In the first decade of the twenty-first century, Rascal Flatts towered above every other presence on the country scene, and for a stretch the buoyant country-pop threesome from Ohio even claimed the crown as the nation’s leading musical act overall. At the height of their mid-decade run they outsold both rock and hip-hop competitors by crafting material that deliberately reached listeners across multiple audiences. Rooted firmly in country yet gentle enough to register on adult-contemporary playlists, robust enough to command arenas, and adaptable enough to evolve with shifting tastes, the band demonstrated remarkable range. Their 2000 breakthrough “Prayin’ for Daylight” carried an earnest, almost old-fashioned sincerity, yet by the following decade they could team with British singer Natasha Bedingfield without raising eyebrows. That same adaptability kept them on the country charts more than two decades after their first single appeared.
At the heart of the group stand second cousins Gary LeVox and Jay DeMarcus. Both grew up in Columbus, Ohio, before DeMarcus departed for Nashville in 1992 in pursuit of a music career. While he established himself in the city by performing with the Christian outfit East to West, LeVox remained in Ohio and sang only part-time. In 1997 DeMarcus convinced his cousin to relocate south, offering him background-vocal work on the Michael English album he was producing. After Gospel appeared, the cousins joined English on the road and later moved into Chely Wright’s touring band, with DeMarcus serving as musical director and LeVox handling keyboards.
Even while steadily employed, LeVox and DeMarcus continued playing Nashville clubs as a duo. The pair became a trio once guitarist Joe Don Rooney, whom DeMarcus had met through Wright, joined them onstage for a show. Captivated by their onstage rapport, the three musicians committed to working together full-time and cut demos for Lyric Street, which signed them late in 1999 largely because of the track “Prayin’ for Daylight.”
That song launched Rascal Flatts in 2000, climbing to number three on Billboard’s country chart. Their self-titled debut album yielded three more Top Ten singles—“This Everyday Love,” “While You Loved Me,” and “I’m Movin’ On”—and earned platinum status in 2002, followed by a second platinum certification in 2005. By then the band had already begun recording its sophomore effort, Melt. Self-produced by the trio, the album delivered their first country number one with the opening single “These Days” and added three further Top Ten entries: “Love You Out Loud,” “I Melt,” and “Mayberry,” the last of which also reached the summit.
The band’s third collection, Feels Like Today, solidified their standing as the decade’s dominant country group. Released in September 2004, it became their first project to enter Billboard’s Top 200 at number one and duplicated that feat on the country chart, spawning two chart-topping singles in “Bless the Broken Road” and “Fast Cars and Freedom” while sending “Feels Like Today” and “Skin (Sarabeth)” into the country Top Ten as well. The album eventually received five-times platinum accreditation. Its 2006 follow-up, Me and My Gang, nearly matched that achievement with four platinum certifications. Debuting atop both the country and pop charts in April 2006, it generated three number-one hits—“What Hurts the Most,” “My Wish,” and “Stand”—and overlapped with the band’s contribution of a cover of Tom Cochrane’s “Life Is a Highway” to the soundtrack of Pixar’s Cars. Although never issued as a country single, the track still reached the Billboard pop Top Ten, building on the crossover success “What Hurts the Most” had already enjoyed earlier that year.
Still Feels Good, issued in September 2007, sustained the group’s momentum. Once again it opened at number one on both pop and country tallies and supplied multiple Top Ten singles, including the chart-topping “Take Me There” and “Here” as well as the number-two entries “Winner at a Losing Game” and “Every Day.” Buoyed by such consistent performance, the band titled its next album Unstoppable. The 2009 release lived up to the name, topping both Billboard album charts and adding another number-one single with “Here Comes Goodbye” alongside the Top Ten tracks “Summer Nights” and “Unstoppable.”
After Lyric Street shuttered following that project, Rascal Flatts moved to Big Machine for their seventh album, Nothing Like This, released in 2010. Led by the eleventh number-one single “Why Wait,” the set also produced the Top Ten hits “I Won’t Let Go” and the Natasha Bedingfield collaboration “Easy.” Their eighth album, Changed, arrived in April 2012; although it debuted at number one on the country chart and its lead single “Banjo” topped the tally, it became their first release not to achieve platinum status, settling instead for gold certification. Seeking a fresh approach for Rewind, the trio enlisted producer Howard Benson, known for work with Kelly Clarkson, 3 Doors Down, Daughtry, and My Chemical Romance. The title track preceded the album and peaked at number three on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart; radio momentum built again once “I Like the Sound of That” reached number one on that same chart in 2015. The seasonal project The Greatest Gift of All, the band’s debut holiday album, followed in October 2016. For Back to Us, released in 2017, they collaborated with producer busbee, previously recognized for Maren Morris’s Hero. The opening single “Yours If You Want It” ascended to number one on Country Airplay, while the title song reached number 46.
Two further singles, “Back to Life” and “Jukebox,” surfaced in 2018. In January 2020 the group announced plans for a farewell tour and new recordings. Although the tour was later canceled amid the global pandemic, they fulfilled the promise of fresh material with the seven-song EP How They Remember You that July.
