September 15, 2020 • 42 mins
Life is a highway, and Wells is ready to drive it all night long with Jay and Allison DeMarcus!
You may know Jay from his music with Rascall Flatts but Wells goes way back to the beginning of his career and he opens up about the early challenges he faced as a young musician.
We hear how his wife Allison went from multiple beauty pageant titleholder to TV host and now reality tv star!
And we get the latest on their new Netflix show “DeMarcus Family Rules”.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, let's do it like John Ralphaeol and watch
a lot of Parks and Rock recently. Okay, go, This
is the Wells Cast with Wells Atoms and I heart
radio podcast sound effects to make your show see more
racing than it really is. What do we need to
(00:23):
get people listen to the show? Explosions? All right, we
can do that. What else do we need? Weird baseline?
All right, we can do that. What else do we need?
Someone else introducing the show? Okay, we can do that.
Roll that beautiful intro. This is the Wells Cast with
Wells Atoms and I are Tori, Tori's person who voice
that she's great. How's that? Free? One dude in my
(00:49):
home studio right now looking at the window, and I
honestly don't know if I'm looking at fog, smog, or
fire ash also a smoke. I don't know why I
like that. I don't know. I don't know what it is.
All right, it's probably an amalgamation of all three. Actually, now,
not the fog, because fog is a natural occurrence, and
(01:09):
I think Los Angeles has long since just ripped out
any natural occurrences from our atmosphere and said no, it's
just pollution now. But anyways, I guess it could be worse.
I actually don't know if it if it could or
couldn't be worse, but I don't know. I'm having a
good day otherwise. I suppose you know. I was thinking
about it though the other day. We're going to get
(01:30):
through an entire calendar year of this pandemic without really
kind of doing anything. It's true, we are. This thing
started in March, right, Like, March thirteenth was the last
day that I remember going out to an event. We're
gonna wrap all the way around. People like, no, it'll
be fine by November December. No, I don't know. I mean,
I don't know. I think we're gonna get through the
(01:50):
year and then all of a sudden it's gonna be
February and things are gonna be kind of back to normal,
and then it's gonna March thirteenth and it'll be like,
all right, full calendar year, just lost. I need a
refund on the year. The last event I went to
was Harrison's Seagrums Rose Bullishit Drink Launch, which actually is great,
don't get me wrong, But that was the party we
went to, and I was supposed to go film a
(02:12):
TV show starting April one, and I was supposed to
film that show from April one to June one. On
June one, I was supposed to go to Paradise, film
Paradise all in June, and then I was supposed to
come back, like have my wedding or wedding whatever, go
on my honeymoon, come back finished filming the first TV
show that I was gonna do that can't even talk
(02:32):
about now because the bed and by that time it
would have been well right now, And I was supposed
to be kind of done around the middle of September
of filming that other TV show. I was gonna take
a break and then have the holidays and then like rinse, wash, repeat,
and like the entire year just went okay, so fun.
(02:53):
I'll tell you what. The only thing that's keeping me
alive my beautiful bride to be and my awesome dogs
and the pool of the backyard beunce with you, Champagne problems. God,
I gotta stop watching Parks and Rack because Ben Schwartz's
character John Ralphaeo, I just now I'll just like go
into singing stuff. And the problem is I'm not as
good as singers he is. But the things that are
(03:15):
keeping me afloat during these times fiance dogs pull in
the backyard and then oh yeah, these podcasts speaking of
great singers, by the way, yes, and loot myself into that.
Today we have a phenomenal musician on the show. He's
a songwriter, he's a producer, he's a freaking superstar. He's
(03:36):
in a little band called Rascal Flats. Dudes wracked up
seventeen number one hits, over twenty three point four million
albums sold. That's a lot of albums. Thirty five million
digital downloads. That's a lot downloads, less money than the
album sold thing though probably, but just helped the music
industry is these days two point two billion streams worldwide,
(03:57):
sold over eleven million concert tick It's imagine how many
babies were born because of those concert tickets, at least
four hundred because Rascal Flats made you feel certain why
I'm talking forty trophies from the A c as, the
A c m S, the A m as, the c
m as. What are some other acronyms we can make up.
(04:17):
He's gone to the d m V. He has to
pay money to h C A he's got so much
money he didn't have to pay a p PP loan.
Rascal Flats was the most awarded country group of the
past decade. Really, is that true? That's a an impressive
stat actually, and this dude also recently launched his own
Christian music label. Grammy winning producer. He's working such an
(04:38):
artists as I don't know Chicago, Ronnie Dunn, Kick Brooks, Shenandoah,
and Reba McIntyre, who I once waited on at Bricktops
in Nashville and she asked for catchup for her rotissory
chicken and I was like, Reba, you can't get much
cooler than that. Today in the Wells cast, we have Yes,
j DeMarcus Bay player for Rascal Flats, but not just Jay,
(05:02):
We've also got his beautiful and talented wife on the
show as well, Alison Demarket. Let's go through her stats
real quick. I'm talking multiple beauty pageant title holder, the
only woman in pageant history to represent the state of
Tennessee at the Miss teen USA, Miss America, and Miss
USA pageants, a trifecta hunt. She's a host and correspondent
(05:25):
on CMT for ten years, appearing on shows like really
eats CMT south Bound in Hot twenty. Also, she's instrumental
as a part of CMTS red carpet coverage from the
A m AS, the c m AS, the a m
c S, the CMT S, the d m V and
not that last one. She's an active philanthropist and this
is actually probably the coolest thing that she has on
(05:47):
her resume. She's the president of the board of directors
of the Vanderbilt Children's Hospital. That's amazing. And so no
Ja and Allison have their own reality TV show. That's right.
The Kardashian said, we are out and Jane Allison, We're
like mm hole in the market. Okay, let's get in here.
