Rascal Flatts bandmates bond as brothers

Rascal Flatts is more like a family than a band.

As the band got ready recently to take the stage for its appearance Oct. 11 at the Trump Taj Mahal in the wake of their new album, Rewind, singer/guitarist Joe Don Rooney was about to become a daddy for the third time. Indeed, Joe Don and wife Tiffany Fallon brought their third child into the world Monday.

 And that made his longtime bandmates Gary LeVox (lead vocalist) and Jay DeMarcus (bassist/singer) uncles by proxy. "We're family, and beyond," DeMarcus said in a recent interview. Literally and figuratively. LeVox and DeMarcus are second cousins, but Rascal Flatts also has bonds forged in the 15 years since the band was formed in Columbus, Ohio. "We really are more like brothers than a band, what with having done this together so long," DeMarcus said. "It's like being in combat with your brothers, being up in each other's business all this time."

Corny as it sounds, the brotherhood comes through in their music, a crossover country-to-pop sound of smooth boyish harmonies, quirky arena rock hooks, and twang that yielded hit singles as early "Prayin' for Delight" on the trio's self-titled debut album in 2000, and "These Days" in Flatts' second album, Melt (2002). Those harmonies and continued crossover hit-making ("Easy," a cover of Tom Cochrane's "Life is a Highway") put them atop all charts and made them huge among a young demographic, a hard-to-get crowd for country bands at that time.

"Country fans are very loyal and very savvy," DeMarcus said. Serving that audience first is job one. Topping the country, pop, and adult-contemporary charts has taken a lot of effort. "That's work," says DeMarcus. "We are competitive. I wouldn't do it otherwise. I don't think we get enough credit for being able to cross-pollinate genres as we have. We were one of the first acts ever to have recognizable pop-chart success, coming as we did on the heels of boy bands like NSYNC. And Gary as a singer rivals anyone in pop."

DeMarcus mentions there is as much of the George Jones lover in Rascal Flatts as there is Def Leppard and R&B. "We were in a sweet spot, sneaking in to Top 40 radio back then. It was easy then for people to laugh us off, but they didn't stay laughing long."

For DeMarcus, what has stayed the same about Rascal Flatts is the members' dedication to being different, not sounding like the rest of the pack. What's changed is that the trio have lived life, had kids, and written or covered songs reflecting those experiences while maintaining the freshness of when they started - "that naïveté and total abandonment," DeMarcus says, "a sound I think we've returned to on Rewind."

 The new album features more elements of back-to-basics hard-country ("where we came from"), an abundance of Rooney's flashy guitar work ("he's underrated as a player, and really has room to breathe here") and production by the band itself of more than half the album. "This album is us left to our own devices, especially on a song like 'Riot,' " DeMarcus said. "Look, I moved to [Nashville] to be a country songwriter and player. We wanted to return to that purity." He added that audiences can expect smooth harmonies and a wealth of salty guitars to go with the heaping helping of country and songcraft from the band itself: "We have a lot to say."