Rascal Flatts Set Release Date for New Album

It's been a week of big announcements for Rascal Flatts and their fans. One day after learning that they'd be inducted as members of the Grand Old Opry early next month, news surfaced that the trio announced a new album would be in stores next April.

"April 3 of next year it'll be out," guitarist Joe Don Rooney told Billboard at last weekend's iHeartRadio Music Festival in Las Vegas. A new studio album would be the band's ninth, following 2010's 'Nothing Like This.' Now that their successful Flatts Fest tour has finished, the group say they'll spend some time with family and then return to the studio.

"I'm actually going to rehab," bassist Jay DeMarcus jokes. "It's been a long summer."

On Tuesday night, Vince Gill interrupted the group's performance at the Grand Ole Opry to extend a membership invitation. Rascal Flatts were shocked, but tearfully accepted the honor.

“All I could think about was being a little kid sitting in the nosebleed section of the Grand Ole Opry,” DeMarcus told reporters afterward. “Really, the first thought in my mind was, ‘I cannot believe that I used to come here on family vacations and watch the Opry with my mom at the very top.’ To be on the stage, and then to be asked to be a member of the Opry, it had all come full circle. I think it just hit me, the flood of emotions, all at once, and it was tough to keep it together.”

They'll be officially inducted on October 8.