De Marcus Family Rules is on Netflix and people are
(06:08):
absolutely loving it. They're roasting each other all day. They're
emphasizing those Southern values. Well, it's like to have a
gigantic family whose patriarch is a huge rock star, whose
mattriarch is a smoke show. So move over, Risk Jenner,
there's a new boss lady in town on the Wells
Cast Today show that you do not want to miss.
(06:29):
J and Alison DeMarcus from DeMarcus Family Rules on Netflix. Seriously,
guys don't go anywhere all right, back on the Wells Cast,
(06:50):
I have j and Alison de Marcus on the show.
How are you guys doing? Doing great? How are you?
I'm fantastic, man, I'm really excited about this. I don't
know if you guys know like my history, but I
worked in radio and Nashville for twelve years. I never
worked in the country music format, but like, I feel
(07:10):
like I was around you guys a lot, so having
you on this show makes me feel I had to
move to Studio City to finally hang out with you guys.
That's unbelievable. Usually happens just the opposite. Yeah, right. Sarah
and I were skipping through Netflix the other day. We
were like, wait, what is this new reality TV show?
(07:31):
And then you know how Netflix automatically starts playing the trailer.
That's the dude from Rascal Flats. I'm pretty sure, and
they have a reality TV show. So we started watching
it and I gotta say it's fantastic. But I must
applaud you guys because you you saw that the Kardashians
were saying peace out, and you're like, hole in the market,
(07:52):
let's fill it right now. I wish we were that
calculated about that move. No one can take the Kardashian
this place, and we aren't even close to being like
the Kardashians. It's really been fun, though, to do the
show and have it out there and hear people's response
and that the outpouring of love and support has been
amazing for us. We were very very nervous about it
(08:14):
having cameras following us around, because you really want to
You only want to show people a little bit of crazy.
You don't want to show them all the crazy. Yeah. No,
I come from the reality TV world where you're always
just freaking out about the show airing because you're not
sure how it's gonna be edited for you guys, do
you have any hand in production or say with like
(08:34):
what the show looks like? Not at all. We didn't
even get to see it until literally the day before
it started streaming. The night before we got to see
it right before. That's not nice, No, it really didn't.
Netflix didn't want us going in there going well, I
hate this shot and I wish that you could cut
this out, And I didn't say it that way, and
you only picked it, so we had no say whatsoever
(08:56):
what you see is what you get. When did you
guys decide to do this and what made you decide
to do this? Okay, well it goes back to being
on christ Ye knows best. We they're dear friends of ours.
Todd and Julie live right around the corner. We've been
on their show about half a dozen times, and he
took us out to dinner one night. He said, I
think that there is a show with your family. I've
(09:18):
never done anything outside of my own Famili's show, but
I really think that people would relate to the situations
that you guys live through, juggling parenthood, being married, careers,
all of that stuff. It's really relatable, and you guys
are hilarious together and your kids are unpredictably funny. So
I would love to shoot a pilot with you guys
(09:38):
and see if we have any interest. We of course,
had a lot of trepidation about putting our family out there,
and I've I've worked really, really hard over the past
twenty years with my partners in Rascal Flats to build
a brand that I'm very proud of, and I wanted
to honor that too, and and honor them my partners
as well. So it was important for me to kind
of protect that. And you know when Todd said that
(09:58):
he would executive produce Sitting and he would help me
protect it. The more we talked about it, the more
we felt safe, for lack of a better word, and
doing a show with him, making sure that he was
the gatekeeper. And here we are, and that that's been
a little over three years now, so it's it's taken
that long to get through the process. And too, I
think just when we were able to look at Todd
(10:19):
and Julia's parents, I mean, they're dear friends of ours,
but to see the kind, generous and wonderful people that
their children are and have become, even though they've grown
up doing reality TV, that was like, well, not everybody
has to be a train wreck. Maybe there is hope. Yeah.
What was the harder sell was? Was getting your kids
(10:43):
on board more difficult? Or was like explaining to your band, hey, listen,
I'm gonna be doing this reality TV show? Things like
what was the harder sell? Not the kids. They thought
that it was normal because they've been on personally knows
best and because their youngest Grayson and Chloe, are friends
of theirs, so they just thought like oh well, this
(11:03):
is normal, like everybody should just be like waking up
and shooting a television show. Like why would you not?
You know? So they were like, sure, we don't have
to go to school today, Great, let's do it a
jode On and Gary were very supportive because we were
going to retire anyway, so, uh, you know, I couldn't
sit around the house and be bored to tears. I
had to have something else to do, so I thought
it would be fun to give this a try, and
(11:25):
and it really was fun to go through the process
with the whole entire family. I mean, at best, we're
gonna have a bunch of high quality home videos we
can go back to visits. People always are like, why
did you go on the Bachelorette? And I'm like, well,
if nothing else, uh a bunch of memories that are
on iTunes that I can go watch at any time.
So that's easy exactly. And why wouldn't you take advantage
(11:46):
of an opportunity like that? Well embarrassments, Uh you know, well,
let's not go through the list that was splitting hairs.
Where you are today showing my father that I really
am the disappointment that you always said I was. I mean,
there's a lot of stuff, guys, you put it on
film for you did this to me, Dad. This is
(12:10):
why I am like I am. I am now so
tied to the reality TV role. I mean, I film
on every single summer in Paradise, and it's so fun
for me to watch how the sausage is made. And
it's always exciting for me to watch people who are
really good at making reality TV. Exis not an easy thing. Obviously,
you're trying to be yourself, but you're trying to kind
(12:30):
of be like a maybe a little little bit heightened
version of yourself, maybe like a little bit extra. I
wonder who on your show is the best at making
reality TV. Well, I'm gonna have to go with myself.
