Country Icons Rascal Flatts Complete First Tour In 5 Years With Sound Image

Rascal Flatts have made a huge impact on the country rock/pop genre since their breakout hit Prayin' for Daylight won them an army of fans. Members Gary LeVox (lead vocals), Jay DeMarcus (bass), and Joe Don Rooney (lead guitar) went on to win over 40 awards and undertook countless tours with audio support from Sound Image.

Yet, following a 20-year artistic partnership, the trio planned to disband after a 2020 farewell tour that never was. Its cancelation, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, meant the band didn’t get to perform their goodbyes and went their separate ways in 2021. This year, however, Rascal Flatts made a comeback to the live circuit with their veteran audio crew in tow, overseen by Nashville-based Sound Image Account Executive, Everett Lybolt, who has had a relationship with the band for almost the entirety of their career. For the band’s 25th anniversary tour, in support of collaborative album ‘Life Is a Highway: Refueled Duets’, six months of shows across North America filled venues as if they’d never left.

"In 1999 I got a phone call from my friends Trey Turner and Doug Nichols, managers of a newly formed band called the Rascal Flatts. Doug came by my office to call in favor as they had almost no budget!” recalls Everett. “I gave him a rack with 6 channels of Shure PSM 600's and a few microphones, along with the phone number for a FOH Engineer by the name of Pete Varcoe. We worked out some really creative financial scenarios for their equipment in those early, developmental stages so it's been wonderful to see the band become one the highest-grossing touring country groups of all time."

Josh “Dude” Marcus, Production Manager comments: “Working with this artist has been incredible. To have a successful tour, it all starts at the top and trickles down. There is so much talent and history with this band; all three of them welcomed me with open arms and open minds, which allowed me to be a better Production Manager and in turn, part of a project that was not only special, but downright fun!

“Joining us with experience, teamwork, and leadership, Sound Image continues to prove that these are the cornerstones for their staff. They have provided an exceptional team and product which allows us to operate efficiently and effectively, day in and out. Sound Image having a base in Nashville is also a huge benefit because it’s the city that most country music touring crew call home. Nashville lends itself geographically and economically to an incredible hub to work out of, prepare, and supply country artists with the necessary gear and staffing to make their tours successful.”

For FOH Engineer Jon Loeser, success on his part begins with creating a great vocal blend: “Rascal Flatts fans really want to hear the words, and to sing along with the songs they know and love.”

For frontman Gary, a classic Shure SM58 microphone hits the spot: “It has great off axis rejection and has always sounded great. Jay and Joe Don use the Shure SM39 headset mics. They also sound great and stay in place well during the show.”

Jon likens this mix to a dynamic rock band: “Big drums and shredding guitar, with some keys, steel and banjo to round it out. I need the mix to translate clearly across any venue, and the added reflections when we do indoor shows may force a little more EQ on the system or the vocal group and may mean I’ll use a little less reverb on the vocals. Overall, I want a clear yet powerful audio experience for everyone at every venue.”

This happens via an Avid S6L system, his platform of years. “I really like that I can run plug-ins that I’m familiar with from the studio directly on the console. I use a mix of plug-ins from McDSP, Empirical Labs, Oeksound, and Waves. I feel that the workflow is very intuitive to me, and the sound quality is amazing. I also use some outboard gear on my vocals and master bus. My four vocal inserts chain comprises an RND 5045 into an Empirical Labs Distressor into a BSS DPR-901II. My master bus inserts into an RND MBT, then into a GML 8200. I love having physical knobs and instant access to my most important items, plus there is some saturation that just can’t be done with plug-ins.”

Systems Engineer Cole Connell joined the tour after the PA design was in situ thanks to Paul Fuerstenberger’s initial design and went on to work closely with Jon to achieve the desired system response. He says: “Jon would always walk the room with me to make sure coverage was even and timed. He also trusted me to tune the system as I saw fit and would make any personal changes, he needed on his LM44.”

The tour ran a JBL system; A12's on the mains, A12's on the auxes, and A8's for side hangs. For low end, S28's were flown in the air with a further ground set up. The front fills were A8's in stacks of two, sitting on top of the subs.

