The origins of the group begin with co-founders, Gary LeVox and Jay DeMarcus, second cousins and close friends from Rascal Flatts tickets Champaign Assembly Hall Columbus, Ohio. "I grew up in a very musical family," says Jay DeMarcus about his musical roots. "My earliest memories are of us sitting Rascal Flatts tickets Champaign Assembly Hall 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 Rascal Flatts tickets Champaign Assembly Hall 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 Rascal Flatts tickets Champaign Assembly Hall 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 Rascal Flatts tickets Champaign Assembly Hall really cool. When I was nineteen I worked there and every month we'd have a Grand Ole Opry star from Rascal Flatts tickets Champaign Assembly Hall 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 Rascal Flatts tickets Champaign Assembly Hall moved to Nashville, we started writing together," says Jay. "We caught up on lost time. We sang every Rascal Flatts tickets Champaign Assembly Hall 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 Rascal Flatts tickets Champaign Assembly Hall jobs last year in Chely Wright's band. Meanwhile, the cousins were also gigging in Nashville's Rascal Flatts tickets Champaign Assembly Hall infamous Printers Alley with a part time guitarist. When their guitarist couldn't make it to a show one weekend, Rascal Flatts tickets Champaign Assembly Hall 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 Rascal Flatts tickets Champaign Assembly Hall 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 Rascal Flatts tickets Champaign Assembly Hall 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 Rascal Flatts tickets Champaign Assembly Hall 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 Rascal Flatts tickets Champaign Assembly Hall Huff was not involved with the project, he was so excited by Rascal Flatts' powerful vocal Rascal Flatts tickets Champaign Assembly Hall 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 Rascal Flatts tickets Champaign Assembly Hall hands and a new group to sign.
It is impossible to pinpoint just Rascal Flatts tickets Champaign Assembly Hall one element that makes Rascal Flatts' music so special. "We just really jelled because of our influences; Rascal Flatts tickets Champaign Assembly Hall 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 Rascal Flatts tickets Champaign Assembly Hall going to hear a lot of harmony, a lot of funkiness because we love to groove.