Speaker 1: Ladies and gentlemen. We are experiencing technical difficulties.
Speaker 2: This is the Bobby Cast.
Speaker 1: Hey, welcome to episode four seventy seven. Let's talk about
Speaker 1: Rascal Flats. So it's a special episode and we've had
Speaker 1: these guys in over the past ten years and now
Speaker 1: they're back together again, so we thought we'd kind of
Speaker 1: walk down that trail together. Now. If you remember, they
Speaker 1: were about to go on a farewell tour in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty within COVID hit and they never got to go
Speaker 1: out on the road and say goodbye because well they
Speaker 1: were breaking up. And then they just went ahead and
Speaker 1: broke up and decided they do stuff individually. So that's
Speaker 1: what they did. So you had Gary who went out
Speaker 1: and performed solo and did a Christian album, and he
Speaker 1: had Jay who started a record label, and he had
Speaker 1: Jodahn who took some time to work on his health.
Speaker 1: And so what we did is we went back through
Speaker 1: the archives and a lot of this is from when
Speaker 1: I was talking to them individually from the past decade.
Speaker 1: And I want to start first with Jada Marcus. Jay
Speaker 1: has dark hair. He's one of the two cousins. Jay
Speaker 1: plays what like bass guitar, he plays a little bit
Speaker 1: of everything. He's super savant as far as music comes.
Speaker 1: But this is Jay talking about how Rascal Flats came
Speaker 1: together back in the day, what Nashville was like when
Speaker 1: they first started out, and he shared what he thought
Speaker 1: the future of the band was gonna be, like, we'll
Speaker 1: go to back to the beginning of the Flats or
Speaker 1: Rascal Flats, not the Rascal Flats. So if everybody's listening
Speaker 1: right now, I'll call him the Rascal Flats, dear God.
Speaker 1: So we're gonna we're gonna move past college. We'll get
Speaker 1: back to that in a minute. You're in town and
Speaker 1: you have a cousin that you guys weren't super close.
Speaker 3: We weren't growing up, but we lost touch, right, and
Speaker 3: which is Gary?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 1: And Gary had been winning some karaoke competitions. Yeah.
Speaker 3: So I kept hearing grumblings back home when I would
Speaker 3: go back for the holidays that hey, you know your
Speaker 3: cousin Gary, he's been singing a little bit.
Speaker 2: And I'd be like, really, that's new.
Speaker 3: And it wasn't that I was being mean about it,
Speaker 3: but I was following my own path and I had
Speaker 3: the Christian band. And then somebody told me that he
Speaker 3: was talking to a producer in La about doing an
Speaker 3: R and B thing and that he and Jamie Fox
Speaker 3: had spent some time together. My uncle had actually told
Speaker 3: me that, and I was like, he knows Jamie Fox.
Speaker 3: That's kind of cool. And it was lost on me
Speaker 3: that again, he was talking about singing and doing a
Speaker 3: pop thing.
Speaker 1: And then my mom.
Speaker 3: Called me one day and she goes, now, your cousin
Speaker 3: Gary's gonna call you and you need to listen to
Speaker 3: him sing. He's been winning some contests up here. He's
Speaker 3: been singing in Ohio and oh yeah, and you need
Speaker 3: to listen to him sing.
Speaker 1: I was like, Mom, are you kidding me?
Speaker 3: The last thing I want to do is tell some
Speaker 3: family member who I'm not really that close to anymore,
Speaker 3: you shouldn't try this. And she said, well, I've talked
Speaker 3: to She called Judy Gary's mother, Jude Babe. They were
Speaker 3: closer than sisters.
Speaker 1: They still are.
Speaker 3: She said, well, listen, I've already told Jude Babe that
Speaker 3: you're going to listen to him, so you just need
Speaker 3: to let him come over there when he's down there
Speaker 3: and sing for you. Well, he was on his way
Speaker 3: to vacation in Florida, and he stopped by my apartment
Speaker 3: in Brentwood and I sat down, and I believe, if
Speaker 3: I'm remembering correctly, the first song he sang was One
Speaker 3: Last Cry by Brian McKnight, and I knew it well
Speaker 3: enough on the piano to kind of hack through it,
Speaker 3: and he just stopped me in my tracks. I mean,
Speaker 3: when he opens his voice and you hear that come
Speaker 3: out of him, it's otherworldly. I mean, I describe it
Speaker 3: in the book as all of these ingredients of gospel
Speaker 3: and R and B and country rolled up into one.
Speaker 3: I'd never heard anything quite like it before, and it
Speaker 3: had an immediate, identifiable personality to it that was just
Speaker 3: shocking to me. And we kept talking over the next
Speaker 3: several weeks, several months, and I said, you know, you
Speaker 3: got to move to town. It's never going to find you
Speaker 3: in Columbus. And he was struggling because he had a
Speaker 3: great job, he had debt, he had bills, he'd already
Speaker 3: forged a life for himself. And he called me one
Speaker 3: day and he said, that's it, I'm coming to town.
Speaker 3: I can't do this anymore. And if I don't do it,
Speaker 3: I'm afraid I'll regret it for the rest of my life.
Speaker 3: And he lived on my couch. I had a one
Speaker 3: bedroom apartment and he lived on my couch, and we
Speaker 3: played everywhere we could, and when people would hear him,
Speaker 3: the reaction was just undeniable. You could see it in
Speaker 3: their faces. They were like, oh my god, this guy
Speaker 3: is up there singing Merle Haggard, but singing like r
Speaker 3: and b licks in it. And now if you turn
Speaker 3: on country radio, you hear a whole host of singers
Speaker 3: that were touched by him and influenced by him. And
Speaker 3: that's a testament to what his gift was and what
Speaker 3: he was able to bring to this town and build upon.
Speaker 1: So you guys are playing show as a printer's alley
Speaker 1: a couple nights a week, few nights.
Speaker 3: A week, Yeah, and doesn't even exist anymore in the
Speaker 3: place we played, well was it? It was a fiddle
Speaker 3: and steel guitar bar, and think it's a boutique hotel.
Speaker 1: Now. So you go and you say, hey, Gary, we're
Speaker 1: gonna get a gig, just the two of us. And
Speaker 1: how do you get that gig? Do you go up
Speaker 1: in to say, hey guy, here's the tape. What's that?
Speaker 3: I'll tell you so the guy playing up on stage,
Speaker 3: we'd go in and hear him sing, and he would
Speaker 3: let us sit in and do a song. The owner
Speaker 3: was in there one night, Allison was her name, and
Speaker 3: Greg Perkins. They owned it together, and she walked over
Speaker 3: and she said, would you guys want to do a
Speaker 3: night here? And Gary said, I don't even live here
Speaker 3: full time. I'm just visiting on the weekends. She said,
Speaker 3: if you guys will do a couple of nights here
Speaker 3: a week, I'll fire him and give you his gig.
Speaker 1: The guy that you were singing, the guy that was
Speaker 1: letting us, the guy that helped you. That's how cutthroat
Speaker 1: Nashville is, you know. And and we so we left
Speaker 1: and we talked about it, and I said, do you
Speaker 1: do you want to do this? And then that that's
Speaker 1: I think that's around the time he called me and said,
Speaker 1: I'm moving to town. Let's take that gig and see
Speaker 1: see what happens. And it was the two of us
Speaker 1: sitting beside a cigarette machine, and I had my keyboard
Speaker 1: and he had a mic when I had Mike's. And
Speaker 1: we sometimes there were two people in there, sometimes there
Speaker 1: were twenty, sometimes there were forty, but slowly but surely,
Speaker 1: we started to build a following that would come in
Speaker 1: and see us. And then the owners came to us
Speaker 1: and said, we're thinking about buying the other side of
Speaker 1: this building, knocking down the wall that separates the two
Speaker 1: putting a stage together. Would you put a band together?
Speaker 1: And I knew a bunch of guys from various bands,
Speaker 1: and I was sitting in with and Gary and I
Speaker 1: were friends with a circle of buddies that were great
Speaker 1: musicians and had been playing in different places with them.
Speaker 3: So we put a band together.
Speaker 1: So you're playing with Shelley right at this time too, right,
Speaker 1: like as your main you can playing with Shelley right.
Speaker 1: You're playing keys?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was your band later.
Speaker 1: Okay, so you're running the band, you're playing keys, and
Speaker 1: you had hired a guitarist, which was Joe Done. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And so when you're putting the band together, is that
Speaker 1: when you bring Jo Donne in.
Speaker 3: No, he didn't start playing with us right away. A
Speaker 3: guy named Shane Sutton played with us. Fantastic player, fantastic singer.
Speaker 3: And we were playing down there for probably several months,
Speaker 3: and then I get a call one night and Shane says,
Speaker 3: man I can't get out of bed. I've got the flu,
Speaker 3: I've got a fever, and I'm sorry to do this
Speaker 3: to you, but I can't make it tonight. It was
Speaker 3: on a Monday night, and I thought, oh no, what
Speaker 3: are we gonna do. I know who can play this,
Speaker 3: I know who can do it. I'm gonna call Joe on.
Speaker 3: I called him up and I said, hey, what are
Speaker 3: you doing tonight? And he's like nothing, I'm just sitting around.
Speaker 3: I said, let's let's uh, let's play tonight.
Speaker 4: You want to?
Speaker 2: You want to sit in with us?
Speaker 3: I said, I've been telling you about my cousin anyway
Speaker 3: I want you to. I want you to hear him
Speaker 3: and meet him in real life. And I've been telling
Speaker 3: you know, Gary about Jodawn how talented he was. And
Speaker 3: so we pull up the club and Jodahn's sitting his guitar,
Speaker 3: lamp up and he's up there tuning up. Gary looks
Speaker 3: at me, he goes, who is that? I said, well, man,
Speaker 3: I didn't want to tell you this, but Shane's sick,
Speaker 3: and he goes, are you kidding me? This guy isn't
Speaker 3: gonna know a thing that we do. We got to
Speaker 3: play at all three am and if this sucks, I'm
Speaker 3: out of here. You can have this by yourself. And
Speaker 3: I was like, Gary, please, like, just get him the shot.
Speaker 3: He would barely even speak to Joe on It was
Speaker 3: so funny. He was so frustrated. And I understand. See
Speaker 3: Gary was getting up at four thirty am to throw papers.
Speaker 3: So we finished in the club at two.
Speaker 1: He slept right to work.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and he go right to work throwing papers. So
Speaker 2: I understood his frustration.
Speaker 3: But then we got up there together in the first
Speaker 3: song I think we played it on one of your shows,
Speaker 3: is the first song we ever played together was Church
Speaker 3: on the Cumberland Road by Shannondah, And we hit that
Speaker 3: first course man, and I don't know what happened, but
Speaker 3: it was just we all knew immediately. We looked at
Speaker 3: each other like that is good and we've got to
Speaker 3: have more of that.
Speaker 1: So Shane that original guitar players the name right. It
Speaker 1: basically got Wally pipped, and Wally Pip played first Bays
Speaker 1: for the Yankees forever. And while Pip got hurt nothing,
Speaker 1: he didn't do anything wrong. I know he got hurt.
Speaker 1: And here it comes, lou Gary was gonna fill in
Speaker 1: and then here it's now the lou Gary world. I know,
Speaker 1: what does Shane say about that?
Speaker 5: Shane.