I've had to carry most of the the scenes and when
you've got that kind of heavy lifting to do and
you've got to be funny. Now, you're so right. The
one thing that I will say that you're exactly correct
(12:51):
about is you'll get these comments from people like, oh,
it looks so scripted, it's so staged. The thing about
it is is you well know it's not scripted, but
you have to make compelling television. You have to be interesting,
and you have to be funny. You have to move
a storyline along, so you have certain responsibilities to do
when you're in any given scene. There were some people
(13:12):
that surprised me that we're better at it than I
thought they would be. And her mother is right at
the top of the list for me, because she was
very nervous about it. But boy, once the cameras turned on,
she came to life and I was like, oh, no,
we've created a monster here. This is this may not
be one we can back away from here. Season two
split off for Grandma gets her Own show. Todd chris
(13:38):
Ley is the next Chris Jenner is a genius. It's amazing. Yeah,
he does know what he's doing. And one thing I
love about Todd's show is it still has heard in it.
At the end of every every episode, the love that
they have for each other and their family always shines through,
no matter how crazy the episode maybe, And that that
was really important for us to do, was to show
that we really do love each other at the end
(13:59):
of the day, even though we disagree a lot and
have a whole lot of crap that we have to
work through. Really is the most important thing It's nice
to see a show like yours or even like Cristally
Knows Best, which has such a big juxtaposition to like
the vapid reality TV that's kind of created out on
my side of the country. Uh, like Your Guys and
(14:21):
Stuff is a much more wholesome and kind of emphasizing
these like Southern values, which I think is really wonderful.
And also it's a nice type of reality TV that
I think that we need in very, very weird times
right now. So good on you guys. That's very kind,
That is very kind. Thank you for saying that we've
all been through enough lately. God knows that we need
(14:45):
something to laugh at and something to laugh at ourselves,
that's for sure. Yeah. Day, So Family Rules is daring
right now on Netflix. I guess my question is is
when did you film this? And is there more seasons
are coming? We started filming last fall October through December,
(15:09):
and which obviously was pre COVID, so we j was
genuinely coming off to all the things that were happening
on the show we're literally and legitimately happening in our lives,
and then we rolled into working together leading up to
the holidays of the holidays and then into quarantine life,
so nothing about you know. That's why there's no masks,
(15:32):
there's no mention of life as it is today because
this was all pre COVID. So we filmed together, Holidays together,
COVID quarantine together. I don't know if you can see me,
but I'm blinking S O S in morse code. Please
dear God, come safely. So is there a thought to
pick back up when I guess this pandemic kind of
(15:55):
dies down, to film some more. You know, we would
love for a season two to be picked up. We're
still waiting to see We're early in right now, we're
not even a month into the show, so we're still
waiting to see some numbers from Netflix. But the weird thing,
well not the weird thing, but the thing that makes
Netflix unique is that there aren't any Nielsen ratings and
they don't sell advertisements, so it's word of mouth. And
(16:16):
we're just trying to tell everybody. If you like the show,
please tell ten of your friends, get on social media
and say a little blurb about it, because the more
eyes we can get on it, the better our chances
are getting picked back up. Well, I think you guys
got a pretty good shot considering everyone's stuck at home
and they can only really watch TV right now, and
everyone is clamoring for some more content. So but yeah,
(16:37):
but everyone out there go watch The Marcus Family Rules.
It's on Netflix. It came out the middle of August,
right and so it's brand new. But Sara and I,
like I said, we watched a couple of episodes fantastic,
So everyone out there go check it out. And uh,
like Jay said, tell your friends about it as well.
I want to take a quick break and when we
come back. I don't know if anyone one told you,
but the kind of the idea for this show is
(16:59):
origin story reason. I like to talk to really successful
and interesting people and find out where they came from
and how the hell they got to this point. You guys,
got a couple of minutes just to uh divulge some
information from your past. Absolutely alright, to stick around. Jane
Allison from DeMarcus Family Rules coming back on the Wells Guys,
(17:28):
all right back in the Wells cast. Dan Allison, DeMarcus
from DeMarcus Family Rules on Netflix right now. On the show,
I saw that Allison tried to run away during the break. Uh,
totally did, because I feel like if she didn't want
you to know her origin story, that she's afraid her
folks are going to find out. She was in rehab
a couple of times. And Jay has a very interesting story,
(17:52):
and I just didn't want to sit here like, well, no,
actually I want to. But he does have a very
fascinating story from the little bit of reach or said
I did on you, you have a very fascinating story too,
And it's kind of close to my heart because my
mom was a beauty queen out in California, and so
I grew up hearing her her title, Well, she was
(18:13):
Miss los Angeles. I think that she was running up
for Miss California and then she was in Miss America.
But she dropped out in the middle of it. That's amazing.
I mean, can you believe, like Miss los Angeles, that's
so like important. Yeah, I mean there's a lot of
hot chicks in Los Angeles, you know, so that's she's
doing pretty good and that's an accomplishment right there. Well,
(18:33):
I'm so pleased to hear that because earlier today I
spoke to someone who was Miss tat day. Oh yeah, yes,
and in one interview J and I did believe spoken
to someone who was Miss Scuba International. I did not
know that scuba people had badgets, but they do. I
mean they're everywhere. Obviously, the judges actually have to be
underwater to judge in. Yeah, apparatus, mermaids everywhere, like this
(18:59):
is radiculous. We should be able to do this one, Allison,
since you don't want to do this, let's get yours
over with really quickly. Want I totally want you. I
just think that Jay has a really interesting story. And
I didn't know that we would talk about I was
Miss Memphis, which is not as big of a deal
as Miss Los Angeles, but I was living in Memphis
at the time. Thank god you weren't Miss Tater Ye,
(19:22):
Miss taker Day. Can you imagine who you're going out with?
The miss she's a spud. My sister was Miss Milon
no Tell, and that meant that when you were in
that part of West Tennessee, you didn't till the farmland.
So she was Miss Milon no Tell. So you got
(19:43):
to not have to go to work, and you still do,
but you don't till the land. It's like the way
that they fertilized the farmland, but you don't use it
till I don't even know what it till live. Were
you born in Memphis or are you born in Jackson?
