The country star entered treatment after a harrowing near-death experience.
Rascal Flatts' guitarist Joe Don Rooney has turned over a new leaf. The 48-year-old musician is speaking out and setting the record straight after a near-fatal car crash in 2021 led to his sobriety.
"I figured today, at the beginning of this brand new year 2024, would be a good day to send a message out to the world," he wrote on X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday, noting that it has been "a couple years" since he's engaged publicly with fans.
"First off, I am alive!" he began his lengthy message.
"There have been so many rumors and opinions thrown around about me - but I'm finally healthy and ready for the world," he continued. "And NO, I'm not transitioning to be a woman. That thought has never entered my mind. Nothing against the trans community whatsoever but I needed to set the record straight."
Rooney went on to detail the accident that nearly took his life on Sept. 9, 2021, saying that he "was drunk and so far gone with my life" at the time he crashed a car into a tree "and about killed myself."
"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," he continued. "My drinking had been an issue for many years -- and as they say in AA and treatment, it's a progressive disease. 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. 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. 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."
At the time, Rooney was arrested and charged with driving under the influence. The accident came just a few weeks after Rooney and his former bandmate, Jay DeMarcus, accepted the Academy of Country Music's Cliffie Stone Icon Award, while vocalist Gary LeVox was not in attendance to receive the honor with them.
"Going to jail sucks," Rooney says, though he believes that harrowing night had a silver lining. "Fortunately, (and I truly believe this,) God led me into that tree safely enough to not kill me - and luckily nobody else was involved and I didn’t injure or kill anyone. I could literally be in a federal prison for life right now. That is the reality of what my life had become. That event led me to treatment for my alcoholism for four months in the beautiful mountains of Utah."
Rooney admits that he "didn't want to stay" in treatment initially. "I was ashamed of myself. I was so full of fear and guilt that it took me all of the those four months to really start understanding treatment."
Now, he says, "My life has been changed forever -- and I'm grateful for the change. I've been sober now for almost 28 months come this Jan 13. I never believed I could actually live my life without drinking. It had become such a huge part of my daily and nightly routine."
He adds, "With the help of my family and so many other professional clinical advisors and now numerous new sober forever friends, I’ve been able to get the train back on the tracks and live without the burden of alcohol. Now, I need to protect my family and protect my sobriety."
Moving forward, Rooney has set "new healthy boundaries for the first time in my life" that includes only allowing "positive, loving, caring and understanding" people into his circle. He's also doing his best "to reflect God’s light of love and grace onto others like so many have done for me."
Rooney concludes by urging his followers to set their own sights on "making the best of 2024 and living our most healthiest, happiest and goal oriented lives ever!!"
In January 2020, the band appeared together on CBS This Morning to announce their farewell tour after 20 years together. The trek was scheduled to run from June to October of that year, but was canceled amid the coronavirus pandemic.
In July 2020, the trio celebrated the 20th anniversary of their self-titled debut album in an interview with ET and offered sage advice to their younger selves.
"We would tell ourselves to just take it in and enjoy the ride," Rooney said. "It flew by so fast and we had, and not in an egotistical way, but we had so much success back to back to back to back to back for, you know, almost two decades. ... We were just outrunning ourselves [and] we just didn't have the time to really enjoy all of the huge milestones," he added. "I mean, we were making history on things [and] we really were like, 'Phew! Off to the next thing. Phew! Off to this tour.'"
"Still being here, making music, I think is one amazing thing -- a feat in itself for any artists in a group, is to have this much longevity," Rooney shared.
Rascal Flatts is the most awarded country group of the past decade with over 40 trophies from the American Country Awards, Academy of Country Music Awards, American Music Awards, Country Music Association Awards and more. Their songs have been streamed more than 2.2 billion times worldwide.
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