Rascal Flatts’ Gary LeVox Hands Over the Reins to a Higher Power on Powerful Solo EP ‘One on One’
Gary LeVox has been here before.
Thanks to a career that has already spanned 20-plus years, the Ohio native has felt the frenzy that comes with the release of a long-awaited new album many, many times.
But he’s never felt something quite like this.
“Yeah, this feels completely different,” LeVox tells Taste of Country on the day before the May 21 release of his new EP, One on One. “I mean, this is my first solo record and my first gospel record.”
The other obvious truth? This is also the first one without his Rascal Flatts bandmates Jay DeMarcus and Joe Don Rooney by his side.
“It was so freeing to go, ‘All right, this is what I want to do,” LeVox states. “Nothing was hard about this record like it usually is. I wasn’t going through thousands of songs. I mean, the song process is hard enough. There is a lot of good songs and then there are great songs, but those incredible songs are tough to get. And then, when you have three people’s opinions on them, that makes it even tougher. I had full rein. If I loved it, I did it. I didn’t have to ask anyone.”
Take, for example, LeVox' decision to include the impressive voice of his 20-year-old daughter, aspiring music artist Brittany LeVox, on one of the true standouts of the EP titled “While I Wait.”
“I loved it as soon as I heard it, so I was playing it a bunch,” LeVox says of the song written by Ethan Hulse, Colby Wedgeworth and Tauren Wells. “Brittany started singing the song around the house, and one day I was just like, ‘I want to put you on this thing,’ and she was like, ‘Daddy, are you serious?’”
Yes, he was totally serious. The father-daughter duo with talent pouring out of their God-given genes soon headed into the studio, making for quite the emotional moment for LeVox.
“As a dad, it was hard not to cry,” LeVox says of hearing his daughter’s voice for the first time on the finished track. “I’m just so proud of her. She’s a woman now. She’s not the little kid just singing to Justin Bieber anymore," he adds with a laugh. "It’s crazy.”
Another crazy good collaboration on the album is on the enlightening song “All I See,” where LeVox and rising country artist Breland swap amazing vocal runs while making some gospel magic.
“There is some singing going on, on that song,” LeVox says with a laugh of the song that he wrote alongside Breland and Matthew McVaney in a span of just "twenty minutes or so."
“He sang his face off. I was like, well shoot, I’m going to have to go back in and re-sing some of my stuff," he says with another laugh. "He was coming in hot.”
Add that to the post-pandemic-worthy anthem “The Distance,” which is heading to Christian radio on June 11, along with the current country radio success of Rascal Flatts’ possible swan song, “How They Remember You,” and LeVox has no doubt that a higher power continues to be in play in his life.
“The Lord’s hand is all over this,” shares LeVox, who says he has also already completed a solo country album he hopes to release this fall. “That’s how it is when you let God take the reins. You don’t take them back. Let Him have his way. He’s always got a purpose and a plan.”