I'm from Jackson. My parents are from Jackson. Both sets
are grandparents are from Jackson, like deep roots in Jackson, Tennessee.
(20:04):
And then I went to college at Rhodes in Memphis
and then moved to Nashville. Wait, who did you say
was went there? Dixie Carter? I mean, I am obsessed
with designing women. She was also in pageantry, by the way,
So you moved to Memphis and what gets you into pageants?
(20:26):
Was like, it was like your mom into it? How
did that work? Bill? My mom wasn't in them. She's
never been in one. Now, she was elected Miss Southside
High School, but that was like a senior superlative, not
like a pageant. So um. But she even laughed at
me when I told her that I was going to
be in a pageant. And of course at that point
(20:49):
nothing was digital. So she threw the brochure in the trash.
She was like, oh, threw in the trash and I
got it. I was like, no, I'm going to do this.
Some young women only have one pathway out of Jackson.
They're a really great opportunity for small town girls. That's
why people are always asking me if my daughter is
going to do passions. I'm like, Lord, no, she needs
to do whatever she wants to do. She'll have more
(21:10):
opportunities than I did. Okay, So what was the first
pageant that you got into. I was in Miss Tennessee
t e e N as a teenager. I did win,
and then I went to the national pageant to America's
Miss t e e N. And I was Miss America's
t e in in nineteen and ninety three. Why are
(21:32):
you spelling it? Are we not allowed to say the
name of it? Or I'm confused to it was the
name of it. It was t e e N for
Teens Encouraging Excellence Nationally? So you won Miss t e
e N. And and but here I am today. Can
(21:52):
you believe it? Wait? But you and I are learning together. Yeah,
I gotta tell you I haven't heard this before either.
I'm just excited that there's a Miss Scuba out there somewhere.
Scuba international too, Like it's not just domestic, worldwide, like
it's global. This Miss Scuba is apparently I read something
that I thought was a kind of a crazy status.
(22:14):
So you're the only woman in pageant history to represent
the state of Tennessee at the Miss teen USA, the
Miss America and Miss USA pageants. You clearly got on
my Wikipedia page I did. So did you win all those?
I did well? I mean you, I mean you. You
didn't want to Miss USA or Miss America. You placed
(22:35):
high though, Yeah, but I was missed Tennessee and all
those yeas. I mean that was just like for like
my sister always teases me and she's like, oh God,
and she's still like acting like she's still Miss Tennessee today,
crown winner right here. Yeah, that's that's bigg What was
your What was your talent? I saying, Anne played the
piano too. Ain't no mountain high enough, ain't no valley
(22:56):
low enough, Ain't no river wide enough to keep me
from you else. I really wish this was a visual podcast,
because she just pantomimed the entire thing for us and
it was wonderful. I had full choreography. Don't worry, I
still can do the choreography for you, and she won't
sing in front of me. Now, is that unreal or what? Well?
I can understand Jay, like, you're obviously very musically talented person. Well,
(23:19):
I appreciate that. But we did do one du it
we did after all about Peter Sittera and share at
a pageant one time, and it was phenomenal, I mean
phenomenals pushing it long. They're not gonna lie that. You know.
Jay's kind and like wants to clearly still be married
to me. So that was that was sweet of him
to say. All right, so then you moved to Nashville
after all the pageant stuff. So I was missed in
(23:41):
the c USA in two thousand two, and I moved
to Nashville because my sister lived here and she worked
for Mercury Records, and I was going to go audition
for a video for These Days by Rascal Flats, and
I didn't know who they were. So I called my
sister and she was like, oh, yeah, they are really hot.
They just had a number one. You should go to
(24:01):
the audition. And so I went to the audition audition
and got the role of playing Jay's cousin, who's in
the Flats, who's the lead singer, um as his love interest.
And so that's where I met Jane, her sister was right.
We were really hut. So at that moment, is that
when you knew that she was the one? J like,
did you cast her? Being like, I'm gonna marry this girl?
(24:23):
Cast her? Yeah? I mean I was taken with her immediately.
She was beautiful, and we sat down next to each
other in the makeup chair, and she was very um,
outgoing and friendly, and I just spent the whole day
trying to follow her around and talk to her more.
And so I devised an evil plan to keep her
longer for the shoot. I came up with a shot
(24:44):
at the end of the video and I took it
to the director and I said, I think it'd be
really great to get our point of view. And she's
standing behind the fence, still looking at us on the tarmac,
and he was like, I love that. I'm gonna go
talk to her and see if she can stay. So
I got her the state until three am, which was amazing.
She was supposed to have been cut I think around
(25:05):
nine or ten or something, So of course said, aren't
you excited you're gonna stay. I'm like, I'm gonna get
paid three in her bucks. I gotta go to work tomorrow.
I just don't know that I'm gonna be able to stay.
Come on, we've got Papa John's. You know, you know
we wouldn't want to stay for some Papa John's, right.
Did you ask her out like after the shoot? What
(25:26):
I did was I, uh, she said, I don't really
want to use a porter potty, I don't use Can
I go on your bus and use the restroom? I said, sure,
come on up. So after she got finished, she came
out and I said, look, I'm gonna go ahead and
write my number down because I know you're gonna ask
for it anyway, I'm gonna go ahead and give it
to you. And she slid it back across the desk
and she said, my daddy told me that I could
(25:48):
never call boys, but if you want my number, here
it is. And she wrote it down and gave it
to me. And at the time I didn't know that
she was engaged, because they've made her take her ring off.
