Rascal Flatts is a popular country music band that originated out of Nashville, Tennessee, in the late ’90s. The group had three members: Gary LeVox served as a lead vocalist, Joe Don Rooney as the lead guitarist and background vocalist, and Jay DeMarcus as the bass guitarist and background vocalist.

At the height of their popularity, Rascal Flatts were a prominent component of the country music genre. They released several studio albums and won numerous awards, including a Grammy. However, the group split in 2021. Although they have since reunited, many fans still want to know why they originally broke up. Here are all the details.

Here’s what happened with Rascal Flatts

DeMarcus spoke about Rascal Flatts’ breakup during an appearance on Savannah Chrisley’s Unlocked podcast. The group was initially supposed to retire after a farewell tour in 2020. However, following the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, the tour was scrapped. It was ultimately never rescheduled, and the group split without an official final goodbye to their fans. At the time, LeVox reportedly claimed that Rooney had left the group, and that had led to the end of the band.

“I knew that all of us were frustrated, so what [LeVox] said in an article I don’t think is a real reflection of how it really came down,” DeMarcus clarified. He added that Rooney “was the first one to be brave enough to put it out there that he was tired of the way things had been the last few years,” DeMarcus recalled that Rooney made it clear to them that “he wasn’t sure he had the energy or the emotional energy to deal with some of the things we had been dealing with on an ongoing basis.”

Fortunately for fans of Rascal Flatts, the group reunited in 2024 and performed at the Commander in Chief Ball during Donald Trump’s second inauguration. They have since put out new music, and their 11th studio album, Life Is a Highway: Refueled Duets, will come out on June 6, 2025.