Extended Q&A Part 3: Joe Don Rooney of Rascal Flatts
Rascal Flatts, from left, Joe Don Rooney, Jay DeMarcus and Gary LeVox, accepts the award for top vocal group at April’s Academy of Country Music Awards. (Associated Press photo)
We’re wrapping up Rascal Flatts Week here at BAM’s Blog, and the big day has finally arrived. Rascal Flatts, which includes guitarist Joe Don Rooney of Picher, will play at 7 tonight at Buffalo Run Casino Amphitheatre in Miami, OK, just three miles from Rooney’s hometown.
For more information on the show, go to www.buffaloruncasino.com.
Here is the third and final part of the extended Q&A with Rooney, who talks about their upcoming show with Oklahoma native Vince Gill, the party to celebrate the band’s latest No. 1 hit, “Here Comes Goodbye,” and other famous people from Ottawa County.
Q: Do you ever get used to it? Does it ever get normal to win awards, walk red carpets, have No. 1 albums, things like that?
A: No. (laughs) And I don’t think it ever will, and I think it’s because of where I came from. It’s because I’m Oklahoma born and raised, and in a small town, and I don’t think it should make sense to me. Because if it did, I think it wouldn’t be as special to me.
You know, ’cause every time we’re on that stage and win an award, or we just had a No. 1 party … for ‘Here Comes Goodbye’ and it kind of hit me again. …
And it was cool, I’m going to kind of expound on this a little bit. It’s so cool because yesterday BMI and ASCAP had writers on this song ‘Here Comes Goodbye,’ it’s the first time they’ve had a No. 1 party where they both threw the party together. ‘Cause they hardly even get along let alone be in the same room together and (they) threw a party. So it was really cool to have BMI and ASCAP in the same room with their two writers for ‘Here Comes Goodbye’ for a No. 1 party for both the writers’ first No. 1.
You guys probably know the kid Chris Sligh that was on ‘American Idol’ a couple years ago, he wrote ‘Here Comes Goodbye’ as one of the co-writers. And it was really cool to see him and to meet him, and for him to get to celebrate it was first No. 1, it was great. He actually found out it went No. 1, I can’t remember the exact date … it was the day of his birthday, which I thought was pretty cool. And … at the No. 1 party, the other kid, Clint (Lagerberg), it was he and his wife’s anniversary, and I thought, man, that’s great
But just being able to have our 10th No. 1 single out of 25 singles is pretty good. Not too shabby.
Q: It sounds like it’s a fun trickle-down thing, too, because you guys reap rewards but then there are so many others who share in it, like those two writers, your producer and everyone else?
A: You know what, a lot of people are affected by it. You’re absolutely right and that’s a great observation ’cause I haven’t really thought about that enough, I don’t think. Yeah, there’s a lot of pieces to this puzzle and there are a lot of people that are affected by things that are Rascal Flatts-involved.
And it’s awesome because that’s part of the puzzle, too, that’s wonderful because we cut outside songs. We will always live and die by cutting the best song period, and generally that’s an outside song, an outside writer (rather than one written by the band members).
So, it’s cool to be able to open up and cut something like ‘Here Comes Goodbye,’ which was written by two guys who are virtually unknown in the business. And actually Chris Sligh … in his little speech said that. He goes, ‘Man, we wrote this song, we demoed it the second day after we wrote it, and the third day Rascal Flatts had it on hold.’ He said, ‘For them to even want to think about cutting a song that was written by two guys like me and Clint, virtually unknown in this business, just blows my mind.’
With that point, we told him after that, we’re like, ‘Man, here’s the deal, man, it’s a great song.’ I don’t care who wrote it, it doesn’t matter who wrote it. You know, if Kim Jung Il wrote it we’d probably cut it. No, I wouldn’t go that far. Never mind. I know we wouldn’t. (laughs)
Q: It sounds like your fellow Ottawa County country performer Keith Anderson: He kept trying to get his foot in the door and knocking on the door and like football coach Bum Phillips said, ‘Let’s just knock the door down.’ And he did.
A: (laughs) Just knock the door down, you know what, it’s right. Hard work and perseverance sometimes really pays off in big ways, and Keith’s a great guy, what a sweetheart of a guy. I’ve known him for a lot of years obviously, and so proud for him, too, because he has worked very hard. You know, he lived down in Texas for many years and got to be friends with a lot of people in radio before he was even an artist in Nashville. And he worked his tail off and I’m so proud for him and his success.