But you know, there's trouble in paradise if you're giving
a boy your number. You know what I'm saying. I
didn't trouble in Paradise. Well as even though Jay likes
to just decide that it was only him, and that
(26:09):
I met him and immediately knew that I had been
swept off my feet and fell madly in love with him. Well,
I saved your life, Alison. Would you have ever given
your number to Jay if he wasn't in a very
hot country band at the time. Well, let's also note, wells,
that I thought that his first single, which is actually
Praying for Daylight, was waiting for Midnight. So I can't
(26:31):
say that I was like a huge fan. Um. I mean,
I was just kind of being witty and funny. You're like, well,
I'll show him. I'm not going to take his number.
I'm not going to call him so and I knew
I could like decline the call, so it wasn't a
big deal, like, my, here's my number whatever. I still
remember her phone number two from back then. Really seven. Okay,
(26:53):
I'm gonna i'll bleep that out, but no, she didn't
have It's not her number anymore, but I remember it
because I've memorized it as soon as she wrote it down.
But you're you're you're yeah, you're obviously we can't no
one can see me. But I am wildly good looking
and very funny, so of course she was going to
give her a number to me, you know what I'm saying.
(27:13):
I mean, let's be honest, and then the rest is
history history. It's pure bliss in history right there. I
do want to say, though, I saw that you were
on the board of directors the Vanderbilt Children's Hospital, which
is a place that you know, I used to do
broadcasts from when I lived in Nashville, and it's a
really amazing special place, and so I mean, I just
(27:36):
think that that's such a cool footnote of all the
things that you've done. That's such a really really cool
and bright thing to shine a light on. So thank
you for that. Appreciate And I have to brag on
her and tell you she was actually the president of
the board for four years I think it was, so
she's you know, she's been running that ship for a
long time over there, and I couldn't be more proud
of her. And it's and it's an amazing place. You're right,
(27:58):
And it's one of the things I'm most proud of
that we've been able to do with Rascal Flats is
have the Racks Rascal Flats Surgery Center over there long
after we're gone from the Face of the earth. We'll
have a place that will always be a wonderful part
of our legacy that we leave behind. And I couldn't
be more proud of that. Wells I am totally took
the legally Blonde to movie poster and superimposed my face
(28:21):
on top of Reese and put my choo Ias face
on top of Bruiser's face, And that was like the
first image that I popped up because I'm in this
room with all these older men and it's just me,
and I'm like, hey, guys, you're a guy. So I
at least try to like pep up the entertainment value
of all of our board meetings because they were at much. Yeah,
(28:43):
like being on the board is hard. All right, Jay,
you're up. Let's let's go through your your origin story.
Where the hell did you come from and how the
hell did you get on this podcast. That's a great question. Um.
I grew up in Columbus, Ohio, so I'm a Midwesterner,
but my folks were from West Virginia and Kentucky, so
(29:04):
I was raised on country music. My my family were
a bunch of hillbillies living in the middle of Ohio,
so we were a little displaced. UM music was all
that I knew. My mom and dad were musicians. My
mom was actually country music Queen of Ohio in nineteen
sixty nine won a recording contract with Decca Records. And
my dad was a fantastic musician and basically taught me
(29:26):
from an early age how to play several different instruments.
And I was just consumed by music. But I didn't
have a way out of Columbus, Ohio. And I've always
heard if you want to go making in the entertainment
industry and music, you've got to go to Los Angeles,
New York, or Nashville. And since I had spent most
of my childhood summers coming to Nashville, going to the
(29:46):
Grand ol Opery, loving country music, UM, Nashville was a
no brainer for me, and it was an obvious choice.
Actually got a scholarship from music to go to Lee
University in Cleveland, Tennessee, which is just a little north
of Chattanooga. So I went to college in Cleveland, Tennessee.
(30:07):
Got a record deal my senior year in college with
a Christian duo that I was part of called East
to West. We made two records and were together for
about five years. In the mid nineties. We want a
bunch of double awards, had had a few number ones,
and then I got a girl pregnant that I was
dating and sort of screwed up the Christian career and uh,
(30:28):
that's the true, and thought that my life was over, obviously.
And a few short years later my cousin moved to town.
We started singing out in some bars together, and I
at the same time went to work for a girl
named shelling Right and I became her musical director. I
hired Jodan in to play guitar. We became fast friends.
(30:48):
I introduced him to Gary and the three of us
started singing together. We developed sort of this grassroots following
fan base around town here, and we got signed to
a record deal in October of nine nine and here
we are one years later. It's been an amazing ride.
I was reading and this is only going to be interesting,
(31:10):
I think for people who are very ingrained in the
nightlife that is Nashville, Tennessee. But I was reading that
the start of the band was on Printer's Alley. It
was at a little place called the Fiddle and Steel
Guitar Bar that is no longer there, but it was
right next to Lonnie's Western Room, the big karaoke bar
down there was Bourbon Street Boogie Bar right there as well.
(31:30):
Oh yeah yeah, it was right down right next to
Skulls was the Bourbon Street Blues Bar. Yeah, and really yeah,
that whole strip. And now they've torn all that out
and they're making some boutique hotel down there. Is have
they completed it? That's such a bummer because that was
such a cool little alleyway. Tourists didn't really know about it.
(31:52):
It was very kind of like a locally hang for
downtown Lower Broadway, and that was a bummer when I
heard that they were redoing that whole thing. What was
great is you're absolutely right. It was off the beaten path,
so a lot of the country stars would come into
the fiddle and steel guitar Bar because nobody would bother them.
So Toby Keith, Mark Chestnut, a bunch of these guys
would come in and hang out and get up with
(32:13):
us and sing because no one knew it was there,
and the ones that were there were sort of hometown
people anyway that weren't going to bother celebrities when they
came in there. It was really cool. So talk about
the creation of Rascal Flats in those early days. You know,
it really kind of happened organically. I I wanted to
produce and write for Gary and get him a record deal.
(32:34):
Um he came and sang for me on his way
down to vacation in Florida one weekend, and I said, Man,
you gotta move down here. Your voice is extraordinary and
if you don't try it, your window is gonna close. Uh.
I think he was twenty seven at the time, something
like that. So I talked him into moving in with me.