Speaker 3: Shane's still a buddy of ours. We still see him
Speaker 3: out playing with different artists and playing guitar, but he,
Speaker 3: you know, he obviously gives us massive amounts of crap
Speaker 3: for us firing and basically you never I had to
Speaker 3: call him and tell him he couldn't come back, and
Speaker 3: that was really awkward. I was like, I think we're
Speaker 3: gonna go ahead and stick with Joe don but I
Speaker 3: think anybody that heard us sing together, and he would
Speaker 3: definitely tell you this too, God that there was a
Speaker 3: special chemistry in a blend that we had that was
Speaker 3: not common what.
Speaker 1: Was happening in Nashville at that time? Though you got
Speaker 1: you three or now you go, okay, this might be something,
Speaker 1: but what was like the environment like because you guys
Speaker 1: cut through so hard because you were so different. Now
Speaker 1: you kind of created where everyone else has gone, so
Speaker 1: it doesn't seem like you're that different. You guys have
Speaker 1: opened these roads up for a lot of artists nowadays.
Speaker 1: At the time, who was popping around town where they're like,
Speaker 1: you know what, You're not like them? We don't know
Speaker 1: if this is gonna be a thing quite yet.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, Nashville was pretty safe back then. I
Speaker 3: mean there were glimpses of pop in music. I mean
Speaker 3: you had your South sixty five's and your I forget
Speaker 3: Marshall Dylon was around, but they were definitely trying to
Speaker 3: be five guys that danced and were trying to bring
Speaker 3: the boy band vibe over to country music, and it
Speaker 3: really wasn't resonating because they didn't play instruments. It felt
Speaker 3: no offense to those guys that were trying to make
Speaker 3: a living and do something, but it felt contrived, honestly.
Speaker 1: And we were.
Speaker 3: Fans of bands that were really great harmony bands like
Speaker 3: Diamond Rio and Shenandoah at the time, and the Eagles
Speaker 3: were a huge influence on us. So that's really what
Speaker 3: we were trying to do, was bring elements of what
Speaker 3: we loved about pop music, but still great authentic harmonies
Speaker 3: and the songs, the meat on the bone of the
Speaker 3: songs with something to say in a different way, is
Speaker 3: really what we tried to hone in on and make
Speaker 3: the foundation of what we were. We weren't even really
Speaker 3: trying to be a band. We didn't set out to
Speaker 3: do that. I wanted to produce and write and help
Speaker 3: Gary get a record deal so that I could try
Speaker 3: to be a record producer and be successful in that way.
Speaker 3: I'd already done the artist thing, and we know how
Speaker 3: that turned out by the book, but it sort of
Speaker 3: had no aspirations to do another artist thing. I wanted
Speaker 3: to kind of forge a different career. But the more
Speaker 3: we had a following and the more we sang together,
Speaker 3: it just felt like it was evolving into that.
Speaker 1: Let's rewind. I grew up Pentecostal for a while. My
Speaker 1: grandmother was Pentecostal.
Speaker 2: You did.
Speaker 1: Yeah, scary you know it's for me that when they
Speaker 1: would speak in tongues that scared the crap out of there.
Speaker 1: I know me too, And so I remember going and
Speaker 1: my grandmother who adopted me for a long time, and
Speaker 1: she would speak in tongues in church, and it never
Speaker 1: became something that I was just like, oh this is
Speaker 1: I was always scared by it. Yeah, this that there
Speaker 1: was so much passion and love in a Pentecostal church,
Speaker 1: no doubt the most by the way of all of
Speaker 1: you know, my time of of you know, being really
Speaker 1: in the fabric church. That was that was the closest
Speaker 1: I'd ever seen church. So as much as I'm like,
Speaker 1: that scared me, it was also I'd never seen a
Speaker 1: close knit group like the Pentecostal Church. What was your experience,
Speaker 1: because I know.
Speaker 3: That's that was a big part of your life, much
Speaker 3: the same I was scared to death. They always told
Speaker 3: you to bring your friends to church, and I'd say
Speaker 3: to my mom, why would I ever scare want my
Speaker 3: friends to see what lunatics you guys act like when
Speaker 3: you run around and speak in tongues and jump all
Speaker 3: over the pews and everything, And I was never You know,
Speaker 3: this is the truth, though I have to say it,
Speaker 3: I was never very very comfortable in that environment because
Speaker 3: it wasn't the way that I believed that I needed
Speaker 3: to express myself and my beliefs. I was, yeah, and
Speaker 3: it would, and it always troubled me a little bit,
Speaker 3: but I admired the fact that people were so dedicated
Speaker 3: to it. And You're absolutely right, there was so much love,
Speaker 3: so much. I've always felt like I was surrounded by
Speaker 3: a family of people that would do anything in the
Speaker 3: world for me, even though I may not have agreed
Speaker 3: with exactly how they went about it.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: So for me, I'm glad that I went through that
Speaker 3: because it laid a really deep foundation.
Speaker 2: For the groundwork for my faith later on in life.
Speaker 3: And I had to really figure out what I believed
Speaker 3: and why I believed it, because I knew I didn't
Speaker 3: believe a much of that stuff that I was exposed to.
Speaker 3: And I'm not saying that it wasn't real. It was
Speaker 3: real for them, whatever that was. But I had to
Speaker 3: deconstruct my belief system and figure out why I believed
Speaker 3: what I believed and not just because I was indoctrinated
Speaker 3: with it when I was a kid.
Speaker 1: And so you start to play music, but you're playing
Speaker 1: Christian music. Now why Christian music?
Speaker 3: Well, I wasn't allowed to listen to quote unquote secular
Speaker 3: music when I was a kid, you know. I couldn't
Speaker 3: listen to Kiss and ac DC and until later on
Speaker 3: in life, like a lot of the kids were listening
Speaker 3: to that. So I went turned to bands like Petra
Speaker 3: and Milon Lefever and White Heart and bands that were
Speaker 3: rock but were using a positive christ centered message. Those
Speaker 3: were my influences. And so going to church and believing
Speaker 3: in God myself and believing in Christ myself I started
Speaker 3: to write a lot of that kind of music, and
Speaker 3: the more I wrote, the more I really got into
Speaker 3: that and felt like maybe that was what I was
Speaker 3: supposed to do. And when I got to college and
Speaker 3: I was working at the studio there on the campus,
Speaker 3: I was doing all kinds of demos and having my
Speaker 3: roommate Neil sing the demos, and I was mailing them
Speaker 3: to publishers to try to get a songwriting deal. And
Speaker 3: I got a call from Benson Records one day, Don
Speaker 3: Cook at Benson Records, not the Country, Don Cook the Koch,
Speaker 3: and he said, I love your band. We'd like to
Speaker 3: bring it to town to talk about doing a record
Speaker 3: on you. And of course had to tell him we're
Speaker 3: not a band. I was just trying to get a
Speaker 3: pub deal.
Speaker 1: But so as you're deciding where to go to school,
Speaker 1: these folks come to you and say, if you'll go
Speaker 1: to school here, we'll pay We'll actually pay you away
Speaker 1: your debt, we'll pay your carpet. Like they say, hey,
Speaker 1: we're gonna write yourchther three thousand dollars otherwise, yeah, something
Speaker 1: like that. We're gonna pay you if you come to
Speaker 1: school here and perform with the band. That was at school.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so this this guy was known for hand picking
Speaker 3: the best musicians at the school and putting together a
Speaker 3: recruiting ensemble. So this this particular group of kids would
Speaker 3: be for singers, for musicians, a couple of other road
Speaker 3: crew and things. And we traveled on a tour bus
Speaker 3: and we went around to youth camps, youth conventions, We
Speaker 3: went around to churches, We went around to camp meetings,
Speaker 3: and during a Pentecostal church, I know, you know what
Speaker 3: a camp meeting is. But we would sing and then
Speaker 3: we would talk about the school, and so we'd try
Speaker 3: to recruit kids to come to the school.
Speaker 2: We'd go overseas.
Speaker 3: I had the opportunity to see a whole bunch of
Speaker 3: the world at a very young age playing with that group.
Speaker 3: But as long as you played in that group, you
Speaker 3: could keep your scholarship, you could keep going to school.
Speaker 3: And that's kind of what my job was. So a
Speaker 3: lot of these kids that would go home for this
Speaker 3: summer that wasn't me. I toured all of my summers
Speaker 3: in school, and Neil and I were dear friends. We
Speaker 3: became dear friends, and lo and behold, we ended up
Speaker 3: in East to West together.
Speaker 1: I look like there were more than one lead singer.
Speaker 2: We both we both shared leads.
Speaker 1: You both were doing the lead.
Speaker 3: It worked well for us because I played bass and
Speaker 3: keys too, so then there's no doubt Neil did the
Speaker 3: lion's share of the lead vocals. And I would take
Speaker 3: a verse here or there, and you know, and that
Speaker 3: sort of thing, and maybe sing one song on the
Speaker 3: albums I would sing. So it worked really really well
Speaker 3: because I cared, you know, I was such a musician
Speaker 3: and muse o head that I wanted to like play
Speaker 3: everything I could and play a lot of it on
Speaker 3: the record, and so I was content to let Neil
Speaker 3: kind of shine and do his own thing. And he
Speaker 3: was a fantastic singer. But it worked well for us.
Speaker 1: I think that's a big part of why, again, from
Speaker 1: the outside looking again, why Flats has been able to
Speaker 1: be so wonderful is that you can sing, but you're
Speaker 1: actually okay not being the lead.
Speaker 3: When I stand next to somebody that sings like Gary
Speaker 3: does every night, it's like, what's the point. I love
Speaker 3: to sing, and I but I love singing harmony with
Speaker 3: him because I feel like we have something unique and
Speaker 3: he's you know, it's like anything he sings is better
Speaker 3: ten times better than anything I would come up with,
Speaker 3: And that's okay. I think one of our strengths is
Speaker 3: we realize what gifts and strengths we all three individually
Speaker 3: bring to the table, and we try to lean on
Speaker 3: those with each other. And you're right, I am okay
Speaker 3: because I get to sing beside one of the greatest
Speaker 3: vocalists I've ever had the privilege of being around every night,
Speaker 3: and that's a treat. But I will tell you when
Speaker 3: we played the clubs, you know, we'd have to play
Speaker 3: five hours a night, so we passed around the lead
Speaker 3: vocals a lot more often back then, because it's a
Speaker 3: lot to ask Gary to sing five hours a night
Speaker 3: in smoky bar rooms. Back then, you could still smoke
Speaker 3: in the bar rooms, and so we did sing a
Speaker 3: lot more.
Speaker 1: But I saw.
Speaker 3: The value of having that lead vocalist a stab and
Speaker 3: the sound that he had was so identifiable and so
Speaker 3: great that it wouldn't It just wasn't that important to
Speaker 3: me to have a song on the record where I sing. Now,
Speaker 3: Joe Don and I have sung verses here and there
Speaker 3: on some songs, but I just don't think it's that
Speaker 3: important to either one of us to like, Oh, look
Speaker 3: at me, I can sing a lead vocal too.
Speaker 6: Hang Ty, the Bobby Cast will be right back. Wow,
Speaker 6: and we're back on the Bobby Cast.
Speaker 1: You know, I remember watching because I was over in
Speaker 1: Pop whenever you guys crossed over. Yeah, so I was.
