Fortunately, GP was able to meet up with Flatts guitarist Joe
Don Rooney in Salt Lake City, Utah, just weeks before the release
of the band’s latest album, Unstoppable [Lyric Street], so searches
weren’t necessary to protect the band’s livelihood.
And what a livelihood it is. The
Nashville-based trio has seen every one of its
five studio albums go multi-platinum. And
the band’s youthful exuberance, impressive
vocal harmonies, and polished mix of anthems
and ballads have earned it nine No. 1 hits in
as many years, as well as crossover success
with songs such as 2006’s remake of “Life Is
a Highway” for the animated film Cars.
Despite what some might expect based
on his band’s mainstream appeal, Rooney,
a 33-year-old from Pitcher, Oklahoma, is
an unabashed yet soft-spoken guitar junkie
whose influences include Stevie Ray
Vaughan, Jeff Beck, Vince Gill, and Chet
Atkins. Just hours before he was to perform
for a huge crowd, Rooney was visibly stoked
to talk about all things guitar in his firstever
GP interview. True to his nice-guy
reputation, he was a gracious host as he
provided sneak previews of select tracks
from Unstoppable by blasting them through
his iPhone into the ceiling-mounted speakers
in his plush tour bus. He and guitar
technician David Graef then provided an
up-close-and-personal tour of his rig—
which is centered on a pair of Bogner 101B
heads, a stable of lust-worthy vintage and
custom Gibson solidbodies, and a Taylor
714ce acoustic—before inviting the GP camera
onstage as he blasted out licks at sound
check. (Visit GuitarPlayerTV.com for this
and other exclusive footage.)
But Rooney wasn’t just excited to talk
about his new album and his pair of delectable
1963 SG Juniors—he also wanted to
set the record straight. “I don’t think a lot
of people realize that Jay [DeMarcus, bass
and keyboards] and I are really players and
true musicians,” he explained with an easy
smile as he cradled a black Les Paul Studio
in the comfort of a recliner. “Early on, there
were a lot of misconceptions that Rascal
Flatts was put together by label execs or
some management firm in Nashville. But
that’s not it at all. We started singing together
and playing in clubs back in 1999, sometimes
for eight hours a night, and just got
lucky and got a record deal. I mean, we write
our own charts, we produce bands on the
side, and we love to play. A lot of people know
that now, but I want even more to know.
And I hope they come out to a show and
check out what we do live—because that’s
the deal.” True to his word, that night Rooney
settled all questions about his ability when
the lights dimmed after the very first song,
and with a cranked sunburst ES-335 in hand,
he conjured deliciously “brown” tones for a
furious duel with fiddle player John Jeansonne
that was part “Eruption,” part Charlie
Daniels, and part Paganini—and 100 percent
badass.
Rooney received some guitar instruction
from his father but was largely self-taught
before a major shift a few years into Flatts’
career helped him grow by leaps and bounds.
“My dad played a lot of Chet stuff growing
up, and he passed the guitar-playing torch
to me. The whole thumbpicking thing is
really fun to try to do,” he says. “But I’m
pretty well rounded, too. When I was 14 or
15, I studied with a couple of cats and really
started getting into scales. But when I got
into the blues, I realized that there are no
rules. There’s not really a scale idea there.
You just close your eyes and play—any note
can work if you just bend it right. That’s
what Chet Atkins used to say—you’re always
a half-step away from greatness.”
Despite Rooney’s longstanding openmindedness
to all styles of music, he credits
his biggest progress as a player to legendary
session guitarist Dan Huff. Besides helping
the band get a record deal—he recommended
them to Lyric Street records in 1999 after
hearing a three-song demo—he also took
Rooney under his wing when he came
onboard as the band’s producer for 2006’s
Me and My Gang.
Things were touchy for Rooney, then 30,
around the time that Huff came into the
picture. As musicians, he and DeMarcus felt
trapped even as they appeared to be living
the dream. “We had a rough time getting to
play on our first three albums, because of
the way things run in Nashville. It’s much
faster if you get the ‘A’ cats [studio musicians]
in and get it done.” Frustrated with only getting
to flex his vocal chops on record, Rooney
risked industry backlash and took things into
his own hands by calling Huff to see if he
was interested in working together. Rooney
believed it was the only way for him and
DeMarcus to get out of the box they’d been
placed in. According to Rooney, Huff accepted
without hesitation, and he’s produced every
Flatts album since then.
“It’s sensitive stuff in a business when
you’re friends with producers and you don’t
want to cause disruptions in your relationships,”
he explains. “But we wanted to bring
more of what we’ve all got to the table on
the records, and I knew Dan would take the
chance with us, because he just gets it.”
According to Rooney, one of Huff’s primary
objectives from the outset was to bring
the band’s live energy to their studio tracks.