We had a little one bedroom apartment that I had,
and he slept on the couch, and I really wanted
(32:56):
to kind of be on the I had been an
artist already and and that kind of didn't appeal to
me anymore. So I wanted to be a producer and
a writer. And so the more he went out to sing,
he didn't play an instrument, so I always ended up
playing guitar piano for him when he sang, and it
just sort of evolved into this thing that you know
that we were known as the Cousins, and we play
(33:16):
all over downtown together and it became fun, not something
we were pursuing. You know, to try to be a band.
But the more we played together, and then when we
added Jod onto the mix, we had this blend in
this sound that you can't manufacture. It either happens and
you have chemistry or you don't. And we had a
very magical thing that happened when the three of our
voices blended together in harmony. And Jodan is not family,
(33:40):
but he blends and sings with us like he is
because he's got so much of the same history and
the same background and grew up loving the same things
that Gary and I did. So it's not something you
could ever pick three random people out in and recreate.
So we were we were. We were very lucky to
catch lightning in a bottle when we did, and the
(34:00):
world was just ready for something new and something sort
of different. In the sound that Gary has. He's a
country singer, but he's influenced by gospel and R and B,
and all of these flavors come out of his voice.
When you hear him sing. It's not typical of what
you would hear a country singer, particularly back then. And now,
of course we've got all these singers that are in
(34:20):
country music that really well a lot of them will
tell you have been influenced by Gary Levox and the
way that he sung over the past twenty years on
the radio with Rascal Flats. They you know, they have
to attribute a lot of their influence to what he's
been able to do, and that's an amazing thing to
be a part of. How did you guys come up
(34:41):
with a name for the band? And that's funny story too.
So we were signed a record deal and didn't have
a name, and the head of our record label, let's
the time, Randy Goodman said, you guys, we need to
come up with a name. We can't call you guys
the cousins because one of you is not a cousin,
so we need a name. So every night we would
play down in Printer's Alley, I would say, hey, guys,
we've got a record deal. If you've got any names
(35:02):
of bands, we sure could use him because we we
don't have a name. I had those many cassettes full
of Gary driving home to Ohio by himself talking into
the recorder going route nine seven, possible band names, food ahead.
I mean we I had like hours worth the recordings
(35:24):
of him putting potential names into this so if this
old guy that had come in to see us all
the time. His name was Jelly Roll. He was an
old piano player, had been on the road with all
kinds of country acts, used to sit at the end
of the bar every time we would playing. Came in
faithfully to hear us. Every night. He walked up to
me and he said, hey, Jay, when you all go
on break next time, I need to talk to you
(35:44):
for a minute. I said, okay, Jelly, I'll be over.
So I went over there and it was a loud
bar room. Jukebox was playing, and he said, I know
you boys need a name. By God, I got it
for you. You look like Rascal Flats. And I said,
what in the hill is the rascal flats Jelly He said, well,
I had a bad back in high school and we
(36:05):
used to play high school dances and bar Mitzer's and whatnot.
We called ourselves rascal Flats, and by god, you boys
look black rascal Flats, and you have that name. So
we were meeting with the record label the very next week,
and along Behold. They said, do you have a name.
And Gary's looking at me like, don't say it, don't
say it. I said, what do you think about Rascal
(36:27):
and um, so Randy Goodman looked at me, he goes,
I love that it's different. I think people will remember it.
And so it took Gary a little bit to get
get used to the name. He hated it at first,
but we didn't have any other options. So we scraped
together five thousand dollars and and wrote up a contract
and had Jelly Rolls sign it. And it was the
(36:49):
greatest thing to happen in his life. He was just
so touched and uh, that was a lot of money
for us back then. So that's how we got the
name Rascal Flats. I mean, the fact the guy's name
was jelly roll is like the and then awesome, absolutely beautiful,
Like that's like one of those things where like you'd
see that in a movie and you like, that's that's
not real, Like you couldn't write that. You know. Yeah,
(37:12):
the band is massively successful. You're supposed to go on
I guess kind of a farewell tour, but you know,
the world's ending, so that had to be put on hold.
Why why in the hell are you guys hanging it up?
I think after twenty years we got to this spot
to where we started talking about what we were going
to do next and what we had left on our
(37:32):
list of things to accomplish, and the more we discussed it,
it was like we've had twenty wonderful years and there
are things that each of us are passionate about individually
that we want to try before we're too old to
try them. And so I think that for us will
never be one of those bands that says that's it.
We're not doing anything else together, we're breaking up forever.
(37:54):
I think it. This is a break not a breakup,
and it's been good for us to be on twenty
years together, going at a breakneck speed, being together, three
individuals with three individual personalities. I think that this may
be one of the best things to happen for us.
We needed a break from each other and it's been
(38:15):
great to concentrate on some other things that we're all
passionate about. Gary's doing a solo record, Jodan has been
writing and producing. I've been working on this TV show,
and I started record label in two thousand and eighteen,
so I'm trying to get that up and off the ground.
So we love each other still, which is a feat
in and of itself for a band to be able
to say after twenty years, but there definitely comes a
(38:38):
time when everyone's human and they look around and they go,
I think we need a break. I think we need
a breather here, and so this is not the way
we want to go out. I know that we'll be
back on the road to love on our fans and
and have give them a chance to see us again.
So as soon as we know what that looks like,
you'll be the first to know. Speaking of breaks, I'm
(38:58):
gonna let you guys go here in a second. But
before right, dude, you guys have some time for some
rapid fire questions, absolutely honest, rapid fire questions with Jay
and Alison DeMarcus. Number one favorite pizza topping Chez Pepperoni, mushroom,
favorite book. I don't read, no, I just read Instagram
past and if somebody likes a really long one, I'm
(39:19):
not reading that. I think it quick caption and I'm out.
