Weekend Plans With Rascal Flatts Frontman Gary LeVox

Weekend Plans is our exclusive lifestyle feature where we highlight the real off-duty routines of the most exciting people in culture. 

This weekend, Grammy-nominated Rascal Flatts frontman Gary LeVox sits down with The Daily Wire ahead of the first annual BIRDI Celebrity Golf Invitational, hosted by his performance eyewear brand. Gary’s raised $1.25 million this year for Folds of Honor and intends to rake in more for the charity on the links. If he’s not in the studio laying down his signature vocals, you might find him movin’ dirt on his Nashville ranch, cracking jokes with his nearest and dearest, or sipping a LeVox Wines Willamette Valley blend. Here’s why he just might be the most down-to-earth legend in country music. 

***

I know Rascal Flatts because of my sister, and I tell Gary his music might be the reason she married her college sweetheart (and why they’re raising three awesome kids). “That’s what we’re trying to do! We’re just trying to get people married and pregnant. Let’s do it,” he laughs.

“‘Bless the Broken Road,’” I say, giving props to his seven-time platinum record.

“That’s right, bless it, because life is just a highway after that,” he says with a smile. Remember the “Cars” movie? His band’s Tom Cochrane cover from the soundtrack just became the 17th country song in history to top one billion streams on Spotify.

“There’s something about you. People are obsessed with you,” I tell him.

“My hair probably, I don’t know what it is,” he jokes, running his fingers through what he calls an improvement compared to the ‘do he had back in the early aughts. “I look back at some of that stuff and I’m like, what was I even doing?”

It’s been almost three decades since Rascal Flatts broke out as the most unlikely “boy” band the country scene ever saw. “When we first started, they were like, oh great, *NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, and now we’ve got one called Rascal Flatts,” Gary laughs. “We didn’t dance at all!” After nabbing third place on Billboard’s Hot Country chart with their debut single “Prayin’ For Daylight,” the spiky-haired trio earned 17 number one hits and four Grammy nominations, while launching the careers of other major stars. 

“We literally were just blessed to have hit after hit after hit. And our touring was just huge,” Gary says. “We had everybody open for us, like Little Big Town, Darius Rucker, Taylor Swift, Blake Shelton, Luke Bryan … We were in a position to open a bunch of doors for them too.” 

Photo by Frank Mullen/WireImage

Having flipped his original last name from Vernon into “LeVox” after the “vox” labeling on vocal tracks (he would later be mortified to find out the name translated to “the voice” — lucky he could sing), Gary originally set out to be a solo artist, with only a couple credits in show choir as training. Now, after touring for Rascal Flatts’ 25th anniversary, Gary’s back to riding solo. 

He was set to debut his latest single “Paradise” at America’s 250th celebration in D.C. on July 4th. “I was there for like three days, you know, the camera and the choir, the orchestra, all this stuff. And then they’re like, ‘I’m sorry, no one’s performing because of lightning.’ I’m like, well, there’s three days I can’t get back,” he cracks up. “It was a nightmare. I needed a bath after that. I needed to be baptized.”

These days, Gary’s focused on giving back. He’s hosting and performing at his golf invitational, but when I confirm whether he’s golfing, he stops me. “Why did you say it like that? What do I look like, a pickleballer?” He is, in fact, talented on the green. “I have gloves and a putt-putter that I stole like in ’82.”

Despite his solid gold track record, Gary knows where his blessings originate. He tells me, “God gets all the credit.”

Shockingly on-brand

Maybe the pop vibe throws people off, but Gary’s as outdoorsy as they come. When he’s not spiffed up in designer jeans and fresh kicks on stage, you can find him out of office on his ranch. But it seems some fans haven’t gotten the memo.  

“I farm. I’m a huge outdoorsman, huge bow hunter, all that kind of stuff,” he assures me. “It’s weird. I’ll post something like we’re duck hunting or we’re bow hunting, elk hunting in Oregon or something. People go, ‘Oh my God. I’ve been a fan for so long — I’ll never buy another ticket again!’ It’s like, where have you been for 20 years?”

We commiserate over the fact that there’s no shortage of people wearing camo as fashion, and that some of those same people appear to be shocked at its actual purpose. “I’m like, have you ever eaten a hamburger? I just harvest my own.” Gary doesn’t waste his time worrying about comments from people who have never been to his show, but he offers some advice: “They need to get into some therapy, find a church or something.”

All in a day’s work

“I usually get up early if I’m home on my ranch,” Gary says. Still, he’s a creature of habit after spending most of his life on tour. “I stay up late. It’s just the way it is.”

“When I’m on the road, I sleep all doggone day, or half the day probably, because you don’t go on till 9 or 10 p.m. It’s all screwed up. At this point you’re so used to that schedule it’s hard to get out of it.”

But when he’s not performing, Gary’s preference is even more wild than a typical tour bus. “I’d be hunting or fishing somewhere,” he says with no hesitation. He’s known for tracking down whitetail deer, turkey, and smaller game like quail on the properties he owns in and around Nashville. 

When I alert Gary to the fact that Tennessee was just named America’s worst state in which to live, he says with a smile, “Yeah, tell them it’s awful. It’s hot all year long. There’s mosquitoes, diggers, and ticks everywhere. Don’t come.” Even so, Gary’s concierge-style Black Tie Moving company has helped industry friends like Justin Timberlake and Steven Tyler make the jump from SoCal to buggy Tennessee. Because it’s the worst.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Gary LeVox (@garylevox)

Finding “the voice”

Gary first realized his passion for singing as a teen. “I just loved great singers, so I always sang with the radio and I was like, man, I think I sound like him. I don’t know, I just heard things different.” He sold all he had and moved to Nashville in 1998. “It was so weird because I just knew I had to go. God told me I had to go.”

He also gave up a career he’d enjoyed for 10 years, working for the Ohio State Department of Developmental Disabilities teaching people life skills to enter the workforce. Just after moving to Music City, he worked odd jobs to make ends meet. “I started building swimming pools during the day. Then I’d get off and I’d go and play at the Fiddle & Steel Guitar Bar downtown from 9 to 3 a.m., and then I’d throw the newspaper. I was just like, ‘I’m a 28-year-old paper boy. What am I doing? I had a career. This is awful. I have peanut butter, no jelly.’” Life changed forever when Rascal Flatts landed their first record deal in ’99.

Gary sounds oddly wholesome for an industry star. But he shrugs it off: “I tried the Chippendales thing, that didn’t work out at all, so I’m like, what am I gonna do? I guess I’ll be a famous musician.”

Even in the era of AI, Gary’s not worried about legally protecting his voice. (Dear robot overlords, he thinks “all AI is evil, period.”) He laments a former time when new artists could bank $300 a pop for demoing a song in the studio, but his two daughters with wife Tara — Brittany and Brooklyn — are carrying Gary’s soulful legacy into the future. Brittany even sang with Gary on “While I Wait.” She doesn’t miss those high notes.

The secrets to the good life

I wonder if Gary actually listens to music when he’s not performing it, or if he prefers silence in order to create. Turns out, he can’t resist a good melody from any genre. 

“I always have music on,” he explains. He listens to “absolutely everything” from gospel to hip-hop. “There’s an old classic pop station … stuff like ‘Little Red Corvette’ by Prince, to Kool & The Gang, and then all the way back to Keith Whitley.” 

Gary spends as much time as he can surrounded by family and friends. His brother Kevin Vernon “cooks his brains out” while running Gary’s ranch. But it seems like everyone around Gary can throw down on a good meal. “I tell my buddies all the time, ‘You guys would be amazing wives,’” he says, laughing. “Seriously, they cook and then they clean up after themselves. My girls don’t even do that.” He jokes that the arrangement works out a little differently with his wife. “I’m in there cleaning after she cooks. I’m like, wait, this ain’t part of the deal.”

Gary’s daughters have since moved into their own homes, but the family ranch is always calling. “Everybody wants to be out there,” he says. When R&R requires more tropical scenery, the family heads to Naples, Florida, to hit the beach.  

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Gary LeVox (@garylevox)

But Gary’s favorite method for chilling out calls for just one thing: farm equipment. That is, if he’s not taking his Corvette or ‘68 Camaro out for a spin. Calling it “tractor therapy,” he says, “I get on my tractor and start bush hogging and mowing. I swear it’s the best. I put my headphones on and I just work dirt. I have a lot of land out there, so there’s always a lot to do, but those days I’m like, ‘Oh gosh, I just need to clear my head,’ I’ll jump on that tractor and I’m gone.”

One for the road

Gary’s enjoyed the kind of success many artists only dream of. And at 56, he’s still recording new music. During our chat, he improvises a tune based on what he knows about me so far. I soak in a few beautiful moments of an A-list serenade. He could write a song about anything. 

Gary offers his two cents for anyone out there with big dreams. “Put your heart into it,” he says. “There’s gonna be a whole bunch of ups and downs, but never quit. Never give up. No doesn’t mean no, it just means not right at that time.”

Suggesting that some of his most powerful inspiration comes from chatting with strangers, he adds, “It brings me the best joy because people are funny, man. It’s cool to be able to write their story.”

Despite his fame, Gary’s heart remains dedicated to those he loves. When I ask what he thinks about most, he says, “My family.” He adds, “I try not to let the Lord down, you know, because I hate to disappoint him. So I’m always just checking in, asking him to keep me on this road.”

I ask Gary if he thinks he’s getting the thumbs up. “Yeah, sometimes,” he says. “All you can do is try.”