Saying goodbye is hard, and even the most detailed plans to say farewell aren’t immune from coming to an abrupt halt. Just ask Rascal Flatts.
2020 was set to be the year the Country group said farewell as they were set to celebrate their 20th anniversary with their Life Is A Highway tour. Then, COVID-19 happened. Rascal Flatts was forced to cancel their tour, but promised fans they’ll still celebrate their 20th anniversary. Now, they’ve delivered on that promise.
The band joined us for a special RADIO.COM LIVE on on Saturday, August 22 performing songs and answering burning questions from RADIO.COM hosts Rachel Green and Steve Grunwald.
Gary Levox grabbed a bulldozer and got the whole gang together for a special ‘Hoedown’ live set on the iconic Grand Ole Opry stage in Nashville, and stuck around backstage to talk a bit after the performance.
Recently, Rascal Flatts debuted a timely new song called “How They Remember You” serving as a visual and musical scrapbook of their 20 years as a band and a reflection on current events along with a new video chock full of fan memories.
At the Opry, pianist Jay DeMarcus says “it feels great to have new music out there even though we can’t be on the road this year. It’s a nice consolation prize to at least have some music back on the radio again.”
As far as how people remember the band in years to come, Gary humbly says he would simply like to be thought of as an artist, first and foremost. “You know, we put our heart and souls into everything that we wrote and every time we performed. We really gave it 110% every time and we never took our jobs for granted."
“We loved having the platform to showcase our gifts and abilities on. Hopefully, somewhere through our journey of music we’ve been able to touch and heal and be a part of other people’s lives through music.”
“We don’t want to be remembered by ‘2020,’ is that fair enough?” guitarist Joe Don Rooney clarified.
With their big farewell tour put on ice due to health restrictions and venue closures, are there any plans to move the goodbye party into 2021?
“2020 threw us all for a loop,” says DeMarcus. “We don’t have any immediate plans one way or the other. Every time we try to set our targets out into the future – it all changes every day. So, it would be premature to tell you what we’re gonna do, because we don’t know what we’re gonna do, simply because we’re at the mercy of everything that’s going on in our world right now.”
Speaking for the band, he says “we’re not just gonna go away without saying goodbye to anybody and we’re not just gonna ride off into the sunset without giving our fans a chance to see us again.“
“We don’t know what that looks like, though,” he admits. “We don’t know if that’s a farewell tour. We’re having fun making new music right now and having new music that’s coming out. We’re still very excited, we still all love working together."
“I think it’s a season that has put us all in a tailspin, and it’s been tough for all of us to figure out. So, quite frankly the honest answer is, we just don’t know what it’s gonna look like right now.”
“For a while we heard that nothing’s gonna happen until there’s a vaccine,” says Gary, “so I don’t know – if you guys know, let us know first!”
As the weeks and months under quarantine stretch on, the members of the band have not been in each other’s company much before this appearance. Gary has been showing people how to dye their hair like his in the meantime, saying he’s “just trying to be a blessing,” with a big smile.
Jay DeMarcus and his wife Allison have a new Netflix reality series which was filmed last year, called DeMarcus Family Rules, and is now available to stream.
“It’s a lot of me in my dance classes, my pole-dancing classes,” he says jokingly. “I don’t want to give any more away than that.” Jay has also been hands on with his record label, Red Street, and Joe Don has been hard at work home-schooling the kids -- so there’s plenty to keep the guys busy.
“It’s been kind of nice to not just be sitting around doing nothing but actually creating something,” says Jay.
“The silver lining that I take away from it is it’s been nice to really be with the family, a lot, for sure,” says Joe Don. “Different things are exposed, so you definitely get to know each other a little better and love each other a lot more – or less.”
This performance and interview is unfortunately no longer available. Find more exclusive RADIO.COM LIVE events anytime at RADIO.COM/LIVE.
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