Every now and then, we get to run into each other and see each other and it’s great to be able to talk about all of this and to just catch up with him. Because he’s somebody who can absolutely relate to where I come from and where I’ve been, and I can do the same for him. It’s good to have that ’cause there’s … not too many people in Nashville … who can relate to me like that and vice versa. So, I’m really proud for him, he’s going to do well for a lot of years, no doubt about it.
Q: It’s funny that we had to big country artists from Ottawa County, who grew up about 10 miles from one another. (Anderson is from Miami.)
A: (laughs) Yeah, still, still living 10 miles from each other. That’s kind of funny, isn’t it? I know, it is special, but there’s been wonderful people come from that area, no doubt about it, for so many years, just through history.
I had a hero that I never got to meet obviously, but I learned so much about him named Steve Gaines (Lynyrd Skynyrd, who died in the band’s 1977 plane crash). He and his sister Cassie (one of the band’s backup singers) grew up in Miami. And I started getting into Skynyrd obviously at a young age, and I had a friend who knew Steve pretty well and gave me a bunch of these, it was back when there were cassette tapes still, gave me a bunch of these cassette tapes of these recordings – some of you probably don’t remember that, cassette tapes (laughs) – … of his old band, Crawdad, that a lot of people don’t know about.
And man, I used to listen to these old club gig recordings, and man, I just remember his playability was so amazing. He could really stretch out and his singing was great, too, I mean, a lot of people don’t realize he was a fantastic singer. And I was real inspired by him at a really young age, and I still have those copies of those tapes and stuff. And now since then, my friend, I’ve run into several times the last 10 years, he’s given me all these CDs now, so I have it on CD, which is even better.
But yeah, people like that that come from that area are just fantastic. … There’s so many people that have come from that area that have done so well. Like (OU football player) Steve Owens, jeez almighty. Wonderful talent. I’m proud to be an Okie, no doubt about it, and proud to be from that area.
I mean, I used to run in Joplin, and Joplin was a big city. (laughs) I used to drive over to Joplin because that was the big city – they had the mall. Tulsa was a little bit too far of a drive down south, so Joplin was always 20 minutes away. Tulsa was always a weekend trip, you gotta go there and spend a couple of days, get a hotel. But Joplin you just bust over and get home pretty easily. (laughs) …
Q: Anything else?
A: Let’s keep our fingers crossed that the rain doesn’t come and get us. Hopefully, the weather gods have our back.
Q: I heard the show out there about four years ago was incredible, the atmosphere was great.
A: Yeah, it’s a cool place to play, man. Again, like you said, it’s been like four years since we played there, but hopefully, they’ve got the traffic thing figured out. I think they shut down the interstate at some point and ticked off a lot of people.
(A venue representative on the call popped in to say that the parking and traffic issues for the amphitheater have been worked out since that show four years ago.)
Q: Have you ever played some place like Wrigley Field before? That’s one of the dates on your tour schedule.
A: Oh, man, no, and yeah we’re doing that I guess July 18. Wrigley Field. That’s gonna be incredible. I mean, there’s only so many venues in the United States you can play anyway, and we’ve played about all of them at this point, minus a few, and Wrigley Field is one of them. And there’s been, I think, three other artists in history play Wrigley Field. You know, I think it’s like Jimmy Buffett, and I think the Police and I think U2 played there.
So, really excited about that, and what I’m really excited about too is we got Vince Gill playing with us, you know, one of my obvious heroes. And Darius Rucker (opening act for Rascal Flatts’ current tour), of course, he’ll be with us. … He’s fabulous guy, and another guy that loves to play golf, so we’re hoping that we can get out there and get some golf done in the morning.
Q: Will you guys get to come in early? On your schedule, I didn’t see a tour date for a few days before the Miami show.
A: Well, the only problem is we’ve got CMA Music Fest, and we’re doing Thursday (last) night and they want us to play at 9:30 at night. And so that’s Thursday, so as soon as we play and come off that stage in Nashville, I’m gonna get on my bus and head west. It’s about a 10-hour drive, so probably get there in the morning around 10 or so.
Q: I’m not very familiar with the venue, will the weather be a problem? Is it going to be a rain-or-shine show?
A: Well, usually it depends on how hard it’s raining, if there’s lightning involved, that’s always kind of difficult obviously with the stage and stuff. So, I would say if (there’s) lightning, it’s going to be tough. But a little rain ain’t gonna stop us. It ain’t gonna stop me. I’ll get up there and do something. But yeah, let’s just hope the weather permits. Because that’s gonna be a great night, a great day, for sure.
-BAM
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
No comments yet.
Leave a comment