When country trio Rascal Flatts toured the nation in 2014 to promote its Big Machine album Rewind, members Gary LeVox, 44; Jay DeMarcus, 43; and Joe Don Rooney, 39, left each venue aboard separate customized coaches, each leased from Diamond Coach, based in Whites Creek, Tenn.
What do you each like best about your tour bus?
LeVox: My Mossy Oak camouflage [interior design]. My whole bus is that…That’s how a hillbilly stays hidden.
DeMarcus: My favorite thing is my bed. I’ve got a great bed back there. I get better sleep there than I do at home.
Rooney: We [all] have the space to take out our families or our friends [on tour].
How have you customized your bus?
LeVox: I’m a big Buckeye fan, so I have Ohio State helmets, and I’m a big hunter, so I’ve got bows and there are some raccoon pelts and there are always deer heads or something lying around.
DeMarcus: I have a recording studio in mine and a Rascal Flatts logo mirror in the front lounge.
Rooney: I’ve got a lot of golf stuff on my bus. I love golf so much. My bus is a lot cheaper than Jay’s and Gary’s. (Laughs.) I think it was Miranda Lambert’s bus at one point. I’m surprised it wasn’t all pink. It’s great though; it’s got bunks for family. You got your house shoes in there, things that make you feel at home.
What else do you have in there to make it feel like home?
LeVox: My Bible, slippers and my night clothes.
Rooney: I have the same sweatpants I wear all the time at the house. The same messed-up T-shirt, too. I have the Uggs slippers.
DeMarcus: Photographs of my family. My wife actually did something very sweet. She went out to the bus lot and hung up pictures of the kids and herself. I took the ones down of her. (Laughs.) I’m kidding. It was really sweet. I had them framed up and, like, Velcroed to the wall.
Rooney It’s so strange; she did the same thing to my bus.