CMT Blog: Rascal Flatts

One of my favorite songs right now is Eli Young Band’s “Always the Love Songs.” The video’s not bad either. But I had no idea just how popular it was until I found out that it has been consistently beating out videos from Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus, Rascal Flatts, Kenny Chesney and Brooks & Dunn. That’s been happening on CMT Power Picks, where viewers watch and then vote for their favorite of the two videos being pitted against each other. So while this simple, on-the-road video may not have had the production budget of the others, it still rises to the top when the fans get their say. The band’s new song, “Radio Waves,” was just released, and I wonder if that one will have a repeat performance on CMT if and when they make a video.

I saw Night Ranger this weekend. Yes, the rock band from the ’80s best known for hits like “Sister Christian” and “Don’t Tell Me You Love Me.” And after their 90-minute concert (actually concert is probably the wrong word because they were just playing a little festival in a little suburb), I found myself craving anything but rock. Anything with a lot of twang, steel, fiddle, banjo and a redneck theme. Again, anything but rock. So I’ve been quenching that thirst for country with songs like these:

“Give It to Me Strait,” Tim McGraw
“Very Last Country Song,” Sugarland
“Tackle Box,” Luke Bryan
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I am begging for every country music fan — a Rascal Flatts fan or otherwise — out there to pray for Jake Fleming. He’s in a coma after getting hit in the face while waiting for a taxi following a Rascal Flatts show in Texas last weekend. Fleming, 20, is from Newport Beach, Calif. The attack caused bleeding and swelling in his brain, according to reports, and now he’s in critical condition at Dallas’ Baylor University Medical Center. So the Fleming family needs your prayers. And the Dallas police need your help. If you know or saw anything, please call them. The suspect who hit Fleming is a white man, about 20 years old, 6-foot-1 and about 190 pounds. He fled the scene in a white party bus. And please, those of you who run these giant concert venues, please step up the level of security after concerts. Fans need security to direct things at the start of a show, but even more so, after the show when all that alcohol has taken its toll.

Start your diet now. Because come June 23, you will want a taste of this. It is being called the Unstoppable Breakfast on Denny’s Allnight Rockstar menu. For $6.50, you can potentially gain 10 pounds in one meal. Enjoy biscuits, country fried steak, eggs, cheese, gravy, hash browns and bacon. But this early morning meal is actually available all night long — from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. So guess where fans will be headed after every Rascal Flatts show? Don’t think, though, that Denny’s just slapped the band’s name on the menu. Gary LeVox, Jay DeMarcus and Joe Don Rooney actually went into the Denny’s kitchen with Chef Andrew Dismore to create this proper post-show feast. Levox even said, “After spending many late nights eating at Denny’s after shows, we jumped at the chance to create a dish customers will really enjoy.”

Truly, there are no fans like country music fans. Thursday night (June 11), I saw the real truth behind this statement. After only an hour into the first show in the CMA Music Festival’s nightly concert series at Nashville’s LP Field, we were told bad weather was headed our way and to take shelter — underneath stairways, awnings … anywhere we could to stay dry. Brooks & Dunn had already performed their set, and Reba McEntire had sung a couple of songs, but there was no promise that the music would even return that night. As directed, I — along with thousands of other concertgoers — took refuge. Some covered themselves with garbage bags, others with Mike’s Hard Lemonade cardboard boxes they found lying on the ground to stay warm. Many opted to drown any disappointment with more alcohol. Yet despite the turn of events, attitudes remained hopeful. But after the third hour underneath the stairway, I was sure the night would be canceled soon. Oh, I was wrong. Way wrong.

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Country music fans and artists alike were playing the waiting game late Thursday night (June 11) after CMA Music Festival organizers put their nightly concert on hold because of thunderstorms heading toward Nashville. Brooks & Dunn performed their set at the show, the first of four nightly concerts at LP Field, and Reba McEntire was able to sing two songs before the audience was told to find safer quarters inside the concourse of the open-air stadium. Also on the bill for Thursday night’s show were Dierks Bentley, Brad Paisley, Darius Rucker, Julianne Hough and Rascal Flatts. By 11 p.m., many fans decided to leave the concert while thousands of others waited to see if the show would resume as heavy rains and lightning arrived in the city. Earlier Thursday, the first daytime concert of the festival was delayed when another heavy storm moved through Middle Tennessee.

Sounds like the Rascal Flatts tour kicked off very nicely and that there will be something in it for everyone. Classic Flatts, new Flatts and a few cover songs. They even did “Backwards,” which is probably one of their very best tunes and must be a favorite when they do it live. Plus, there was reportedly a well-rounded set from opener Darius Rucker. I, for one, love his Learn to Live album so much that I wish he had time to do the entire thing during his opening slot on stage. So I don’t know how I feel about all the Hootie & the Blowfish hits he did (“Hold My Hand,” “Let Her Cry” and “Only Wanna Be With You”), but it sounds like the St. Louis crowd loved every side of Rucker.

I’m too late for this because I already bought my Rascal Flatts tickets. But if you are more of a last-minute kind of fan, you will dig this. All you have to do is answer some trivia questions — like where Joe Don Rooney and Jay DeMarcus met, the city where their tour launches and how many ACMs they’ve won — and you might win VIP tickets, backstage passes, hotel, airfare and serious spending money. I tried it, just to see what would happen, and I only got a 60 percent. In any other world, that would be a failing grade. But in Rascal Flatts’ world, it qualifies you for entrance into JCPenney’s Meet Rascal Flatts contest. You can play up to three times a month, and there are plenty of other little prizes to go around, like Rascal Flatts/American Living T-shirts. So go for it. Use that encyclopedic knowledge of the band for something worthwhile.

If you act right now, you can save about $10 on lawn seats for an amphitheater show near you. This promotion is Live Nation’s attempt to either lend a hand to the financially-troubled music fans out there — or quickly sell out the lawn seats nobody wanted anyway. Effective immediately, Live Nation will waive the service fees on lawn seats until midnight Wednesday (June 3). If you miss this chance, you can try again next Wednesday because this “No Service Fee Wednesday” will run through the summer, making Wednesday the best day to snatch up Toby Keith, Rascal Flatts, Brad Paisley and Jimmy Buffett tickets. Even Kenny Chesney lawn tickets for Thursday night (June 4) at Darien Lake, N.Y., can be had for just $42.50 (they cost $39.50, but even without the service fee there is still something called a ticket fee for $3). Now if we could just get Live Nation to sponsor a No-Grossly-Marked-Up-Beer-Prices night, we’d be all set.

The list of performers keeps getting longer and longer for the CMT Music Awards taking place June 16 in Nashville. It now includes Lady Antebellum, Kellie Pickler, Darius Rucker, Trace Adkins, Jason Aldean, Dierks Bentley, Toby Keith, Brad Paisley, Rascal Flatts, Sugarland, Taylor Swift, Keith Urban and Def Leppard. But now, it has also been announced who will hand out a few of the giant belt-buckle awards. That would be Kid “He’s Cool Because He Wears Aviators INSIDE” Rock, Bill “Politics Rock My World” O’Reilly, Ted “Drugs Suck but Guns Rule” Nugent, Luke “Jake Owen’s Long-Lost Twin Brother” Wilson and Randy “Kind of Pitchy for Me, Dawg” Jackson. I, for one, cannot wait and am packing my bags and counting the days already.