Speaker 1: I grew up in Arkansas. I was a diehard country Fanily,
Speaker 1: when I went to Pop, I kind of checked out
Speaker 1: a bit because I was just consumed by what I
Speaker 1: was doing with my work. Yeah, and you guys, what
Speaker 1: Hurts the Most? That's was big on the country and
Speaker 1: then started to creep into my world. So you're making
Speaker 1: it over in country, but it's got to be a
Speaker 1: whole different world once. Oh yeah, boulders are falling instead of.
Speaker 3: It was weird, man, When when What Hurts the Most
Speaker 3: number one on Top forty radio, it was a moment
Speaker 3: that I'll never forget because we started getting calls to
Speaker 3: then go to which was unheard of back then. It
Speaker 3: was a different time, not a lot of like now,
Speaker 3: you'll see a lot of country acts like Dan and
Speaker 3: Say and Florida Georgia Line and folks like that and
Speaker 3: a little big town at the Amas and at the
Speaker 3: Grammys and things. It just wasn't that common back in
Speaker 3: you know, fifteen to ten, fifteen years ago, and we
Speaker 3: were getting calls to do those shows, People's Choice Awards,
Speaker 3: you know, and it was like, wow.
Speaker 2: This is cool.
Speaker 3: This is beyond the scope of the CMAS, the cmts
Speaker 3: and the ACMs, which we loved, but we were opened
Speaker 3: up and exposed to another, a whole other world. And
Speaker 3: I remember sitting on the floor of the American Music
Speaker 3: Awards with Gary and Gary sitting next to me, and
Speaker 3: he nudged me and he goes, would you ever thought
Speaker 3: we'd be able to do this? Sit in this room
Speaker 3: with jay Z, Beyonce, Madonna, Lady Gaga, all of the
Speaker 3: these people, And he said, no, I'm going to lay
Speaker 3: something on you you haven't thought about. I said, what
Speaker 3: this was the year two thousand and six. He said,
Speaker 3: We've sold more records this year than anybody in this room.
Speaker 3: And it stopped me in my tracks. And he wasn't
Speaker 3: saying it to be boastful or to like be you know,
Speaker 3: braggadocious about it. He was saying, can you believe what
Speaker 3: we've done outside of just being in country music? And
Speaker 3: it was overwhelming to me. I never will forget that night,
Speaker 3: in that moment that we shared during the commercial break there, which.
Speaker 1: Is the two of us, it was so cool. Did
Speaker 1: you guys get crap for being a mainstream success from
Speaker 1: any of the Nashville you know, hardcore of country folks.
Speaker 1: Not really.
Speaker 2: No, No, To be honest, we didn't.
Speaker 1: We had.
Speaker 2: I mean people I felt like were you.
Speaker 3: Know, except for the moment there when the song was
Speaker 3: released Murder on music Row and they talked about pop
Speaker 3: coming over and infiltrating country. It was a little bit
Speaker 3: of a movement there, but most people rallied around us
Speaker 3: and got behind us.
Speaker 1: And you know, there was a batch of us.
Speaker 3: Doing something different in Keith Urban and US and Shadaisy
Speaker 3: at the time, and a few people that were putting
Speaker 3: poppier elements into the country music, and I feel like
Speaker 3: they welcomed it. And it was you know, some of
Speaker 3: the critics, of course, derided us early on and we
Speaker 3: got a bad rap, but most of the people in
Speaker 3: the music industry were kind of excited that there was
Speaker 3: kind of a new movement coming along.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 1: Blessed the Broken Road another song that crept into my life.
Speaker 3: We had that sweet spot where you're kind of in
Speaker 3: a deel, you know, and you just sit there in
Speaker 3: it and soak it all up, because it seems like
Speaker 3: you have a moment in time where you put a
Speaker 3: song out it resonates with people, and you have your
Speaker 3: fingers crossed, and you put another one out and it
Speaker 3: resonates with people. It was such a magical time for us.
Speaker 3: We had about ten years there that were just phenomenal.
Speaker 3: And it's a testament to the songwriters in this town too,
Speaker 3: because the songs we were able to get our hands on,
Speaker 3: the writers that were sitting in rooms writing for us,
Speaker 3: that knew what we wanted to say, how we wanted
Speaker 3: to sing, it really had their fingers on the pulse
Speaker 3: of who Rascal Flats was.
Speaker 1: I can't thank them enough. Was there ever a point
Speaker 1: with you guys, you three, that you're like, this is
Speaker 1: probably it. We're done.
Speaker 3: When Lyric Streets shut down in twenty ten, we sat
Speaker 3: around in my man room and looked at each other
Speaker 3: and we're like, do we have anything left to say?
Speaker 3: Even I mean, it's been a great ten year run.
Speaker 3: We were getting ready to either quit or make a
Speaker 3: management change, and a lot of things were going to change,
Speaker 3: and we knew it and it was going to be tough,
Speaker 3: and we sat around and considered whether or not it
Speaker 3: wasn't time to lay Rascal Flats down, and I think
Speaker 3: after an hour or so of talking with each other,
Speaker 3: it was just like, it hurts me to think about
Speaker 3: the last time that I'll look over to my right
Speaker 3: and not see Gary beside me. When I think about
Speaker 3: that day, it makes me emotional. I don't know when
Speaker 3: that day will be, but I wasn't ready to face it.
Speaker 3: And to think about never making music with the two
Speaker 3: of them again. Boy, it's something that even though we
Speaker 3: were in twenty years and we love each other like
Speaker 3: brothers and we've certainly fought like brothers before. I love
Speaker 3: those guys with all my heart. And we've done some
Speaker 3: things that a lot of people will never see or
Speaker 3: never be able to do. And we've been in the
Speaker 3: trenches together, and we know each other in ways that
Speaker 3: our own wives don't even know us. And to think
Speaker 3: about not having that anymore, I think all of us
Speaker 3: were not ready, and we were willing to stay together
Speaker 3: because we felt like we had more to say and
Speaker 3: more to do, and we still do. I don't know
Speaker 3: that it's going to come to a close anytime soon.
Speaker 3: I think we will all three have things we want
Speaker 3: to do individually as we get older and have opportunities to.
Speaker 3: But I don't see us ever really going away and
Speaker 3: and having an official, quote unquote breakup.
Speaker 1: Do you ever think about a sideband.
Speaker 3: I'm in one already, and it's tough to be in
Speaker 3: that one sometimes in the time that it takes in
Speaker 3: the commitment level, I've thought about maybe doing side projects, things.
Speaker 1: Like that side band that you're in. Why do I
Speaker 1: know this or do I know this is a secret?
Speaker 2: No, I mean, I mean I'm in Rascal Flats.
Speaker 1: In the commitment I was like, how do I not know?
Speaker 3: No, No, I I don't have I mean, I certainly
Speaker 3: love making music on any level, and you're producing music
Speaker 3: by the way, Yeah, well, I open up a Christian
Speaker 3: label back in October, so I've got artists signed there
Speaker 3: to that label that I'll be releasing records on. So
Speaker 3: there my time commitment there with that new thing and
Speaker 3: my life is pretty substantial. So I'm going to try
Speaker 3: to make sure that's as successful as it can possibly be.
Speaker 3: And I want to continue making music and producing for
Speaker 3: other people.
Speaker 1: And I've had I've had the.
Speaker 3: Chance to do a lot of great things, and you know,
Speaker 3: I'm made a really great point in my life now
Speaker 3: to where I really really enjoy everything that I'm doing
Speaker 3: right now, and I'm not just doing it because I
Speaker 3: have to.
Speaker 6: You know, the Bobby Cast will be right back. Welcome
Speaker 6: back to the Bobby Cast.
Speaker 1: So then a few months later, I sat down with
Speaker 1: lead singer Gary Lavaux. Now this has been four or
Speaker 1: five years ago, and this is for Gary and I
Speaker 1: were actually really close friends. And it's interesting because he
Speaker 1: did not know the future of Rascal Flats when we
Speaker 1: were having this conversation because it was just the beginning
Speaker 1: of COVID and I was like, what is even going
Speaker 1: to happen? He knew they were going to break up
Speaker 1: kind of, but he didn't know if they were going
Speaker 1: to tour it. You'll hear this, but again he talked
Speaker 1: about the early days moving to Nashville, forming Rascal Flats,
Speaker 1: even a solo project, and who he thinks the best
Speaker 1: country singers of all time are, and a whole bunch more.
Speaker 1: You know, I saw you guys. You're doing some promotion
Speaker 1: now for the new EP July thirty first, which we're
Speaker 1: going to play this whole interview thing on the radio
Speaker 1: show This is long form podcast to count down a
Speaker 1: lot of things. So I saw you guys doing promotion
Speaker 1: on one of those morning talk shows like Good Morning
Speaker 1: America or something Today's show. Were you guys together virtually
Speaker 1: or do you come in on the different boxes?
Speaker 5: Jill Don and I were together. Jay was in Hilton
Speaker 5: Head playing golf.
Speaker 1: And are you like Jay, we're doing promotion. Least you
Speaker 1: can do is come hang out.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's exactly by what we said. But he wouldn't
Speaker 5: doing it.
Speaker 1: So it's the whole virtual thing is weird because it
Speaker 1: doesn't really feel like it counts, even though it does.
Speaker 4: No.
Speaker 1: I know, I was doing American Idol with the whole
Speaker 1: last five episodes, and I'm doing it from my house.
Speaker 1: I swear to god, I didn't wear pants for network television.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I didn't on the Today Show.
Speaker 1: You're not now?
Speaker 4: No, I know. It's just it's so comfortable now.
Speaker 1: The new EP, how they Remember You? We released July
Speaker 1: thirty first, and when I was thinking about EPs, have
Speaker 1: you guys put out just an EP in a long time?
Speaker 3: Never?
Speaker 1: Because I would think you guys are just full straight
Speaker 1: ahead album guys yeap. What was this? What made you
Speaker 1: think about putting out a smaller project?
Speaker 5: Well, because we were actually had this other project going on,
Speaker 5: and then we were we had these songs like kind
Speaker 5: of left over from projects that we really liked but
Speaker 5: never had the chance to and this Quarantine thing kind
Speaker 5: of put it where we were kind of looking at
Speaker 5: and we were like, man, we should finish these out.
Speaker 5: And so it just came up to h and then
Speaker 5: Dan Huff got another song that he really liked, how
Speaker 5: They Remember You, which is the new single, and then
Speaker 5: so we just kind of put it all on an
Speaker 5: EP and we had seven and we were like, let's
Speaker 5: just go with seven. So Borshett it was like, yep,
Speaker 5: it's great. So Big Machine put it out. Well it
Speaker 5: will be.
Speaker 1: Up and that's new right you being with Scott war
Speaker 1: shout out Big Machine? Is that new ish?
Speaker 4: No, we've been there for ten years.
Speaker 1: E been there that long.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Wow, we got lost because of Tailor. Thanks Bobby.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I forgot. Wasn't there a fourth member?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 4: Guy for hearing and then he went to cooking. It
Speaker 4: was weird.
Speaker 1: So you got seven try, but seven's almost a record
Speaker 1: to be fair, Yeah, it is. I mean it's like
Speaker 1: it's somewhere, it's like the purgatory of EP to LP.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you know, the whole game's changed. Who knows what
Speaker 5: to do anymore? Some people were just doing singles. People
Speaker 5: want to do records. I mean, you know, I missed
Speaker 5: the whole body of work. But to be honest, nobody
Speaker 5: really wants the whole body of work.
