Rascal Flatts Shares Their Silver Lining of Thanksgiving During a Pandemic

With many travel plans halted for Thanksgiving 2020, there may be a few fewer people at some holiday tables next week — but for Rascal Flatts, that may not be a bad thing. “You know what’s gonna be great, is we’re all gonna be thankful we don’t have to let those annoying family members in our houses because of social distancing,” Jay DeMarcus told the group’s record label.

He also discussed a side dish he’s not a particular fan of, adding, “And you can keep that nasty a— green Jell-O at your house. No one eats it anyway. I’m sorry, we’re social distancing.”

In January, Rascal Flatts announced that they would be taking a step back after 20 years as a group, celebrating with a farewell tour that ultimately wasn’t able to happen. “Quite frankly, 2020 has really sucked for everybody,” DeMarcus told PopCulture.com and other media earlier this year. “We are taking it day by day. It’s a moving target. There is not really a timeline for how and when venues are going to open back up and what the social distancing measures are going to look like, so we’re playing the wait-and-see game right now. We don’t want to leave people hanging and just go away. We certainly want to go out and celebrate with them.”

“As to when and how that’s going to happen, we simply don’t know yet,” he continued, “but we’re really, really focused right now on what the next steps are going to be as far as getting back on the road and getting in front of the fans and not only celebrating 20 years, incredible 20 years with them, but also giving them a chance to see us for what may be one of the last times we’re around.”

DeMarcus and his bandmates Gary LeVox and Joe Don Rooney have plenty to be thankful for from their years together, and DeMarcus shared that the thing he’ll miss the most is simply spending so much time with his bandmates.

“I’m going to miss the times that we shared together that no one knows about, that no one sees,” he explained. “The looks at each other on the stage, the moments that we look at each other and we know that we’re at our best. The moments that we’re riding on a bus together somewhere and early in the morning on the way to some Today show or Good Morning America at 4:30 to soundcheck. The time in the trenches that no one knows about that the three of us have shared together that have bounded us together for life is what I will miss the most.”

“You can’t make up for time spent together. No one can do that, and we’ve seen the best of each other,” he added. “We’ve seen the worst of each other. We’ve held each other through the saddest of times, through love and loss, and it’s a brotherhood. It has always been a brotherhood.”