These days, country music is all over the map in terms of its sound and style, but early on in Rascal Flatts’ career, their pop country sound was considered to be pushing the boundaries. But for Gary, Jay and Joe Don, they were always just cooking up a sound rooted in country, with a lot of their other influences sprinkled in. Gary LeVox says, “I think we’re just being true to our roots and what we grew up on and yeah, we had different influences. But I mean all of our first musical influences were country and bluegrass and gospel and that’s what we were born and raised on and that’s just a part of our DNA and part of who we are.”
As the guys got older and were exposed to even more music, Gary says, “We ventured out and we were kids of the 80s and so we loved all the rock stuff and R&B stuff and I think it’s what made our music so different was just kind of a big crock pot of all of our influences, but country being the root.”
These days you can still hear all those flavors with a country music base in Rascal Flatts’ music, like their latest single, “Back to Life.”
Rascal Flatts – always coming back to country :32
Gary LeVox – “Well I think it’s the way that we live our life and I think we’re just being true to our roots and what we grew up on and yeah, we had different influences. But I mean all of our first musical influences were country and bluegrass and gospel and that’s what we were born and raised on and that’s just a part of our DNA and part of who we are. And then as we got older and could make our own decisions, we ventured out and we were kids of the 80s and so we loved all the rock stuff and R&B stuff and I think it’s what made our music so different was just kind of a big crock pot of all of our influences, but country being the root.”