nashville in 1992, earning his first record deal as part of a Christian group called East to West. In 1997, he finally convinced LeVox to leave his job and pursue a career in music.
DeMarcus soon joined Chely Wright's band, but and there he met Joe Don Rooney, who was the guitarist in that band. DeMarcus and LeVox were working in a Printer's Alley nightclub, and when their part-time guitarist could not make it one night, DeMarcus invited Rooney to sit in. The crowd's reaction was a positive one, and many asked the trio what their band's name was. They told the crowd that they did not have a name, and according to Gary, a man approached them and told the trio that he had a garage band when he was younger, named Rascal Flatts. The trio liked the name, and began performing together.
Producers Mark Bright and Marty Williams played Lyric Street Records A&R Doug Howard a three-song demo and Howard thought they were "just incredible". After he'd heard the demos, the band went into the Lyric Street offices the next day, sat down with acoustic guitars and played a couple of songs. According to Howard in an interview with HitQuarters: "The vocals and harmonies, it was all there — I was just blown away. The lead singer has such a unique and compelling voice." The band was signed to Lyric Street in late 1999.
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