Speaker 1: I agree, even my favorite artists like I would rather
Speaker 1: now consume a couple of songs a month, yep, and
Speaker 1: have them consistently come at me a couple of time,
Speaker 1: because what happens with me, just as a music fan,
Speaker 1: first and foremost, is that you give me thirteen tracks
Speaker 1: and I'll go through it once and not give some
Speaker 1: songs the fair credit, just the acknowledgement they deserve, because
Speaker 1: sometimes you gotta hear a song two or three times
Speaker 1: you really love it, and I won't do that because
Speaker 1: I'd be like, thirteen tracks, it's just too much overwhelming.
Speaker 4: Yep, I know, yep.
Speaker 5: And then the artwork nothing really, you know, everything that
Speaker 5: you used to love about music or can't wait for
Speaker 5: a new thing to come out and just kind of
Speaker 5: it's disappeared.
Speaker 1: You're one of the best singers in town and your
Speaker 1: your voice is still so pure. Have you felt your
Speaker 1: voice get lower higher through the last fifteen twenty years?
Speaker 1: Does it move at all?
Speaker 4: You know, it really has.
Speaker 5: I think it's gotten stronger for some weird reason.
Speaker 4: I don't know. I can hit things now easier than
Speaker 4: I could before. I don't know.
Speaker 1: Why do you think that is?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think it's just kind of like a muscle,
Speaker 5: you know, It's just like any kind of athlete. And
Speaker 5: I think the more you use it correctly and it
Speaker 5: stretches and all that kind of good stuff, it just
Speaker 5: kind of I don't know, I've just been blessed with
Speaker 5: being able to not lose much.
Speaker 1: How old were you when it started to be Wow,
Speaker 1: Gary's actually better than the other kids, or I don't know,
Speaker 1: seventeen year olds.
Speaker 5: You know, I don't even really know, because I mean,
Speaker 5: like I did some but I was still into sports
Speaker 5: that I really wasn't even thinking about music really, you know.
Speaker 5: And then but like high school, I'll do like I
Speaker 5: would be in the musicals like South Pacific and Guys
Speaker 5: and Dolls and all that, and these show choir kind
Speaker 5: of things, and I always ended up getting like the
Speaker 5: you know, like the lead or I have a solo
Speaker 5: part in something and it was you know, I was
Speaker 5: probably better than average, but.
Speaker 1: But it wasn't blown away crowd and they walked out
Speaker 1: like they weren't like, holy crap, what you want. I
Speaker 1: guess you weren't La Vox, right, But the Gary freaking
Speaker 1: was killing everybody that was. That wasn't a thing early.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, maybe, but I think the soccer was my
Speaker 5: big thing, So I think that kind of overshadowed the
Speaker 5: music thing.
Speaker 4: I was soccer. Huh, yep.
Speaker 1: Do you think you could go and play? I guess
Speaker 1: really wasn't MLS. And did you try to play in
Speaker 1: college or no?
Speaker 4: No, I didn't.
Speaker 5: I had I had a scholarship to Taylor University and
Speaker 5: didn't take it. My stepdad at the time had started
Speaker 5: an electric company, so I was doing that and I'm like,
Speaker 5: this is going to be mine one day, all this,
Speaker 5: you know, so I just I started making money, and
Speaker 5: you know, started making that five seventy five an hour.
Speaker 4: I thought I was big balling.
Speaker 1: You know, it's crazy to hear about how much you
Speaker 1: love sports.
Speaker 7: Now.
Speaker 1: I've heard stories about you and how good of an
Speaker 1: athlete you still are, and I guess you don't show
Speaker 1: it a lot. But one of my dear friends was
Speaker 1: Clarence is your manager yep, And he was I don't
Speaker 1: know if it was boxing or something, and he was like,
Speaker 1: we were on the tour.
Speaker 4: Bus, oh yeah, on boxing problem.
Speaker 1: And they were like, we got and I guess you
Speaker 1: would put on some gloves and we're just kind of
Speaker 1: just you know, dicking around. And he was like, you
Speaker 1: would not believe how fast his breaking hands are. And
Speaker 1: he was like deceivingly, Levox is one of the best
Speaker 1: athletes you know of all, because it's a weird thing
Speaker 1: to be such a good athlete and such a great singer.
Speaker 1: I look at guys like you, or a Sam Hunt
Speaker 1: or a and Go or even a Chuck Wicks, like
Speaker 1: the guy is a great athlete and a good looking guy.
Speaker 1: You guys have and I have nothing. You guys have
Speaker 1: all the elements and I have nothing. And I just
Speaker 1: look at you all and go here I am fingernails
Speaker 1: keeping the mountain, trying to climb. You guys got your
Speaker 1: little trolley and just right up with all the skills,
Speaker 1: like God just gifted you so many.
Speaker 5: Oh that's not true at all, that's not true at all.
Speaker 5: But I know what you're saying, like that not for me,
Speaker 5: but like the Sam Haunts and the Chuck with they're
Speaker 5: they're really good at everything and they're and they look
Speaker 5: good and yeah, and they look great.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 4: See, I would put me in that category, but I
Speaker 4: don't know.
Speaker 1: I did put you in the category.
Speaker 4: I wrote it down for you that thank you.
Speaker 1: Oh.
Speaker 8: No.
Speaker 1: One of the tracks quick Fast in a Hurry Rachel
Speaker 1: walmax On, who I just love love her. She's such
Speaker 1: a great singer. So when you were putting together the record,
Speaker 1: there's only one one feature on here, why Rachel?
Speaker 5: It was just one of those things, like, I mean,
Speaker 5: she opened she did like a couple of shows for us,
Speaker 5: opened up and and like I went out there and
Speaker 5: we were all kind of watching, and I was like, God, I.
Speaker 4: Had no idea. She can blow. She can absolutely kill it.
Speaker 5: And then so we're just like we should quick Fast
Speaker 5: in a Hurry was kind of fresh on our minds,
Speaker 5: you know, and we had just kind of tracked it
Speaker 5: and we were just like, man, we should ask Rachel.
Speaker 4: She'd be into it.
Speaker 5: And Clarence manages her too, so you're like, just keep
Speaker 5: it all in the family.
Speaker 4: And she crushed it.
Speaker 1: Who do you see in town now where you go? Man,
Speaker 1: they can just sing like if you were doing a
Speaker 1: mount Rushmore of current. Let's say we got to put
Speaker 1: some perimeters on this. They've had to have had a
Speaker 1: hit in the past five years. Okay, so I'm going
Speaker 1: to eliminate any of the nineties guys that maybe you
Speaker 1: saw on the upper end when you were coming in.
Speaker 1: Who can really sing Mount Rushmore? Four people?
Speaker 5: Boy, that's tough. Carrie Underwook can really sing Rachel Trifle.
Speaker 1: Let me stop being carry a truffall. She goes into studio,
Speaker 1: doesn't allow them to touch her voice? Do you know that?
Speaker 4: Really?
Speaker 1: I don't know. I'm asking you. I've heard that.
Speaker 4: Have you heard that? No, I haven't heard that, Garth,
Speaker 4: I've heard that.
Speaker 1: Do you allow them to touch your voice?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 5: Heck yeah, I want to be great really yeah, but
Speaker 5: that's you know, but just kind of like tone stuff
Speaker 5: like how much verb and all that, and I mean,
Speaker 5: but I'll take pitch corrector all.
Speaker 1: Day, but you don't need pitch corrector. Well, you know,
Speaker 1: sometimes you have perfect pitch.
Speaker 4: It's pretty close. It's pretty close.
Speaker 1: All right, you got Carrie, go ahead, you got three
Speaker 1: more Carrie.
Speaker 4: Ronnie Dunn.
Speaker 1: Mmm, good one.
Speaker 5: I mean for a country country singer, Hey, I put
Speaker 5: Luke Combs in there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I would too.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and.
Speaker 5: See there's some that just haven't had a hit in
Speaker 5: front the last five years, but I would put I
Speaker 5: don't wanna miss some.
Speaker 1: But oh, you're gonna miss a lot. So I think
Speaker 1: it's okay because there's so many.
Speaker 4: No, I'm gonna put Bobby Bones.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of pitch corector. When I go in
Speaker 1: to do it's just pitch director. I don't even I
Speaker 1: just call in and I'm like, hey, just take this.
Speaker 1: I don't even have to go. I just slam it on. There.
Speaker 1: Are you guys not gonna say goodbye on the tour?
Speaker 4: You know? Not for now?
Speaker 5: I mean, I don't know what's happening. It's just, you know,
Speaker 5: every state's different now that states that were in Phase
Speaker 5: three you're going back to phase two. And you know
Speaker 5: it's just crazy. I mean, who who knows? I mean,
Speaker 5: I don't know.
Speaker 4: You know, I know.
Speaker 5: Jay's doing his own thing. Joe Don's right in a
Speaker 5: bunch and you know, and I'll just tell you that
Speaker 5: you know and everybody that I'm so I'm doing a
Speaker 5: solo record.
Speaker 4: I'm working on a solo record right now.
Speaker 1: Is that breaking news?
Speaker 4: That's breaking news?
Speaker 1: I knew it already, but I keep I keep such
Speaker 1: a good secret.
Speaker 4: M so low.
Speaker 1: So wait what is that? I'm gonna ask you about that?
Speaker 1: So you're doing a solo record? What and what it was?
Speaker 1: I feel like, what's the So.
Speaker 5: I'm doing a first I'm going to do a solo
Speaker 5: I'm doing a solo Christian record.
Speaker 4: It's been a dream record.
Speaker 5: Of mine forever and I'm halfway done with that now
Speaker 5: and it's I'm so excited about it. It's just gonna
Speaker 5: be great. And I think I'm going to do a
Speaker 5: solo country record right after that.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 1: Ye Now what kind of expectation do you put on
Speaker 1: yourself in the solo country world where you've had You're
Speaker 1: as successful as you could have possibly been, Like, you
Speaker 1: can't be bigger than the flats? Yeah, So now it's you.
Speaker 1: How do you like? What is the goal with you? Same? Yeah?
Speaker 4: I mean the same. I'll just see where God takes it.
Speaker 5: But there's just there's you know, it's you know, sometimes
Speaker 5: it's difficult for the three of us to agree on
Speaker 5: songs to cut and things that I really believe in
Speaker 5: most of the time it would work out.
Speaker 4: But there's you.
Speaker 5: Know, there's just I think, you know, I mean, I
Speaker 5: feel the responsibility in the in the calling to continue
Speaker 5: to keep singing if Flats does or not. So, but
Speaker 5: there's songs that I really believe in that I love
Speaker 5: and they're you know. I mean, I don't know if
Speaker 5: they'll be different from Flats because I was the lead
Speaker 5: singer of Flat, so I mean, they're all all kind
Speaker 5: of sound like that, but and maybe not all the
Speaker 5: harmony stuff on there. But there's songs that I really
Speaker 5: truly believe in that I love that I think are
Speaker 5: giants and I think that the world needs to hear.
Speaker 5: I mean, I think they're you know, I think they're
Speaker 5: really really good. And I've already got some recorded for that.
Speaker 5: So I'm just excited. I'm excited about doing my own thing,
Speaker 5: and you know, and it's excited to see what happens,
Speaker 5: you know, if the Flats get together at some point
Speaker 5: when everything clears off. I mean, I don't know, we'll see,
Speaker 5: but I'm going to continue to work and I feel
Speaker 5: like that's that's been my calling and what I need
Speaker 5: to continue to do.
