Rascal Flatts Explain Reason for Farewell Tour: 'We Haven't Had a Break in 20 Years'

While Rascal Flatts fans are already in mourning that the trio must announced their farewell Life [...]

While Rascal Flatts fans are already in mourning that the trio must announced their farewell Life Is a Highway Tour, for band members Gary LeVox, Jay DeMarcus and Joe Don Rooney, it's a chance for them to finally take a much-needed rest after working non-stop for the past two decades.

"We haven't really had a break in 20 years," LeVox shared on CBS This Morning when announcing the tour. "We haven't had time to reflect. Our fans have given us so much. We've achieved so many milestones in our career."

"We're really saying thank you," added Rooney. "Thank you for all these years and all these memories we've stockpiled. It's our way of showing our appreciation and with a humble heart, just saying, 'Thank you, thank you, thank you."

Rascal Flatts won't rule out the possibility of making more music in the future, but insist for now their only focus is their upcoming tour.

"We don't have any plans right now," DeMarcus maintained. "We want to take the year and focus on a celebration and thanking our fans for 20 wonderful years. You know, road years are like dog years. You age seven times [faster]."

Part of their reason for wanting to step away from the spotlight is that they've already accomplished so much, it makes it harder to keep moving forward.

"You get to a certain part in your career where, we've been blessed to have so many hits, so many No. 1s, that you actually compete with yourself on radio," LeVox noted. "And it's tough, year after year, to outdo the tour that you've done, previously the year before. It's going to be nice to celebrate; we're going to take 12 months to celebrate our rear-ends off with the people that have given us their everything.

"We have four generations of people that come as families to our shows," he added. "So we're just going to be able to do that, and spend time with them and all of our fans across the world."

The news of the farewell tour might be disappointing to Rascal Flatts' fans, but the guys want to use the year to show the fans how important they are to them.

"We're really looking forward to getting to spend this entire year loving on our fans, and thanking them for allowing us to have the most amazing career over the last 20 years," DeMarcus said in a statement. "While it is of course bittersweet, it is so important to us to celebrate what our music has meant to their lives, as well as what the fans have meant to us. There is no sadness here, just new chapters, new journeys, and new beginnings. Rascal Flatts' music will live on forever, because of our fans, and this year is all about them!"

Find tour dates by visiting RascalFlatts.com.

Photo Credit: Getty / Scott Dudelson

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