“He’d been to a few of our shows, and he
wanted to bring in that live atmosphere.”
Given the radio-friendliness of Flatts’ material,
naturally Huff didn’t just crank up amps
and let Rooney wail. Huff’s guidance was
as nuanced as one would expect from his
past studio work with everyone from
Michael Jackson to Faith Hill to Megadeth.
“He opened my mind so much when it
comes to tonality and playing to it. I was
always that kid who plugged into whatever
amp was there and tried to play every Van
Halen lick I knew. In the studio, it’s not
about that. It’s about finding that magic
tone that fits in the track, and then playing
to that tone. When you’ve got a bluesy tone,
you can’t shred with it. You can only do what
fits that tone, and I didn’t know that.”
As one of the most recorded studio guitarists
of the modern era, Huff also had plenty
of gear advice—leading Rooney to the rig he’s
been relying on for the last three years. “I
didn’t even play Les Pauls until I met Dan,”
he admits. “Early on, he told me, ‘You’ve got
a great style, but your sound just doesn’t have
a lot of personality.’” Rooney laughs as he
recalls his reply. “I said, ‘Are you going to
show me some or what?’ And he handed me
a Les Paul going through a Bogner Ecstasy
101B—which had a bigger, thicker, bluesier
sound that I loved.” On the road today, Les
Pauls make up half of Rooney’s complement
of six Gibsons, with an ES-335 and the two
’63 SG Juniors rounding out the set. His other
road guitars are a 1957 Reissue Fender Stratocaster
and a Taylor 714ce.
“Dan was also good at sitting down with
me and taking the time to plug in different
amp configurations, cabinets, and miking
positions,” Rooney says. “We’d have six to
eight mics on each amp. Room mics. Outside-
the-room mics. Mics on the front of the
amp, and behind the amp—even if it had a
closed back—just for woofiness.”
Huff’s influence even extends to how
Rooney’s melodic lead style has evolved. “He
taught me to sit and listen to a solo section
and sing the solo to myself before I even grab
a guitar. He’d say, ‘Sing something to yourself,
or sing it out loud. What’s the melody
you’re hearing?’ Because it’s all about hooks
when it comes to mainstream music. And I
had never thought about that. I’d just grab
the guitar and play a pentatonic scale, because
I was comfortable there. But when you hum
your part, you might find yourself playing in
a position you’ve never been in to pull off
that melody in your head. It might be uncomfortable
or a little weird at first, but it opens
you up to different atmospherics.”
The evidence of how Huff’s mentoring
has affected Rooney’s playing is all over
Unstoppable. Slick production and chart-ready
tunes notwithstanding, when Rooney turns
up new tracks like “She’d Be California”—
a rambunctious number with a wild solo and
lots of power chords and wah licks—it’s clear
Rooney’s still a fan of in-your-face guitar. “I
love just plugging into an amp and playing,”
he says as the song fades out. “But I’m a
sucker for the big arena sound, too.” On the
mid-tempo anthem “Love Who You Love,”
however, he engaged the middle pickup position
on a vintage Rickenbacker for a raw,
gritty solo that’s anything but typical commercial
fare. “That middle position is dirty
man—it’s rock and roll. I played that through
a souped-up old Matchless DC-30 or Chieftain,
dry as a bone.” And though he favors
gutsy bridge-pickup tone from his Gibsons
for much of his live work, Rooney found the
cluck of a Strat’s neck and middle pickups
most suitable for the verses and choruses
on “Things That Matter,” a bluesy, R&Btinged
song with ten-track vocal harmonies.
And Rooney’s neurotic vibrato and raw, discordant
bends on the tune’s outro may very
well be some of his most mature and headturning
work to date. “I haven’t played a lot
of Strats,” he confides, “but this song really
lends itself to that rugged Strat sound.”
On Unstoppable’s first single, the ballad
“Here Comes Goodbye,” Rooney dishes up
a simple but tasty double-stop solo. “I don’t
usually play that high,” he says as he demonstrates
the double-stop bends on the high E
and B strings at the uppermost fret on his
Les Paul. “That’s a little Slash impersonation
there. I played my red SG Jr. through a Diezel
amp on the verse and chorus, with a Les Paul
through my Bogner on the solo. I think that’s
the funnest solo I’ve created with Dan.”
Much as Rooney obviously digs guitar,
the more he talks the more it’s clear recording
great solos and running down catwalks
at the band’s spectacular live shows aren’t
all it’s about for him. Images of his one-yearold
son, Jagger, flit by on a digital photo
frame next to him as he fondly recalls kids
at meet-and-greets saying he inspired them
to take up guitar. “It’s a tip of the hat to my
heroes, who are with me onstage—inside
me and in my hands—every night.”