Speaker 1: And do you know those guys well as anyone. If
Speaker 1: let's say a vaccine happens with Corona in March of
Speaker 1: next year, you guys decide to go out and play
Speaker 1: ten shows, and just this is just a hypothetical. Will
Speaker 1: they be cool with you singing your solo songs up
Speaker 1: there if it's out? Yeah?
Speaker 4: Yeah, h yeah they would. Yeah.
Speaker 5: I mean we also, I mean we get along great.
Speaker 5: We just don't know what's happening. And you know, everybody
Speaker 5: kind of you know, you know, a couple of the
Speaker 5: guys wanted to do their own thing early on, and
Speaker 5: it just this Corona thing.
Speaker 4: It's it's just weird. It kind of gave us a
Speaker 4: year off before we were going to take a year off,
Speaker 4: you know. Yeah. So I don't know, it's just just
Speaker 4: the way it worked out.
Speaker 1: Before I moved, I guess that's about three moves ago.
Speaker 1: But I was living in a condo and you looked
Speaker 1: out the window right on the printer's alley.
Speaker 4: Yep.
Speaker 1: So when you first moved to town, did you guys
Speaker 1: play any of those Printer's alley spots?
Speaker 4: Yep?
Speaker 5: Right there, Fiddling Steel we played there, but we played
Speaker 5: all of them, but our main gig was like Mondays
Speaker 5: and Tuesdays the fiddling steel, and then we would play
Speaker 5: Barbers and we played Lonnie's Western Room.
Speaker 4: We'd play all those down there.
Speaker 1: What does that mean? You would play them? Like talk
Speaker 1: about them? What's a Monday night?
Speaker 4: So Monday night?
Speaker 5: Well, when I first moved to town, it was Jay
Speaker 5: set up by the cigarette machine with a little keyboard
Speaker 5: and we had some tracks like well they call me
Speaker 5: the Farm and that's my name. We'd sit there and
Speaker 5: sometimes the security guard was the only person that would
Speaker 5: be in there. But we would play there from nine
Speaker 5: to three on Mondays and Tuesdays. Then we started building
Speaker 5: a following. Then we met and Joe Don came in
Speaker 5: and then but we played from nine to three, take breaks,
Speaker 5: and then we'd take a break, and then we'd go
Speaker 5: to barbers across the street and play over there and
Speaker 5: sit in a carry out I and then we just
Speaker 5: stayed in the alley. We're gonna be somewhere every night
Speaker 5: playing music.
Speaker 1: What does that mean to develop a following when you're
Speaker 1: playing small bars with without social media? Like? What is that?
Speaker 1: Just the same people coming to see you?
Speaker 5: Yeah, just same people would come in. They knew when
Speaker 5: we were playing. And what was great back then too,
Speaker 5: was like Mark Chestnut, Toby Keith and all that. So
Speaker 5: when everybody was off the road, everybody would go to
Speaker 5: Printer's Alley and hang. So he might be playing with
Speaker 5: Mark Chestnut's guitar player, you know, Toby Keith's drummer, you
Speaker 5: know Martina McBride's you know, acoustic player. It was just
Speaker 5: a I mean, it's what country music was.
Speaker 4: You know. Then they knocked it.
Speaker 5: All down and built you know, the condo I used
Speaker 5: to look condo that you used to live.
Speaker 1: What was the final straw that made you come to Nashville?
Speaker 2: You know what?
Speaker 5: I was sitting in my mom's kitchen and how old
Speaker 5: I was twenty I was twenty seven and I was
Speaker 5: sitting in my mom's kitchen and I was singing along
Speaker 5: with the radio, and I was like, it just hit me.
Speaker 5: And at that moment, I just kind of looked up
Speaker 5: and I said, God, I feel like you give me
Speaker 5: some type of gift to sing, and I'm so sorry
Speaker 5: that I haven't used it. It was just the weirdest thing.
Speaker 5: And I was like, I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna
Speaker 5: do it. So I took out because I worked for
Speaker 5: the Board of Developmentally Disabled for ten years. It's right
Speaker 5: out of high school. So I had to leave that job,
Speaker 5: you know, state job, sold everything and moved to town.
Speaker 5: And but that's what it was in my kitchen. I'd
Speaker 5: really I sold everything through everything in my truck, moved
Speaker 5: moved to Nashville.
Speaker 1: Were you dominating karaoke competitions back off?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, because that was the extra hundred bucks, you
Speaker 5: know if you won. I was like, you know, if
Speaker 5: I had to hit three on Friday, I'd be extra
Speaker 5: three hundred dollars, you know, then Saturday, and then there
Speaker 5: was one place on Sunday.
Speaker 4: But then they caught on.
Speaker 5: So if you won too much, then you couldn't win anymore,
Speaker 5: you know, so then you had to start venturing out.
Speaker 1: You go it on the East, uh fake mustache, out
Speaker 1: of town clothes. So you and Jay obviously are related
Speaker 1: with Joe Don. Did Jay find Joe Don? Who's Who's
Speaker 1: what was that?
Speaker 4: So Jay was the.
Speaker 5: Band leader for Shelley, right, and then he hired uh
Speaker 5: Joe Don to play guitar for Shelley And so he
Speaker 5: had j been telling me about Joda on how you
Speaker 5: Know High ten and how Grady scenes and plays. So
Speaker 5: he came down at the Filling Steel Guitar Bar one
Speaker 5: night and our guitar player didn't show up, so he
Speaker 5: invited jod On in and we did h Church on
Speaker 5: the Cumberland Road. It was the first song we ever did,
Speaker 5: and the rest was history. We were like, wow, I
Speaker 5: don't know what that was, but that was I mean,
Speaker 5: it was just it was incredible. So we asked him and.
Speaker 4: That was that.
Speaker 1: How quickly until you had a name?
Speaker 5: Though it took a while because we were because I
Speaker 5: think Jaybert and I were going by Deuces Wild and
Speaker 5: then there was three of us in there, so deuces
Speaker 5: Wild didn't make any sense. And then you know it
Speaker 5: was hard to come up with a name. And uh
Speaker 5: but we we sat there and we were thinking, so
Speaker 5: we're ok Ohio because Joe nas from Oklahoma. It's just terrible.
Speaker 4: And then so it was awful.
Speaker 5: And so this piano player named Jelly Roll was in
Speaker 5: town or was playing with us, and he was like, man,
Speaker 5: back in the sixties, I used to have a band
Speaker 5: called Rascal Flats. And we're like, what's it mean, Jelly
Speaker 5: He was like, hell, I don't know, no idea. We
Speaker 5: were like all right, So we literally rode on a napkin, uh,
Speaker 5: and we paid him five hundred bucks for the name,
Speaker 5: so if it did work, we could get sued later.
Speaker 4: So that's the story.
Speaker 1: And how quickly that you guys were like, Okay, we're
Speaker 1: going to do this until you actually started to make
Speaker 1: any sort of money from it into tea bigger than
Speaker 1: just a bar, meaning a record label.
Speaker 4: How it was.
Speaker 1: Did that happen pretty quick? When people heard of you?
Speaker 5: Yeah, you know, there was a see so I moved
Speaker 5: to town February ninety eight and we got signed in
Speaker 5: ninety nine. And then but we were humping I mean,
Speaker 5: we were killing it every night. We were playing somewhere
Speaker 5: every night. And then yeah, so but we were working
Speaker 5: for tips only and then we got paid forty bucks
Speaker 5: a night and then so the first real money was
Speaker 5: was when we signed our deal with Lyric Street Records.
Speaker 1: Yep, do you guys ever baby act for anybody as
Speaker 1: that third act where they really were like, hey, we'll
Speaker 1: look out.
Speaker 5: For you, you know what all of them did really
Speaker 5: and that was like our first tour ever was Jody
Speaker 5: Messina and Jody kind of did that for us. And
Speaker 5: then it was Toby Keith. Toby really took us under
Speaker 5: his wing. And then Brooks and Done. I mean, really,
Speaker 5: you go out there and try to steal everything that
Speaker 5: they've got their fans, you learn so much. And then
Speaker 5: Brooks and Done and then I mean they all kind
Speaker 5: of took us under their wing and really showed us
Speaker 5: the ropes and you know, how to put a tour
Speaker 5: together and how to treat fans.
Speaker 4: And you know, because we were on that the Brooks and.
Speaker 5: Done thing where they had jugglers and stuff all day long,
Speaker 5: you know, so yeah, we I mean we learned from
Speaker 5: all of them. All of thems kind of kind of
Speaker 5: took them and took us under their wing and really
Speaker 5: showed us the ropes. And they were I forget who
Speaker 5: it was that told us. They were like, see all
Speaker 5: those fans out there, you need to go steal every
Speaker 5: single one of them.
Speaker 1: Oh that's cool, we'll try. That's cool.
Speaker 4: And that's what we told everybody that's open for us
Speaker 4: since then.
Speaker 1: The how they remembew the EP when it comes out.
Speaker 1: Why do you name song PEP different people give me
Speaker 1: different ones? Why do you name the whole project after
Speaker 1: a song?
Speaker 4: You know? I don't know. I guess just because it's easy.
Speaker 5: It's the first thing and it's hard to encompass, like
Speaker 5: because all of it has a different feel and the
Speaker 5: whole body of work feels different, you know.
Speaker 4: Let's you know, but something like the.
Speaker 5: Craftmanship record that would have been the other time Spent record.
Speaker 1: You guys had seven Do you have seven songs on
Speaker 1: this thing? Did all? Is it a rule that three
Speaker 1: of three of you have to agree on the song
Speaker 1: or two or three? What's the what's the dynamic there?
Speaker 5: Pretty much? Yeah, pretty much? And then but I'll get
Speaker 5: in there sometimes just come in. I just I hate
Speaker 5: the song.
Speaker 4: I'm not doing it.
Speaker 1: You ever done that to a song? It ended up
Speaker 1: being a massive hit where it's like I don't know
Speaker 1: if this is the one.
Speaker 4: I'm sure there, I'm sure there.
Speaker 5: Jay's probably been the worst at that Jays because he's
Speaker 5: like songs like no, I'm not doing that, you know,
Speaker 5: like like Sarah Beth, you know about skin.
Speaker 4: I don't want to sing about cancer. I don't want
Speaker 4: to do you know, it's a tough subject. I don't
Speaker 4: want to sing about it.
Speaker 5: It's a hit, and it's happened a couple other times
Speaker 5: we were like, hey, Jay whatever other songs that you hate, man.
Speaker 1: That'd be great.
Speaker 4: Let the Yeah.
Speaker 1: So you and Jamie Fox have been friends for a while.
Speaker 4: Huh m hmm, yep, long time.
Speaker 1: You guys just sit around Jamie's house singing.
Speaker 4: We did all the time.
Speaker 1: You know, how'd you guys become friends?
Speaker 5: He I got a deal offered to me by Capitol
Speaker 5: Records in early on, like a pop deal, And so
Speaker 5: I went to LA and my old manager at that
Speaker 5: time used to work for Jamie, and so ended up
Speaker 5: going there, staying there, and uh after I turned that
Speaker 5: deal down, I ended up just staying living with Jamie
Speaker 5: for a few months, just staying with him.
