Currently out on their 2026 Life Is A Highway Tour, the Rascal Flatts sat down with Katie McNeal for her Audacy show, Katie & Company, to talk about life on the road, their 2025 reboot album, and, of course, take a trip down memory lane.
Katie posed the question, “What is on the Rascal Flatts rider? Is there anything fun on there?” For anyone not aware of the luxuries of being famous, a rider is essentially a list of requests or demands that an artist may want at a show, whether it be food, drinks, dressing room requirements, etc. Insanely enough, no matter what is put on this list, it’s basically a contractual addendum in lieu of them performing, and the production team will do whatever it takes to meet their needs.
For the trio of Gary Levox, Jay DeMarcus, and Joe Don Rooney, this, of course, sparked a memory from their craziest request during their 2010 American Living Unstoppable Tour. DeMarcus responded, “well probably that goat for Darius Rucker,” to which they then emphasized, “yeah we had farm animals.”
Levox recalls that they, in fact, had quite a few goats and pranked their fellow special guest, Darius Rucker, who joined them on the final leg of the tour. “We put it in Darius Rucker’s dressing room, but the joke was on us cause it ate all the furniture, so we had to pay for the furniture.”
All good pranks come at a cost, unfortunately, but the load of goats did make for a memorable moment at one of their last shows in Columbus, Georgia. In a YouTube video from the debacle, it shows a mix of goats big and small, all on leashes, being carted into the “Alright” singer’s dressing room.
While Rucker’s on stage performing his opening set, the band lets the creatures run amuck turning the backstage into a petting farm. Then, after all the goats have caused more than enough damage, they prance them onto the stage during Rucker’s cover of Hank Williams Jr.’s hit, “Family Tradition.”
The band also clarified that they’ve got the simple stuff on their rider too to fuel pre and post-show, like veggie trays, fruit trays, and multiple bottles of Grey Goose (aka all the necessities). In LeVox’s case, he said, “I have chicken wings and hot dogs in my room every night. All my friends they’re just rednecks and they’re just like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me. Free hot dogs and chicken wings.‘” As for Rooney, he says there’s without a fail always 10 random pizzas that mysteriously show up on his tour bus. To which Levox chimes in passionately, “And six of them are cheese? Who eats just cheese? Ya, please eat this so no one goes to the bathroom for the next 3 weeks.”
If there’s one thing about this 26-year-old band, they apparently know how to live it up while on tour. Their 21-stop trek on the Life Is A Highway Tour is soon to wrap up at the end of February with three last stops in Lexington, KY (Feb 26), Pittsburgh, PA (Feb 27), and Buffalo, NY (Feb 28).
Watch the full interview:
Watch the prank: