Joe Don Rooney and Jay DeMarcus attend the ACM Honors in Nashville in August 2021.Photo:Jason Kempin/Getty Images
Jason Kempin/Getty Images
Newly unsealed documents from formerRascal FlattsguitaristJoe Don Rooney’s ongoing divorceproceedings are shedding new light on his contentious split — and his departure from the beloved country trio.
Rooney’s former bandmatesJay DeMarcusandGary LeVoxboth sat for depositions in June 2022, more than a year after the guitarist filed for divorce from his wife Tiffany in January 2021 after 15 years of marriage.
While speaking in court, DeMarcus, 52, said his conversations with Rooney — who at the time wastwo months out of rehab— were “brief,” but that he was eagerly awaiting a conclusion to his divorce proceedings.
Joe Don Rooney and estranged wife Tiffany.Taylor Hill/FilmMagic
“He called me and just said that he couldn’t wait to get it over with, and it was painful for him and for the children, and that he hated that it had to come to this between [him] and Tiffany because he still cared about her,” DeMarcus said. “And you know, just how painful the whole process had been, and he hoped that it was over sooner than later and it didn’t seem to be headed in that direction.”
Rooney and Tiffany, a 49-year-old model and actress, were married in 2006, and share son Jagger, 15, and daughters Raquel, 12, and Devon, 8. The two are set to go to trial this week in Nashville after years of he-said, she-said court filings in which both have admitted to adultery.
Meanwhile, in DeMarcus' deposition, he also addressed Rascal Flatts' breakup after more than 20 years as one of country music’s most popular trios, and spoke specifically to aPEOPLE article published in October 2021in which singer LeVox, 52, said he “wasn’t happy that Joe Don quit” the band.
Rascal Flatts performs in 2019 at NASCAR Night at the Opry in Nashville.Terry Wyatt/Getty Images
Terry Wyatt/Getty Images
Asked whether he thought Rooney broke up the band, DeMarcus said it was a “tough question to answer,” and that the band had become “very strained” in its final years.
“I think Joe Don was the first one to be brave enough to put it out there that he was tired of the way things had been the last few years,” DeMarcus said. “So he shared with us that he wasn’t sure he had the energy or the emotional energy to deal with some of the things we had been dealing with on an ongoing basis.”
The bassist, who now runs his own label, Red Street Records, added that it didn’t feel it was correct to say Rooney had quit, as all three members had quit at one point or another; he said LeVox did so “three or four times over the last 15 years.”
“So Joe Don did quit the band. As you may or may not know, we had a farewell tour planned, and the pandemic sort of robbed us of that opportunity,” DeMarcus said. “So I think that, because all of that happened, and frustrations mounted during the pandemic, and we ultimately decided to cancel the tour, that that led to some of Mr. LeVox’s frustrations and led to some of the reasons why he may have said some of the things that he did in that particular article that you’re referencing.”
Joe Don Rooney, Jay DeMarcus and Gary LeVox attend the 2018 CMT Music Awards in Nashville in 2018.Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic
Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic
He continued: “To me, I knew that all of us were frustrated, so what he said in an article I don’t think is a real reflection of how it really came down… I think time and egos and money and everything else changes people.”
LeVox also discussed the end of the band during his deposition, and said that he recalled a 2019 conversation with Rooney in which the musician said he was leaving in order to spend more time at home.
“I think he came in and just said that he wanted to be home more. He said he wanted to be home with Tiffany and be able to take care of Devon, and he didn’t want to do it anymore and needed a break,” LeVox recalled. “He said, ‘Look, I’m burnt out, so I just want to be home with Tiffany and the kids, and I just need to be home more.’ It was disheartening, to make it 19 years and not get to 20 years when we’d already been planning it for a couple months.”
The singer said he wished that Rooney had not quit Rascal Flatts, and that he had not spoken to his former bandmate about his divorce.
Rascal Flatts performs on the CMA Country Christmas special.Mark Levine via Getty Images
Mark Levine via Getty Images
“I love him… and we pray for him all the time. And Joe Don’s tough. I mean, he’ll be able to pull out of it and get his life back together,” LeVox said. “He’s got a great family and his mom and dad and everybody’s great support for him.”
Among the hundreds of documents filed in their divorce, Tiffany claimed that Rooney’s alleged “habitual alcoholism and drug use” led to their split, and that his struggles culminated in hisSeptember 2021 DUI arrest(Rooney was arrested and charged after he crashed his vehicle in a tree line in Franklin, Tennessee. He pleaded guilty in June 2022, and was later sentenced to two days in jail).
In documents of his own, Rooney denied Tiffany’s accusation, but admitted to using cocaine “on a few occasions.”
DeMarcusrevealed in a recent appearanceonSavannah Chrisley’s podcast that Rooney recently marked 19 months of sobriety.
“He’s better than I’ve heard him in 10 years,” he said. “He’s enjoying having some peace and learning how to live again without his addiction and so I’m really, really, really proud of him and where he’s at right now.”
source: people.com
