Band is movin' on in changing genre

By GARRY CLARK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
HEN YOU ASK JOE DON ROONEY, vocalist and guitarist of the country music group Rascal Flatts, how it feels to have had such a meteoric rise in the industry in less than five years, he becomes cautious.
"It's been unbelievable," he said recently during a telephone interview. "I really can't put it into words. But we don't want to sit around and think about it. We just want to be able to look back some day and say, 'Wow.' We're really fortunate, and we just want to keep it going."
Rooney, a native of Picher, Okla., joined forces four years ago with Gary LeVox, lead vocalist, and Jay DeMarcus, vocalist and instrumentalist, a pair of second cousins who grew up in the Columbus area, in forming Rascal Flatts, the group whose tight harmonies and edgy songs have catapulted them to stardom in the country music world.
Their name
So, where did the name for this trio of country heart-throbs come from? Rooney laughed as he told the story: The unnamed group was playing at the Fiddle and Steel, a Nashville club, when its recording deal was being finalized with Lyric Street Records. Suddenly the guys needed a name, so they went to their fans at the club and asked for advice. "A friend of ours there, Scott Blackwell, came up to us and said he had the perfect name for us," Rooney related, "he said 'I had a garage band back in the '60s that we called Rascal Flatts. It's the perfect name for y'all.'" And so, Rascal Flatts was born.
With a long string of hits including the band's favorite, "I'm Movin' On," and others like "Prayin' For Daylight," "I Melt," "These Days," "Love You Out Loud" and "Mayberry," the group's popularity shows no signs of waning. Regarding "Movin' On," Rooney said that someone had once made the remark that the song had changed people's lives and "touched all kinds of people from prisoners to preachers."
Changing genre
Regarding country music's evolution in the past several years, Rooney said that he believes the genre has been changing from day one. "Merle Haggard's voice was [considered] too smooth, but people gravitate to it. Then he started putting horns into his music, and people thought he was crazy," he said. "There are no rules. The people that listen are the ones that make up the rules, if there are any."
Regarding other country music stars, Rooney is quick to point to Garth Brooks as his favorite along with Brooks' hit, "The Dance." At the female end of the spectrum, he cites Martina McBride and her "Concrete Angel" as being at the top of his list.
With two platinum albums and a plethora of hits and awards to their credit, Rascal Flatts' latest album, "Feels Like Today" will be released Sept. 28.
The group also is looking forward to performing at the Canfield Fair next week. Rooney said that going to fairs is the type of thing the trio grew up doing in their respective homes. "We're just normal dudes who like to have fun."
clark@vindy.com