CURRENT SINGLE: “How They Remember You”
Rascal Flatts just released their Greatest Hits album, celebrating their 20-year career as a band, which is obviously bringing up a lot of old memories. One incident Gary LeVox will never forget is when Rascal Flatts released the video for their song “I Melt,” which featured a shot of Joe Don Rooney from behind as he was naked in the shower, which actually helped give their career a big boost. “The ball was startin’ to roll,” says Gary, “and then who’d have known that it would have taken Joe Don’s butt to really blow those songs out of the water… it was funny because everything blew up, and that’s when we started gettin’ on talk shows and Leno and Letterman and all that stuff. It took Joe Don’s butt to blow up ‘I Melt’ and get us on late night TV.”
Gary jokes that he and Jay DeMarcus have been kissin’ Joe Don’s butt ever since, but Jay DeMarcus revealed that the “I Melt” video almost caused him to quit the band. When we asked him if there had been any debate or discussion about which of the guys would be shown naked in the shower, Jay said, “No. As a matter of fact, there was no discussion. I didn’t even know there was a nude scene in it. I stormed off the set because I was very angry that we were gonna put nudity in our video. That is the truth. I almost quit the band that day, because our manager, Trey Turner, did not tell me, and they sprung it on me at the shoot.”
If you don’t know, Jay graduated high school from Tree of Life Christian School in Columbus, Ohio, before attending the very conservative Lee University, a private Christian College in southeastern Tennessee. During college he was a member of a Christian music group, so when he first found out about Joe Don being naked in the shower for Rascal Flatts’ “I Melt” video, he says, “I thought, my Lord, I’ll never be able to go back to Lee University again or stick my head back in a Baptist church anywhere once this comes out. So, I didn’t know that it was goin’ down,” cause he laughs and says, “I think they knew what my reaction was gonna be.”
Fortunately, Jay didn’t quit the band, and 18 years later Rascal Flatts has a whole bunch of awards, accolades, #1 songs and career achievements to show for it, and they’re currently climbing the charts with their latest single, “How They Remember You.”
Rascal Flatts – I Melt video :28
Gary LeVox – “The ball was startin’ to roll, and then who’d have known that it would have taken Joe Don’s butt to really blow those songs out of the water. I mean, it was just awesome to see Joe Don in the shower with no clothes (Joe Don laughs). So, it was funny because everything blew up, and that’s when we started gettin’ on talk shows and Leno and Letterman and all that stuff. It took Joe Don’s butt to blow up ‘I Melt’ and get us on late night TV. So, we’ve been kissin’ his butt ever since.”
Rascal Flatts – Jay almost quit :30
Jay DeMarcus – “No. As a matter of fact, there was no discussion. I didn’t even know there was a nude scene in it. I stormed off the set because I was very angry that we were gonna put nudity in our video. That is the truth. I almost quit the band that day, because our manager, Trey Turner, did not tell me, and they sprung it on me at the shoot. And I thought, my Lord, I’ll never be able to go back to Lee University again or stick my head back in a Baptist church anywhere once this comes out. So, I didn’t know that it was goin’ down, cause I think they knew what my reaction was gonna be.”