Columbus, OH · country · country-pop

Rascal Flatts

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The 2000s country-pop hit machine back on the road — three-part harmonies and a greatest-hits set where every song was once on the radio.

Rascal Flatts is a country trio made up of Gary LeVox, Jay DeMarcus and Joe Don Rooney. LeVox and DeMarcus are cousins from Columbus, Ohio, who began performing together in Nashville, with DeMarcus producing gospel sessions before recruiting LeVox to sing harmonies. Rooney, from Picher, Oklahoma, joined after filling in one night for a nightclub guitarist, and the three formed the group in 1999.

The sound centres on LeVox's high, heavily ornamented lead vocal and the trio's close harmonies, set against polished, pop-leaning production. Their best-known recordings include "Bless the Broken Road", "What Hurts the Most" and a cover of "Life Is a Highway" recorded for the film Cars.

Between 2000 and 2009 the band released six studio albums, each certified platinum or higher, starting with their self-titled debut and continuing through Melt, which gave them their first number-one single, "These Days". Feels Like Today, Me and My Gang, Still Feels Good and Unstoppable all reached the top of the Billboard 200, and five more studio albums followed over the next decade.

Rascal Flatts has scored 16 number-one hits on the country charts. "Bless the Broken Road" was their longest-running chart-topper and won Best Country Song at the Grammys. The group was named Vocal Group of the Year by the Country Music Association every year from 2003 to 2008, was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry in 2011, and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2012.

The group announced a farewell tour in 2020, which was cancelled due to the pandemic, and formally disbanded in 2021. They reunited in 2024, marking their 25th anniversary with a tour and a collaborative duets album, and returned to performing.

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