{"id":582404,"date":"2015-04-23T12:30:56","date_gmt":"2015-04-23T18:30:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/?p=582404"},"modified":"2015-04-23T12:30:56","modified_gmt":"2015-04-23T18:30:56","slug":"rascal-flatts-reveal-they-fired-band-members-to-evolve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/articles\/rascal-flatts-reveal-they-fired-band-members-to-evolve\/","title":{"rendered":"Rascal Flatts Reveal They Fired Band Members to \u2018Evolve\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Rascal Flatts received an ACM Awards Vocal Group of the Year nomination this year, after being noticeably absent from the nominees list for the past several years. The trio, made up of Gary LeVox, Jay DeMarcus and Joe Don Rooney, felt the nod was proof that they were heading in the right direction \u2014 and that some tough choices they made had paid off.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe sat down at the end of last year, and it was a very difficult decision. We decided to make a change with three of the personnel we had,\u201d said Rooney.\u201cWe love the guys we had to let go, and it was a very, very difficult decision, but Jay and Gary and I got on the same page together, got on one bus and talked about it, and it\u2019s what we felt like we needed to do to evolve and continue to evolve with our sound live. It\u2019s like you do in the studio, you\u2019ve got to evolve with your albums, and I felt like it was time to do that with our live show.\u201d<\/p>\n

The guys, who said that they decided to make the change in advance of their recent Las Vegas residency, acknowledge that they at one time thought their reign as one of the biggest acts in country music might be over.<\/p>\n

\u201cA few years back, we looked at each other and thought we might be finished,\u201d Rooney adds. \u201cWe made some really tough decisions back then, and here we are, another three, four, five years down the road, and it feels like we got a little momentum now. Probably more so, in certain ways, than we ever had before.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Flatts\u2019 2014 album,\u00a0Rewind<\/em>, landed at the top of the charts, but the record\u2019s first two singles were not the radio successes that some of their previous hits were; the second single, \u201cPayback,\u201d failed to reach the Top 20. But instead of allowing themselves to be discouraged, the three men found an inner strength, which made them even more determined than ever to prove that they still had something to say.<\/p>\n

\u201cFinding and keeping that hunger [that you have] when you have nothing, when you don\u2019t have a song on the chart and you haven\u2019t sold a record, you\u2019ve got to rediscover that in some ways,\u201d DeMarcus says. \u201cWhen you\u2019ve had success, [sometimes you] rest on that and go, \u2018Well, we\u2019ve done that, I\u2019m not as hungry,\u2019 so it\u2019s been fun to reinvigorate ourselves and find new hunger and new drive, to still want to be relevant in this business. We feel like we are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rascal Flatts will kick off their Riot Tour 2015 next month. Tickets are available on their website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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