Rascal Flatts proud to make their own music

‘We enjoy being together’
DeMarcus and LeVox are second cousins who grew up playing music together in Columbus, Ohio. DeMarcus moved to Nashville in 1992 and earned his first record deal as part of a Christian group called East to West. He persuaded his cousin to quit his job with the Ohio Department of Mental Retardation and join him in Nashville five years later.

The two linked up with Oklahoma native Rooney when their regular guitarist couldn’t make a gig, and they’ve been together ever since.

“We’ve stayed as tight as we can on the road. We can all be taking separate buses right now, but we’re not,” Rooney says. “We enjoy being together and leaning on each other.”

Since their 1999 debut they’ve sold 15 million albums, but not without criticism. Early on, they were derided as lightweights, too slick and too manufactured.

“They came out at a time when the Backstreet Boys and ’N Sync and the whole boy band thing was in,” recalls their longtime booking agent Rob Beckham, senior vice president at William Morris Agency. “Whenever someone called them a boy band, we were amazed because typically the boy bands were singers and dancers, they didn’t play instruments.”

DeMarcus says they don’t pay attention to what critics think. But they do care what the industry and old guard institutions like the Grand Ole Opry think, and it worries them.

“I think sometimes they think of us as young punk kids that don’t have appreciation for Lefty Frizzell and Hank Williams Sr. and people like that, and it blows my mind because those are the people we grew up on,” DeMarcus says. “But we wanted to leave our mark and our unique impression upon the industry.

“I think the tide is turning a little bit in country music, and I’m proud to say we’re part of paving the way for artists to do something a little more, to be a little edgier and do something outside the box.”

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