(AUDIO) RASCAL FLATTS GOT BACK TO MAKING RECORDS THE WAY THEY USED TO

Rascal Flatts’ latest album, Back To Us, is reminiscent of some of their earlier albums and gets back to a familiar and favorite sound for a lot of their fans.  Joe Don Rooney thinks it has to do with the freedom they were given while making the album.  He says, “You know what’s amazing is self-titled Rascal Flatts came out June 6th of 2000.  The same rules kind of applied to this project, you know, we had time to work on it, we weren’t pressed. Big Machine and Scott Borchetta, everybody said you have full autonomy just take your time, whenever you feel like it’s ready.  And so we took a good close to two years to do this whole project.”

He admits that on a couple of their more recent albums they were rushed and were getting them recorded whenever they could squeeze it in.  “There were times making albums, probably the past five or six years, where we were so busy on the road,” says Joe Don, “Gary’s having to go sing when I can’t be there and Jay couldn’t be there. I have to do guitar parts and singing harmonies when he and Jay couldn’t be there. But this project we were together most of the time, if not all the time and that’s more than practically any other project I can remember since the first album.  And so I think that’s part of the reason why this one harkens back a bit.”

Rascal Flatts’ latest album is the title track of their latest album, “Back To Us.”

Rascal Flatts – same and different from first album  :49

Joe Don Rooney – “You know what’s amazing is self-titled Rascal Flatts came out June 6th of 2000.  The same rules kind of applied to this project, you know, we had time to work on it, we weren’t pressed. Big Machine and Scott Borchetta, everybody said you have full autonomy just take your time, whenever you feel like it’s ready.  And so we took a good close to two years to do this whole project.  And there were times making albums, probably the past five or six years, where we were so busy on the road, Gary’s having to go sing when I can’t be there and Jay couldn’t be there. I have to do guitar parts and singing harmonies when he and Jay couldn’t be there. But this project we were together most of the time, if not all the time and that’s more than practically any other project I can remember since the first album.  And so I think that’s part of the reason why this one harkens back a bit.”