Rascal Flatts’ Jay DeMarcus reveals the real reason behind the band’s breakup

Jay DeMarcus, former bassist of country band Rascal Flatts, is still reeling from the split, which was not part of the plan.

The band, which consisted of singer Gary LeVox, 52, and guitarist Joe Don Rooney, 47, alongside DeMarcus, 52, bid farewell in 2020, having released 10 studio albums between 2000 and 2017.

DeMarcus appeared on Savannah Chrisley’s podcast Unlocked with Savannah where he touched up on the band’s breakup.

He shared that they had “an amazing run” but they were all “burnt out” by the end of it.

DeMarcus recalled that every time they would do a record, they would do the press and the tour and this went on non-stop. DeMarcus added that if they cared for their mental health in between. The band would still be together.

“For us the thing that happened is we burnt the candle at both ends for so long,” he explained.

“It was a never-ending cycle and it did work, but it’s hard to put the machine down or put the brakes on when everything is cruising along and going full-speed ahead. For us, we should have taken a break at some point, just a year off to kind of collect ourselves, hit the reset button.”

By the time Rascal Flatts was preparing for their farewell tour, DeMarcus said they’d reached the “point of exhaustion,” and wanted to start focusing on other things after more than 20 years together.

“In a lot of ways, I feel like I’m still mourning the loss of the Flatts, even though there wasn’t an official breakup. Most of my adult life, it’s all that I’ve known,” he continued. “To have that stripped away from you, not on your own terms, was a very painful thing. And to not have known in March the 7th of 2020 when we were in New Jersey doing our last show that that was the last time the three of us would be on stage together makes me really sad to think about. To not have had time to give it its proper goodbye and to really savour those moments…”