Cole continues: “The setup was a straightforward 270-degree arena rig, but we flew the subs beside the mains 30 degrees offstage which lessened the power alley and got lower end to the upper sections on the sides. We had a middle stack of subs which due to the thrust was unable to be on the same axis as the other subs so it sat at the tip of the thrust, and I would just delay it back to be in time.

“Coverage is always the first thing I look at. I always reach out to the PM/TM and make sure that what we're bringing can realistically cover the entirety of what they're expecting to sell, and then some. I'm primarily concerned with making sure we have enough boxes to maintain good wavefront integrity. I also love diving headfirst into platforms I'm unfamiliar with and seeing what makes them tick, that's the fun of being an SE! Once you learn the workflow, any modern system can be tuned to sound great.”

He furthers: “Sound Image gave me the hardest working PA techs, Vivi Deluca and Josh Harper. Without them, none of this would have been possible. This was my first time working with a JBL system and thanks to all the JBL pros at Sound Image, any questions I had were answered. I learned so much from this tour as a result, and really grew as an SE.”

The drive was handled by a XTA MX36 mix switcher, 3 x Lake LM44's, and Riedel Rocknet for signal distribution.

“Everything started with JBL Venue Synthesis which allowed me to accurately map and tweak physical and electronic parameters before boxes were in the air,” adds Cole. “I really liked the frequency response probes that you could drop at any point in the venue as well as the off-axis coverage toggle. I used the internal DSP of the Crown I-Tech 12000's to get the frequency response as even as possible across the venue, then I would use Lake to get to my desired target curve. The 3 x LM44's allowed me to process every hang individually. I had a Behringer DS2800 to take the 2 x spare outputs on my Lake and turn them into 4 x stereo pairs or 8 x mono outputs. It made it easy to get a quick signal to video, house, or anybody that needed it.”

Heading up monitors and balancing Audio Crew Chief duties for the team is Stuart Delk, a longtime Rascal Flatts touring crew member who relishes working for both the artist and the vendor.

“I strive to keep the band happy while maintaining budget and service for both,” Stu says. “Having inside access to the Sound Image and Clair Global network, I can leave the prep phase from the shop with absolute confidence that the tour will be technically seamless in the audio department. That is also my goal as a Dept Manager with the company; I want every engineer who comes into the Nashville office to leave with 100% satisfaction that they have the tools they need.”

At stage left, Stu’s Yamaha PM7 desk has 72 auxes and 144 inputs, of which he utilizes the majority. “When I have the option, with stereo ear mixes, I send effects stereo in addition to returning stereo. I have seven band members on stage, four tech mixes, production / show producer mixes, two guest mixes, the Video Director mix & a FOH mix for backup.

“Most like to hear a mix of everything on stage and prefer themselves a little louder in their own mix. They have recently incorporated a ‘cues’ input from the tracks rig along with the normal click for timing. This added track gives a ‘heads up’ for any incoming song transitions.”

Stu is also running Shure PSM1000’s IEMs and tackling the busy RF environment. “Even though we’re not running a high count of transmitters - around 60 - we work in a challenging spectrum space these days, so it’s great to have the best tools & support from Sound Image to assist with the deployment.”

As Crew Chief, Stu also reinforces that outside of technical specifications, understanding boundaries on tour is imperative to its success. “We must treat each other with respect and empathy, and communication is crucial. How we help each other as a team, daily, to achieve the goal set before us means leaving no grey areas. We need to support each other, bounce ideas off one another and be open to all ideas for improvement.”

Post the stripped back live production of their summer festival season, which included a hometown visit to Nashville’s CMA Fest, a show met with nostalgic euphoria where it all took off, FOH Engineer Jon Loeser reflects on the epic reunion so far.

“Sound Image is like family to me; I worked there for 15 years before going freelance and they always do a great job of prepping and packaging my systems. The inventory has always been great at Sound Image, but it has only gotten better since the Clair Global acquisition. This was a great tour with an amazing group of people, and it has been an honor to be a part of bringing this iconic music to people again after five years.”

With their 2026 Life Is a Highway tour freshly announced, the next chapter of Rascal Flatts’ welcome return will see the band head out with Sound Image again in January.

Photo Credit: Evan DeStefano