Rascal Flatts - History

History

We're not just business partners, we are good friends. That's why we have had the longevity we have.

Joe Don Rooney, 2006, People magazine

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, DeMarcus called LeVox, and convinced him to come to Nashville and provide some harmonies on Michael English's album Gospel, for which he was producing. They engineered the album together, and became English's back-up band.

At the same time, DeMarcus had become the bandleader of Chely Wright's band, where he met Joe Don Rooney, 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.

Singer Mila Mason recommended the group to record producers Mark Bright and Marty Williams, who 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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