Speaker 4: And then we're just and he had just lived together.
Speaker 5: Just started the w he started, just started the Jamie
Speaker 5: Fox Show on the WB and so he was just
Speaker 5: getting going. I mean, his comedy stuff was happening. But
Speaker 5: he's truly one of the most he might be the
Speaker 5: most talented person I've ever seen. He's great at absolutely everything.
Speaker 5: I mean not just great, but I mean sets the
Speaker 5: bar for I mean comedy talent, I mean his the
Speaker 5: way he plays piano, and I mean he's just and
Speaker 5: and he loves music. He loves country music. He loves
Speaker 5: all genres of music and he can act. I mean,
Speaker 5: it's just it's not fair. It's not fair at all.
Speaker 1: It sounds like he's a good dude too. He's a
Speaker 1: great dude, which sucks you kind of.
Speaker 4: Want to hate someone. Yeah, he's from Texas.
Speaker 1: I never liked you, yeah, because it's just you have
Speaker 1: it all.
Speaker 4: You just you have it all. Yeah, and I'm covening. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I'm envious and I'm covening you.
Speaker 1: Life is the Highway was never a single, right, It
Speaker 1: just became a smash kind of because people liked it,
Speaker 1: which is rare.
Speaker 4: Yep.
Speaker 5: Yeah, the Cars movie, yeah, you know, and then radio
Speaker 5: picked it up because it was just doing so good
Speaker 5: and just kind of they played it.
Speaker 4: But it was never a.
Speaker 1: Single, and really one of the songs that I would
Speaker 1: assume you guys are associated most with, depending on what
Speaker 1: the age group.
Speaker 4: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's funny because I was just just doing a
Speaker 5: singing with a buddy of mine, Jonathan mcgreynod's in the
Speaker 5: Christian world. The gospel world is amazing. He's the same way,
Speaker 5: so talented, so gifted, not fair, coveting, nine neighbor, that's
Speaker 5: what I'm doing on with him too, because it's just ridiculous.
Speaker 5: But anyway, his his assistant who knows nothing about country music,
Speaker 5: never even heard of Rascal Flask But new Life's the Highway.
Speaker 1: Really, Yeah, Life's the Highway, the original version. Don't tell me,
Speaker 1: is it like Eddie cock now who sings lives Highway?
Speaker 1: Tom Conchran. I get Eddie money and Tom Cochran mixed
Speaker 1: up because to me, the same person, what's the most
Speaker 1: profitable song you guys have put out.
Speaker 4: For me?
Speaker 5: The ones I wrote fast Guards, Freedom and I Melt
Speaker 5: and Bob that Head and Summer Nights and all that.
Speaker 5: But you know, I mean, all in all broke, it's
Speaker 5: got to be broken Road or what hurts the most.
Speaker 1: If someone says, hey, Gary, what are you gonna want
Speaker 1: you to come? Like my cousin's having a little wedding
Speaker 1: here and he's you're really important to him, and he says,
Speaker 1: you sing two songs? Any two songs at the wedding?
Speaker 4: What do you pick? Broken Road? In my wish? I mean,
Speaker 4: those are always the ones that they ask it is.
Speaker 1: Yeah, somebody asked me to.
Speaker 4: I tried on moving on once but that didn't work.
Speaker 1: Yeah, probably not a.
Speaker 4: Good it wasn't.
Speaker 1: Yeah, do you still get excited because you know the
Speaker 1: new project's coming out, you get excited it's gonna come
Speaker 1: out or is it just another day like it's just
Speaker 1: part of the bro I'm.
Speaker 4: So fired up.
Speaker 5: I'm so excited, more excited that I've been in a
Speaker 5: long time. I'm so excited to have you know, I
Speaker 5: love everything that we did with Flats and being a
Speaker 5: part of that and all of that, and who knows
Speaker 5: what will happen in the future, but I'm so excited
Speaker 5: about just having my own songs that I picked that
Speaker 5: I hand you know, hand picked and helped co produce
Speaker 5: and using you know, different It's just fresh, it's new,
Speaker 5: and it's exciting, and you know it's just uh.
Speaker 4: And singing about the Lord is gonna be awesome.
Speaker 5: I mean, it's been a dream record since I was
Speaker 5: a kid, so, you know, and then the country stuff,
Speaker 5: the country record that'll come after that is you know,
Speaker 5: I mean, I've already got some cut for that that
Speaker 5: just they're great, They're great songs. We live in town
Speaker 5: with the greatest songwriters in the world.
Speaker 6: So right here, hang tight, the Bobby Cast will be
Speaker 6: right back. Welcome back to the Bobby.
Speaker 1: Cast and finally the guys came back together. And maybe
Speaker 1: you heard this, but when they were in our studio room,
Speaker 1: it was the first time those three guys had been
Speaker 1: together in the same room in five years. And they
Speaker 1: gave us life updates. They talked about how insanely successful
Speaker 1: their career was from Rascal Flats back in the day.
Speaker 1: They did talk about their life as a Highway twenty
Speaker 1: fifth anniversary retort they're going to do starting in February
Speaker 1: of next year, their favorite songs to play live jodhn Sobriety,
Speaker 1: and so much more.
Speaker 3: So.
Speaker 1: Here's the clip of these guys all back together on
Speaker 1: the Bobby Bones Show. Now, Rascal Flax, we'll look at
Speaker 1: you guys back together. What a sight to say. You know,
Speaker 1: I've been screaming about this for about a year now
Speaker 1: and I don't take credit for it, but I take
Speaker 1: credit for it. Congratulations, I got you back together. Let's go.
Speaker 1: I'm not getting any percentage though. Uh Let's let's start
Speaker 1: with you. Gary. When was the call made that we
Speaker 1: should do this thing again.
Speaker 5: It was a couple of months ago.
Speaker 3: I think, yeah, yeah, I think my wife called you
Speaker 3: and said, you've got to get him out of there.
Speaker 5: Alice Allison called and I said, okay, all right, let's roll.
Speaker 1: So was it we should do this, Let's feel it
Speaker 1: out and see if we can everything can align, or
Speaker 1: and Joe don I'll come to you. Or was it like, yeah,
Speaker 1: we feel good, let's go a little bit of all that.
Speaker 8: You know, our management talked about it. We leaned on
Speaker 8: them because they know way more than we do with
Speaker 8: how the landscape is today. I mean it's been five years,
Speaker 8: you know, And yeah, and they felt like next year
Speaker 8: in February through April would be good.
Speaker 1: Did you miss it? Everybody? Did you miss each other?
Speaker 1: Did you miss wow?
Speaker 4: What?
Speaker 1: What did you miss? Well?
Speaker 3: I mean I miss playing music. I miss some of
Speaker 3: my most favorite memories in my life. My adult life
Speaker 3: is being on stage with these guys. So yes, when
Speaker 3: it was yanked away from us in twenty twenty, pandemic
Speaker 3: hit and everybody was kind of at a loss. Not
Speaker 3: to be able to put a proper exclamation point on
Speaker 3: our career really hurt. And so you know, I've said
Speaker 3: it my entire life. Gary is one of the best
Speaker 3: singers I've ever heard, and it's really sucks not to
Speaker 3: be standing next to that every night. So I think
Speaker 3: it was a perfect opportunity for us to go out
Speaker 3: and celebrate twenty five wonderful years together. And I'm looking
Speaker 3: forward to seeing our fans because they've given us more
Speaker 3: than we could have ever imagined or hoped for.
Speaker 1: So the tour has not called it farewell tour, which,
Speaker 1: by the way, you know we're doing two days with
Speaker 1: you guys on this show. So tomorrow tickets are on
Speaker 1: sale and go to Rascal Flats dot com get tickets
Speaker 1: at ten am Eastern war remind you tomorrow as well.
Speaker 1: But it's not called that. Hey, this is our last run.
Speaker 1: This is called the Life of a Highway tour. So
Speaker 1: maybe we're not Maybe this isn't a farewell Gary.
Speaker 5: I don't know.
Speaker 2: Are you exactly you got I wanted?
Speaker 5: You got us together?
Speaker 4: How you're our agent?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 5: Yeah, you made me buy a hat when I came in.
Speaker 2: How much does it was?
Speaker 5: Seventy five dollars? See, we got to go work. Yeah,
Speaker 5: you try to say it's about hurricane relief, and you know,
Speaker 5: I just want to put it in his pocket.
Speaker 1: It's ridiculous. That's hurricane relief.
Speaker 4: Yes, I get it.
Speaker 1: So maybe this this thing just is awesome and you
Speaker 1: love doing it, maybe you just keep going. Is there
Speaker 1: a chance this is not the end?
Speaker 3: I think that's why we didn't call it a farewell tour.
Speaker 3: We're going to see how these twenty two shows go.
Speaker 3: We're gonna stick our toe back in the water, and
Speaker 3: if the fans seem to love it and we feel
Speaker 3: like there's a demand there, who knows what will happen.
Speaker 3: Right now, the focus is on February and March and
Speaker 3: next year.
Speaker 1: Have you Jodana, you rehearse at all? All three of
Speaker 1: you guys? Have you done anything musically?
Speaker 4: Yeah? You know what.
Speaker 8: We did some auditions for some new band mates actually
Speaker 8: last Tuesday and it went great, the three new guys and.
Speaker 2: Of your Body guy that's taking my places.
Speaker 8: I was hoping we could just AI this stuff like holograms,
Speaker 8: but no. But the rehearsals went great, and it was
Speaker 8: nice to be back with Jay and our drummer Jim Riley,
Speaker 8: who's been with us for twenty five years the whole
Speaker 8: time he was there, and just to play through the
Speaker 8: music again. I mean, it's you know, it's a lot
Speaker 8: of music and blessed to have some songs that I
Speaker 8: think were.
Speaker 1: Impactful, rushed people where you rusted. Oh yeah, but I
Speaker 1: mean you guys have played I know Gary been doing shows.
Speaker 1: You haven't seen you do shows, but.
Speaker 2: It's been playing keys most of the time.
Speaker 3: Then getting getting my fingers back on the bass again
Speaker 3: and get into that music was it was surreal and frightening.
Speaker 1: Did you practice before you guys, did your your deal
Speaker 1: together or do you just show up and be like,
Speaker 1: we'll figure it out as we go. We've done this
Speaker 1: lot many times.
Speaker 3: The night before I kind of listened back through the
Speaker 3: music and kind of played around for this is the
Speaker 3: first time the three of us have been together in
Speaker 3: the same room in five years.
Speaker 1: Wait together at the same time.
Speaker 8: No, Gary, wasn't there actually classic kicking things all right?
Speaker 1: Perfectly classic Gary.
Speaker 8: Yeah, yeah, he couldn't make it. But working through musically,
Speaker 8: is there what we need to do? And hire those
Speaker 8: new band guys And it worked out great. But uh
Speaker 8: it like Jay was saying, yeah, I I've got a
Speaker 8: lot of cobwebs in these hands. You know, it's been
Speaker 8: a while. I've kind of gotten away from music for
Speaker 8: you know, a lot of different reasons. And but I'm
Speaker 8: back and I'm definitely trying to practice as much as
Speaker 8: I can at the house. And my son Jagger is sixteen.
Speaker 8: He's eating alive with music and he's actually gotten me
Speaker 8: back into, you know, jamming with him, which has been fabulous.
Speaker 1: Gary, do you practice singing at all?