I'm a d H. D Wells and I gotta I
gotta keep scrolling. I can't read stuff like that. You Yeah,
in the group of Grace, Max and Kato, who's your
first kiss, Bob Franklin, it sounds like a grown man.
He had dad, Bob somebody I mean he was I
(39:42):
didn't kiss his dad. They were in the eighth grading. Bomb.
He was really hot. He's still really hot. They couldn't
call him Robbie or something that they just called him Bomb.
Mine was Jody Karrico, the next door neighbor. Bob Franklin
does sound like a used car salesman. Come on down
to practice where you're seeing make kids and little girls.
(40:07):
It was the first concert you went to. Debbie Gibson
Dolly Parton. What was your first job? I was the
secretary at Carolina Air Center. Dante's Pizza in Columbus, Ohio.
Most famous person in your phone Billy'safka. Did you have
a poster hanging on your bedroom wall? Yes? No, my
mother did not let me hang stuff up like that.
Def Leppard. What was the first record LP cassette CD
(40:31):
that you bought? Thriller Chicago six? Hard to say? I'm sorry.
If superpowers are real, what would be yours? Teleporting places
so I don't have to sit in traffic? The impossible
ability to make my wife happy at all times. The
show is called DeMarcus Family Rules. What is your number
one rule? Live? In the moment. Be in the moment.
My number one rule is remind your spouse how lucky
(40:53):
they are. You are very lucky. Guys. Thank you so
much being on this show. This is so funny and
so much fun to get to know you all. Everyone
out there, don't forget to go watch on Netflix to
Marcus Family Rules. It is absolutely hilarious. It's wonderful, it's wholesome.
It's everything that really the world needs right now, because,
let's be fair, there's a lot of bad right now.
(41:15):
That's a fair statement. Yeah, thank you guys so much.
You guys rock I appreciate a said Hi, I will
see you guys. Well, they're just the sweetest freaking thing
in the world right. Oh my god, I love him
so much. I want to go. I just want to
be part of their family. I think. Yeah, he's like
a guy that would be embarrassed by my reality. He's
(41:37):
like he'd be proud of it. I gotta go because
we're about to record another episode back to back, so
I'm out of here. I love you guys, and don't forget.
You know, if you if you haven't rated it and
reviewed the show, please go do so it helps out
and Tell your friends about the show because I need
more money. Subscribe to wealthcast on I Heart Radio, Apple podcasts,
(41:59):
or where you get your podcasts. It's the Internet.
All right, let's do it like John Ralphaeol and watch
a lot of Parks and Rock recently. Okay, go, This
is the Wells Cast with Wells Atoms and I heart
radio podcast sound effects to make your show see more
racing than it really is. What do we need to
(00:23):
get people listen to the show? Explosions? All right, we
can do that. What else do we need? Weird baseline?
All right, we can do that. What else do we need?
Someone else introducing the show? Okay, we can do that.
Roll that beautiful intro. This is the Wells Cast with
Wells Atoms and I are Tori, Tori's person who voice
that she's great. How's that? Free? One dude in my
(00:49):
home studio right now looking at the window, and I
honestly don't know if I'm looking at fog, smog, or
fire ash also a smoke. I don't know why I
like that. I don't know. I don't know what it is.
All right, it's probably an amalgamation of all three. Actually, now,
not the fog, because fog is a natural occurrence, and
(01:09):
I think Los Angeles has long since just ripped out
any natural occurrences from our atmosphere and said no, it's
just pollution now. But anyways, I guess it could be worse.
I actually don't know if it if it could or
couldn't be worse, but I don't know. I'm having a
good day otherwise. I suppose you know. I was thinking
about it though the other day. We're going to get
(01:30):
through an entire calendar year of this pandemic without really
kind of doing anything. It's true, we are. This thing
started in March, right, Like, March thirteenth was the last
day that I remember going out to an event. We're
gonna wrap all the way around. People like, no, it'll
be fine by November December. No, I don't know. I mean,
I don't know. I think we're gonna get through the
(01:50):
year and then all of a sudden it's gonna be
February and things are gonna be kind of back to normal,
and then it's gonna March thirteenth and it'll be like,
all right, full calendar year, just lost. I need a
refund on the year. The last event I went to
was Harrison's Seagrums Rose Bullishit Drink Launch, which actually is great,
don't get me wrong, But that was the party we
went to, and I was supposed to go film a
(02:12):
TV show starting April one, and I was supposed to
film that show from April one to June one. On
June one, I was supposed to go to Paradise, film
Paradise all in June, and then I was supposed to
come back, like have my wedding or wedding whatever, go
on my honeymoon, come back finished filming the first TV
show that I was gonna do that can't even talk
(02:32):
about now because the bed and by that time it
would have been well right now, And I was supposed
to be kind of done around the middle of September
of filming that other TV show. I was gonna take
a break and then have the holidays and then like rinse, wash, repeat,
and like the entire year just went okay, so fun.
(02:53):
I'll tell you what. The only thing that's keeping me
alive my beautiful bride to be and my awesome dogs
and the pool of the backyard beunce with you, Champagne problems. God,
I gotta stop watching Parks and Rack because Ben Schwartz's
character John Ralphaeo, I just now I'll just like go
into singing stuff. And the problem is I'm not as
good as singers he is. But the things that are
(03:15):
keeping me afloat during these times fiance dogs pull in
the backyard and then oh yeah, these podcasts speaking of
great singers, by the way, yes, and loot myself into that.
Today we have a phenomenal musician on the show. He's
a songwriter, he's a producer, he's a freaking superstar. He's
(03:36):
in a little band called Rascal Flats. Dudes wracked up
seventeen number one hits, over twenty three point four million
albums sold. That's a lot of albums. Thirty five million
digital downloads. That's a lot downloads, less money than the
album sold thing though probably, but just helped the music
industry is these days two point two billion streams worldwide,
(03:57):
sold over eleven million concert tick It's imagine how many
babies were born because of those concert tickets, at least
four hundred because Rascal Flats made you feel certain why
I'm talking forty trophies from the A c as, the
A c m S, the A m as, the c
m as. What are some other acronyms we can make up.
