Rascal Flatts‘ Joe Don Rooney is so grateful for another chance. Rooney has been sober since 2021, after being involved in a car accident while intoxicated. Now, Rooney is back as one-third of the award-winning trio, with a new lease on life, this one without alcohol.
“Well, I think it just enhances it,” Rooney says of living life sober. “It’s incredible. For me personally, just my connection to God and my higher power, it’s unclouded now, and I’m so grateful for it. And my connection with my kids, that’s the most important thing. It’s amazing what God can do. If you just trust it and move forward with it, it’s incredible.”
What Happened That Made Joe Don Rooney Get Sober
Rooney was admittedly not in a healthy place when he was involved in a car accident in 2021. Rascal Flatts, which also includes Gary LeVox and Jay DeMarcus, split in 2020, unable to go on their farewell tour, due to the pandemic. Rooney was ultimately charged with a DUI, after crashing into a tree.
“My life and career took a major detour at 4:00 AM in the early morning hours of Sept. 9, 2021 when I ran square into a tree and about killed myself,” Rooney shared on social media. “I was drunk and I was so far gone with my life – I was completely out of control and finished with trying to fight the fears, depression and anxieties that had spun me out in a way I’ve never experienced before.
“My drinking had been an issue for many years – and as they say in AA and treatment, it’s a progressive disease,” he continued. “I am living proof that the progressive nature of drinking can really ratchet up and as I grew older as an adult my drinking grew worse.”
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Rooney admits that he had let things get too far without getting help, until the car accident became the wake-up call he needed.
“The pressures of my career and the many mistakes I made in regards to my home life, coupled with a lot of pain and trauma from my childhood and early on in my adult life, had become too much to bear,” Rooney explained. “I was not a good father – I was not a good husband – and I was not a good bandmate to my business partners. I probably would’ve never taken responsibility for any of this if it hadn’t been for my car wreck on Sep 9, 2021.”
How Joe Don Rooney Enjoys Life Sober
Now, Rascal Flatts are back together, working on new music, and ready to embark on their 2026 Life Is A Highway Tour next year. And no one is more grateful than Rooney, who is also using his platform to encourage others struggling with addiction to get help.
“Anyone out there who might be struggling with addiction, please know there is light at the other end of that long seemingly endless small tunnel,” Rooney says. “Lean on those who love you – and if you are able to, get with a good treatment center and take the time to love on yourself like you maybe never have before. You can do it!”