Speaker 4: Are you good?
Speaker 1: You know i'd sing all the time?
Speaker 5: Good?
Speaker 4: I do? I really? I do?
Speaker 7: Know?
Speaker 1: You literally do? I realize, Like Gary's been at my
Speaker 1: house and he's like singing, and I'm like, wow, he
Speaker 1: really does what I would do if I could sing
Speaker 1: like that. It's all the time. Does your wife ever
Speaker 1: really say, hey, yo, bro, we're good?
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah all the time? Yeah, like we got it,
Speaker 5: we got it, We're good.
Speaker 4: You love it?
Speaker 1: You still love you love it?
Speaker 5: I do, man, I do.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: I feel like that's what God's called me to do.
Speaker 5: So I just you know, I'm not going to stop
Speaker 5: him from doing what he's what He's given us. And
Speaker 5: you know, we're so excited to see all the fans
Speaker 5: and all the demand has been crazy, so it's been, Uh,
Speaker 5: it's gonna be a blast.
Speaker 1: What's this like for you three guys sitting here? I
Speaker 1: didn't realize was the first time in five years because
Speaker 1: I think I'd be a little nervous if we hadn't
Speaker 1: done this and we're like, let's say me, Amiy and
Speaker 1: Lunchbox that have been together, we've been together twenty something years.
Speaker 7: Well, yeah, after they said that, I thought, I can't
Speaker 7: imagine not seeing y'all or being in the same room
Speaker 7: for five years and then suddenly at an interview or
Speaker 7: coming on the show, this being the first time y'all
Speaker 7: are sitting together and us doing that. Like, I'm trying
Speaker 7: to think how I would feel, well, nervous driving up here.
Speaker 8: Yeah, yeah, absolutely, I'll be very honest about that.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 8: I missed being around These guys are two of the
Speaker 8: funniest people I've ever been around in my life, and
Speaker 8: just so many memories, so many wonderful memories. And it
Speaker 8: hasn't all been rosy. I'm not gonna, you know, sugarcoat it,
Speaker 8: but it's it's so good to be back in the
Speaker 8: same room together and see Gary and hug him and
Speaker 8: be together again. It's really special.
Speaker 1: Like, like, what songs do you even like to play?
Speaker 1: You have so many? Like what's so because I think
Speaker 1: I like the ballads? Yeah, yeah, because I like the
Speaker 1: feel ballads?
Speaker 2: Yeah I do too.
Speaker 4: Well, we've got plenty.
Speaker 1: You do have a lot.
Speaker 3: We had to force ourselves to put up tempo singles
Speaker 3: out so everybody wouldn't fall asleep, and they came to
Speaker 3: a show.
Speaker 5: A medley of mids and a medle.
Speaker 1: Ballance, so good night. Let me ask this extremely cliche question, then,
Speaker 1: what's the one song you're looking forward to playing live?
Speaker 1: I want a different answer from all three of you.
Speaker 1: Let's go to you first, Jay.
Speaker 3: Uh Bless the Broken Road. It's always been one of
Speaker 3: my favorites. I think it showcases are blend in our
Speaker 3: harm and he's just about as well as any song
Speaker 3: we've ever done.
Speaker 1: That's a good one. It's going to be a hit.
Speaker 4: Gary's the Highway.
Speaker 1: Oh she took my answer that song, and it's been discussed,
Speaker 1: but I think for younger listeners or fans of your
Speaker 1: music to hear that song and they go, that song's awesome.
Speaker 1: It's from cars. It's a big hit. It was never
Speaker 1: actually a radio.
Speaker 5: Song, huh, It's true.
Speaker 1: It just it pops so hard that then people just
Speaker 1: started playing it randomly and is now maybe your most
Speaker 1: streamed song ever.
Speaker 3: I think it started popping off on TikTok and then
Speaker 3: it just started going from there.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: It's interesting how you talk about TikTok. Yeah, I saw
Speaker 1: you use that accent. Were you just singing with the highway?
Speaker 5: Yeah yeah, and uh, Tom Cochran just got inducted into
Speaker 5: the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, and so they called
Speaker 5: me and asked me that if I'd go out there,
Speaker 5: and thought I did, and he killed it.
Speaker 2: He named his farm flats farm that he bought.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, because he made so much money all
Speaker 1: you guys, Yeah, I wonder I just we.
Speaker 4: Just kept saying you're welcome all night. Just you're welcome.
Speaker 5: Tom.
Speaker 1: You think he made more money off you guys doing
Speaker 1: it than him doing it?
Speaker 5: Absolutely absolutely helped.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, dang, that's pretty cool. Yeah, do you guys
Speaker 1: mechanical do you guys make mechanical world off that a
Speaker 1: little bit? But mostly goes to him.
Speaker 3: Mostly goes to him. Time we get the sound exchange money, but.
Speaker 5: It's in Canadians, it's loonies and tunies and that's what
Speaker 5: the what the conversion.
Speaker 7: Is one on that shall know what year that was
Speaker 7: and like what was it cars two.
Speaker 2: Thousand and six?
Speaker 3: I think, yeah, good for you.
Speaker 4: You know, you know what year he wrote it? Eighty
Speaker 4: eighty six, ninety one. That late. Yeah, I didn't realize.
Speaker 1: I thought it was like much younger than that. Okay,
Speaker 1: I have more questions about this because I like the
Speaker 1: dynamic here. We're back together, a bunch of friends. You
Speaker 1: got like all the Grammys, you have all the number
Speaker 1: one songs. What else is there to do? Or is
Speaker 1: what else to do? Just to celebrate what you've done?
Speaker 2: Oh man?
Speaker 3: You know what what I think eluded us that we
Speaker 3: never were able to take home was Entertainer of the Year.
Speaker 3: All those years that we sold, you know, wonderful amounts
Speaker 3: of tickets on all those tours, we never really took
Speaker 3: that trophy home at the ACMs or the CMA's.
Speaker 1: Sore spot, I mean from it's hard. It's hard you
Speaker 1: guys were you guys are the biggest thing in pop,
Speaker 1: not only in pop but country at the same time.
Speaker 3: Will it's it's I wouldn't say sore spot because we've
Speaker 3: been so blessed, but it's the one thing that I
Speaker 3: wish we would have been able to have achieved in
Speaker 3: our career.
Speaker 1: Do you think it's because there was jealousy because you
Speaker 1: guys had transcended where your rightful place was, and you
Speaker 1: didn't try to You didn't try to be this massive
Speaker 1: pop sensation. Do you think there was jealousy? And so
Speaker 1: I bet you were held back from that.
Speaker 3: There was a lot of hair envy. Let's be honest.
Speaker 3: Our hair was on point back then, wasn't Gray, you know, magnificent?
Speaker 5: The politics of the business, you know, who knows all
Speaker 5: we can do is we're in charge of trying to
Speaker 5: make and write and record great music and after that,
Speaker 5: who knows?
Speaker 4: You know?
Speaker 5: And for me, I think like Album of the Year two,
Speaker 5: you know, in two thousand and six, and we outsold
Speaker 5: everybody that put out a record in any genre in
Speaker 5: the entire world.
Speaker 3: That's one of my favorite memories. Sitting beside Gary at
Speaker 3: the Grammys in Los Angeles during a commercial break, he
Speaker 3: leaned over to me. It was just a moment that
Speaker 3: he and I shared together, and he whispered. He said, look,
Speaker 3: there's jay Z, there's Beyonce, there's Lady Gaga. And I
Speaker 3: was like, yeah, this is pretty incredible. He said, Now
Speaker 3: I think about this. This year, We've sold more records
Speaker 3: than all of these people in this building. And it
Speaker 3: gave me chills and it was just he and I
Speaker 3: sharing that moment together because you know, two boys growing
Speaker 3: up in Columbus, Ohio, who would have ever dreamed that
Speaker 3: moment would come.
Speaker 1: And you still didn't win Album of the Year.
Speaker 5: No, no, you can get a performance, but Paisley played ticks.
Speaker 5: I'd like to kick you for true story. We're like,
Speaker 5: what's the most We couldn't even get a performance.
Speaker 4: That's funny.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was in therapys was representing Country Let's go yesterday.
Speaker 1: I was in therapy talking about how I am. I
Speaker 1: have a very sore spot. I understand I've been blessed
Speaker 1: and all the same stuff you guys just said blah
Speaker 1: blah blah. But I am like so irritated that I
Speaker 1: haven't hosted the ACMs or CMAS yet. And I've been
Speaker 1: very close, like three times and on ACMs now I'm
Speaker 1: like second Banana, Reba doesn't. I'm there with her the
Speaker 1: whole time, but I'm not the host. But I think
Speaker 1: both can exist. Well, I'm really irritated and yeah, and
Speaker 1: and I think it's human nature.
Speaker 5: It's well and you would kill it.
Speaker 4: So I think it's it's time.
Speaker 1: But I mean it's it's weird that I could that
Speaker 1: you would think, wow, Rascal fights say they have done
Speaker 1: it all, all the hits. Yet still, when I asked
Speaker 1: the question, I kind of wanted to see where the
Speaker 1: human part of you went, like what is there to do?
Speaker 1: And it was, Oh, we didn't have Entertainer of the Year. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I don't think anybody would have ever even known
Speaker 1: you didn't.
Speaker 7: Yeah I thought you did.
Speaker 1: Yeah, me too.
Speaker 5: Yeah, just roll with it.
Speaker 8: It's pretty funny.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah we did.
Speaker 2: Yeah, teach was awesome.
Speaker 3: When the Mandela effect we won. We want we did,
Speaker 3: we want it several times.
Speaker 1: Okay, I'm gonna ask this question in a sensitive way
Speaker 1: because I said some stuff and I said, I hope
Speaker 1: you guys tour. I've been saying it forever, but I said,
Speaker 1: when you do do this tour, don't put out any
Speaker 1: new music for a bit. What are you guys doing
Speaker 1: you do a new music? I just gotta be honest.
Speaker 1: I said that I want to come forth, and I
Speaker 1: was like, we want you to tour. You have to
Speaker 1: get back together like we demand it, but don't put
Speaker 1: out new music. When you do it, let's celebrate you.
Speaker 1: Then after that tour can put out new music.
Speaker 3: Well, as you well know, it gets harder and harder
Speaker 3: the longer you're together and the longer you were touring,
Speaker 3: because you compete against yourself. There's so many great songs
Speaker 3: in the catalog to play on radio that putting another
Speaker 3: new one out just to put a new one out
Speaker 3: is seems a little an exercise and futility.
Speaker 1: So you said you're not putting a new stuf.
Speaker 2: We're not.
Speaker 1: We're own to perfect.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 1: The only way I would say that, I think you
Speaker 1: need to after this tour. But I think this tour
Speaker 1: is about the celebration and you guys get back together.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and you know it's really to celebrate the fans
Speaker 5: forgiving us absolute career.
Speaker 4: I mean, this is the.
Speaker 5: Silver you believe. And we're not just talking about our
Speaker 5: hair color. I'm talking about twenty five years.
Speaker 1: What's like the moment you look back at jodn have
Speaker 1: you guys' career and it could be at your height,
Speaker 1: or it could be when you first started to pop
Speaker 1: or when you first played your first show together that
Speaker 1: you look back and you're like, man, if there was
Speaker 1: like one moment they show, like show me a Rascal
Speaker 1: Flats moment they showed this moment, what would it be?
Speaker 8: Well, I mean it's like got a top ten list
Speaker 8: for that, you know. But in all honesty, I truly
Speaker 8: mean this. Our work with the Vanderbilt Children's Hospital through
Speaker 8: the years, it's been extraordinary. I mean, that's that's our legacy,
Speaker 8: and just being able to have a platform, to be
Speaker 8: able to raise the kind of money we're able to
Speaker 8: raise for the hospital and to meet so many amazing families,
Speaker 8: so many amazing children. There's some sad situations obviously, but
Speaker 8: a lot of positive ones too.
Speaker 1: For me, that's like the ultimate you know, do you
Speaker 1: guys ever do Letterman?
Speaker 8: Yeah, the coldest stage and in any theater in the.
Speaker 3: He picked the most random song off of our record
Speaker 3: because he didn't like any of our singles. He picked
Speaker 3: this I think Still Feels Good is the one that
Speaker 3: he wanted and.
Speaker 1: Played an album cut on the It was the title
Speaker 1: the album to.
Speaker 5: The ship there but.
Speaker 1: On the show what about Leno? Do you ever do Leno?
Speaker 7: Oh?
Speaker 2: Yeah, right after Joe Don showed his rear end.
Speaker 1: Yeah, tell me that I got us on Leno? Where
Speaker 1: was your d got it? Got it?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 5: We did all of them. Conan, I mean, I don't
Speaker 5: there wasn't any that we didn't do.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've still got the plaque from Leno that says, hey,
Speaker 3: Rascal flats more butts, more showers.
Speaker 1: They give you a placticea to that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's that's better than the year you just want
Speaker 3: to hanging right in my living room the butt.
Speaker 1: Okay, well, I'll just use an example like FGL. Eventually
Speaker 1: they'll get back together. Eventually. They don't like each other
Speaker 1: right now, yeah, but they'll get back together at some
Speaker 1: point because they miss it or they miss like I
Speaker 1: don't know, do you recommend that they like somehow try
Speaker 1: to keep some sort of relationship because eventually it's gonna
Speaker 1: happen regardless. You know.
Speaker 3: It's interesting. I've had a chance to sit down with
Speaker 3: the Restless Road guys and several different duos over the years,
Speaker 3: and especially the past four years, and my advice is
Speaker 3: always to nurture your relationship and take care of it first,
Speaker 3: because a lot of crap from the outside can get
Speaker 3: in and convolute it. And if you don't stay tight,
Speaker 3: and you don't stay honest with each other and care
Speaker 3: about each other, you run the danger of letting the
Speaker 3: business tear you apart and it's the truth of it.
Speaker 2: So with Gary and I it's a little different. We're families.
Speaker 3: We're families, so we've always found a way to stay
Speaker 3: connected and always found a way to care about each other.
Speaker 3: And I think we found a jode on somebody that
Speaker 3: feels as close as family. So you know, it's not
Speaker 3: all a Betta Roses. When you're in a band for
Speaker 3: twenty plus years and you've got three distinct personalities and
Speaker 3: different opinions, you're gonna have disagreements. But I feel like
Speaker 3: we did a very good job for the most of
Speaker 3: the amount of time we were together of trying to
Speaker 3: put our personal pursuits to the side and serving Rascal
Speaker 3: Flats as a whole. And I think that's why we
Speaker 3: were able to have that longevity. Now, we never had
Speaker 3: somebody that cared enough about us to say, why don't
Speaker 3: you guys take a year off, recharge yourselves, go and
Speaker 3: do some things that you guys want to do personally,
Speaker 3: get those out of the way, and then come back
Speaker 3: together in a more healthy environment. We got on the
Speaker 3: machine and the machine did not stop. So I've been
Speaker 3: grateful for the past few years because it's made me
Speaker 3: appreciate what we were able to do together and what
Speaker 3: kind of ride we were actually on together. And now
Speaker 3: I can come back to this and go, this is
Speaker 3: really really special and it's a big part of my
Speaker 3: life that I've missed extremely.
Speaker 2: Over the last few years.
Speaker 3: But I'm glad we had this time because Gary got
Speaker 3: to do what he should have been doing, his own music,
Speaker 3: his own shows. Joe don concentrated on his personal health
Speaker 3: and his well being, and I'm so proud of him.
Speaker 3: I have to say that what this man has come
Speaker 3: through on the other side of it is remarkable, and
Speaker 3: he's a completely different person, and I really really am
Speaker 3: proud of what he's been able to do. And then
Speaker 3: I got to do some things that I've always wanted
Speaker 3: to do. I always felt like I would be good
Speaker 3: on the other side of the business, and I've been
Speaker 3: able to try that with Red Street. So I think
Speaker 3: all of us are stronger now and we have a
Speaker 3: greater appreciation for it, maybe than we did in twenty twenty.
Speaker 1: Joe, No, I think I saw a tweet from you.
Speaker 1: It's like, hey, Sobriety, I liked it, whatever it was,
Speaker 1: Oh thank you, Yeah, I remember liking it. Pushing a
Speaker 1: little heart so what is your situation now? How long
Speaker 1: you've been so.
Speaker 8: Three years and it's kind of crazy. For my birthday,
Speaker 8: September thirteenth is my actual sober date as well, So
Speaker 8: we got three years and it's it's different, I'll tell
Speaker 8: you that. Grateful to be sober today and present and
Speaker 8: like and I never dreamed that was possible, and I
Speaker 8: wouldn't have been able to do that without this time off.
Speaker 8: I mean, this past five years, I've just you know,
Speaker 8: I've needed it for a long time and it was
Speaker 8: just finally time and some really great friends in Nashville
Speaker 8: got me the help I needed and I'm forever grateful.
Speaker 1: Once Gary was in my house and he spit in
Speaker 1: a mountain dew can. First he cut the top off,
Speaker 1: like the hillbilly he is, yeah, with the pocket knife,
Speaker 1: and then he was there for a bit and he
Speaker 1: just spitting in the can, Spend in the can, spend
Speaker 1: the can, just left it And like a day later,
Speaker 1: my wife's like, why is there a mountain dew can
Speaker 1: with a bunch of like dip spit in it?
Speaker 5: Yeah, told her you should have told her you have
Speaker 5: an issue that you haven't been telling her.
Speaker 1: Oh that's the greatest memorabilia in Rascal Flat's history, like.
Speaker 2: I have on your man you carry spit tune.
Speaker 1: I think people don't understand how a country you guys
Speaker 1: are at times, because again you mentioned the hair earlier,
Speaker 1: like you guys were pretty.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I think there were a lot of years
Speaker 3: you mentioned it where people didn't know what to make
Speaker 3: of us. We were a little on the pop side
Speaker 3: and scared some folks. But when we'd get into a
Speaker 3: conference room on the radio tour, people would I remember this,
Speaker 3: people would drill us and they'd go like, you guys
Speaker 3: don't really know country, and then we'd start singing Merle Haggers.
Speaker 1: Oh you're as hillbilly as as anybody around here. It's
Speaker 1: just all the hair. Was like, Wow, you guys are
Speaker 1: so pretty.
Speaker 5: I feel pretty with our hair.
Speaker 1: Look at that.
Speaker 2: That's pretty right there.
Speaker 1: Yeah that's me. That's a that's a cutout. I like
Speaker 1: to look at myself and go okay. So here's all
Speaker 1: I want to say. Rascal Flats back on tour. Starting
Speaker 1: off in February, When do you start practicing together? When
Speaker 1: do you start doing the rehearsal?
Speaker 2: Boy in January?
Speaker 1: Any Pyro, Yeah, we've.
Speaker 3: Taken all of kisses stuff away from them now that's
Speaker 3: they're retired.
Speaker 5: All the bills and whistles?
Speaker 1: Have you done any of that? You gotta play all
Speaker 1: the hits, right? Can you get all the hits in?
Speaker 2: We figured we'd do a whole bunch of new material.
Speaker 1: And Letterman show. Can you play all the hits in
Speaker 1: one concert? All the number ones?
Speaker 3: I started kind of scratching out set list the other day,
Speaker 3: and it was fun because we've been away from it
Speaker 3: from a minute for a minute, so some new things
Speaker 3: occurred to me that I never really saw before, and
Speaker 3: they were sitting right in front of me. So I'm
Speaker 3: excited for us to get back in and start hammering
Speaker 3: away at it. And I hope Gary doesn't get mad
Speaker 3: at me for putting too many songs in a row
Speaker 3: that he has to scream.
Speaker 1: What's the hardest song to sing for you? Gary?
Speaker 5: Oh?
Speaker 1: Every night you have to sing it. It's but either
Speaker 1: it gets difficult because you're doing it night after night,
Speaker 1: or it's just hard to do it once.
Speaker 5: I'm out be one.
Speaker 4: Yeah, probably, that's always for sure.
Speaker 8: That's one of the highest ones.
Speaker 5: That's why we don't do it live.
Speaker 8: But they're all demanding.
Speaker 2: I mean you mean we haven't we are doing that.
Speaker 1: You can do that Rolling Stones and they get people
Speaker 1: on the back to play the stuff. Yeah yeah, and
Speaker 1: just like do that. You ever heard somebody impersonate you
Speaker 1: or start to sing like you and they sound just
Speaker 1: like you?
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, that's true. Shame d J does.
Speaker 1: But like you know the guy from Journey, Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: he sounds the guy. This things now sounds just like Yeah,
Speaker 1: ever heard anybody online?
Speaker 3: This thing is just like hey, you know what the
Speaker 3: drummer Dean Castronovo is even better than our now is
Speaker 3: and singing in the Journey Oh yeah you know him?
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, as a major like I wouldn't have
Speaker 1: known that.
Speaker 3: Well we he was. He's been in Journey for a
Speaker 3: long time. We did a Crossroads with him, and also
Speaker 3: the supergroup that I put together back in twenty twenty.
Speaker 3: He played drums on that record and it was remarkable
Speaker 3: to hear him sing that Journey stuff. I mean, they
Speaker 3: offered him the gig before Rnell and he was like, no,
Speaker 3: it's too hard on a singer.
Speaker 1: I want to tell everybody, tickets go on sell tomorrow,
Speaker 1: get them, and so yeah, get the life. As a
Speaker 1: Highway Tour. Go to Rascal Flats dot com. Laura Lane
Speaker 1: and Chris Lane coming out with you guys. Go watch
Speaker 1: them because if you go and they sell out every show,
Speaker 1: they'll do more shows. You heard it here for Thank
Speaker 1: you guys. I love to see you guys back together.
Speaker 1: I'm super happy for it and I'm really looking forward
Speaker 1: to seeing you guys back on the stage. So they
Speaker 1: are Rascal Flats. Love you, Bobby, Thank you, and there
Speaker 1: you have it. Thanks for listening to the special episode
Speaker 1: all about Rascal Flats. Go watch them if they come
Speaker 1: to town. It's such a fun, energetic show with so
Speaker 1: many songs that you know and also songs that you
Speaker 1: knew but you're like, oh yeah, I forgot they sang
Speaker 1: that one. It's awesome. All right, Thank you. Be sure
Speaker 1: to subscribe to the Bobbycast wherever you're listening, and also,
Speaker 1: if you do not mind and you have a few seconds,
Speaker 1: go rate this five stars.
Speaker 6: All right, Thanks guys, thanks for listening to Bobby Cast
Speaker 6: Production