(04:17):
He's gone to the d m V. He has to
pay money to h C A he's got so much
money he didn't have to pay a p PP loan.
Rascal Flats was the most awarded country group of the
past decade. Really, is that true? That's a an impressive
stat actually, and this dude also recently launched his own
Christian music label. Grammy winning producer. He's working such an
(04:38):
artists as I don't know Chicago, Ronnie Dunn, Kick Brooks, Shenandoah,
and Reba McIntyre, who I once waited on at Bricktops
in Nashville and she asked for catchup for her rotissory
chicken and I was like, Reba, you can't get much
cooler than that. Today in the Wells cast, we have Yes,
j DeMarcus Bay player for Rascal Flats, but not just Jay,
(05:02):
We've also got his beautiful and talented wife on the
show as well, Alison Demarket. Let's go through her stats
real quick. I'm talking multiple beauty pageant title holder, the
only woman in pageant history to represent the state of
Tennessee at the Miss teen USA, Miss America, and Miss
USA pageants, a trifecta hunt. She's a host and correspondent
(05:25):
on CMT for ten years, appearing on shows like really
eats CMT south Bound in Hot twenty. Also, she's instrumental
as a part of CMTS red carpet coverage from the
A m AS, the c m AS, the a m
c S, the CMT S, the d m V and
not that last one. She's an active philanthropist and this
is actually probably the coolest thing that she has on
(05:47):
her resume. She's the president of the board of directors
of the Vanderbilt Children's Hospital. That's amazing. And so no
Ja and Allison have their own reality TV show. That's right.
The Kardashian said, we are out and Jane Allison, We're
like mm hole in the market. Okay, let's get in here.
De Marcus Family Rules is on Netflix and people are
(06:08):
absolutely loving it. They're roasting each other all day. They're
emphasizing those Southern values. Well, it's like to have a
gigantic family whose patriarch is a huge rock star, whose
mattriarch is a smoke show. So move over, Risk Jenner,
there's a new boss lady in town on the Wells
Cast Today show that you do not want to miss.
(06:29):
J and Alison DeMarcus from DeMarcus Family Rules on Netflix. Seriously,
guys don't go anywhere all right, back on the Wells Cast,
(06:50):
I have j and Alison de Marcus on the show.
How are you guys doing? Doing great? How are you?
I'm fantastic, man, I'm really excited about this. I don't
know if you guys know like my history, but I
worked in radio and Nashville for twelve years. I never
worked in the country music format, but like, I feel
(07:10):
like I was around you guys a lot, so having
you on this show makes me feel I had to
move to Studio City to finally hang out with you guys.
That's unbelievable. Usually happens just the opposite. Yeah, right. Sarah
and I were skipping through Netflix the other day. We
were like, wait, what is this new reality TV show?
(07:31):
And then you know how Netflix automatically starts playing the trailer.
That's the dude from Rascal Flats. I'm pretty sure, and
they have a reality TV show. So we started watching
it and I gotta say it's fantastic. But I must
applaud you guys because you you saw that the Kardashians
were saying peace out, and you're like, hole in the market,
(07:52):
let's fill it right now. I wish we were that
calculated about that move. No one can take the Kardashian
this place, and we aren't even close to being like
the Kardashians. It's really been fun, though, to do the
show and have it out there and hear people's response
and that the outpouring of love and support has been
amazing for us. We were very very nervous about it
(08:14):
having cameras following us around, because you really want to
You only want to show people a little bit of crazy.
You don't want to show them all the crazy. Yeah. No,
I come from the reality TV world where you're always
just freaking out about the show airing because you're not
sure how it's gonna be edited for you guys, do
you have any hand in production or say with like
(08:34):
what the show looks like? Not at all. We didn't
even get to see it until literally the day before
it started streaming. The night before we got to see
it right before. That's not nice, No, it really didn't.
Netflix didn't want us going in there going well, I
hate this shot and I wish that you could cut
this out, And I didn't say it that way, and
you only picked it, so we had no say whatsoever
(08:56):
what you see is what you get. When did you
guys decide to do this and what made you decide
to do this? Okay, well it goes back to being
on christ Ye knows best. We they're dear friends of ours.
Todd and Julie live right around the corner. We've been
on their show about half a dozen times, and he
took us out to dinner one night. He said, I
think that there is a show with your family. I've
(09:18):
never done anything outside of my own Famili's show, but
I really think that people would relate to the situations
that you guys live through, juggling parenthood, being married, careers,
all of that stuff. It's really relatable, and you guys
are hilarious together and your kids are unpredictably funny. So
I would love to shoot a pilot with you guys
(09:38):
and see if we have any interest. We of course,
had a lot of trepidation about putting our family out there,
and I've I've worked really, really hard over the past
twenty years with my partners in Rascal Flats to build
a brand that I'm very proud of, and I wanted
to honor that too, and and honor them my partners
as well. So it was important for me to kind
of protect that. And you know when Todd said that
(09:58):
he would executive produce Sitting and he would help me
protect it. The more we talked about it, the more
we felt safe, for lack of a better word, and
doing a show with him, making sure that he was
the gatekeeper. And here we are, and that that's been
a little over three years now, so it's it's taken
that long to get through the process. And too, I
think just when we were able to look at Todd
(10:19):
and Julia's parents, I mean, they're dear friends of ours,
but to see the kind, generous and wonderful people that
their children are and have become, even though they've grown
up doing reality TV, that was like, well, not everybody
has to be a train wreck. Maybe there is hope. Yeah.
What was the harder sell was? Was getting your kids
(10:43):
on board more difficult? Or was like explaining to your band, hey, listen,
I'm gonna be doing this reality TV show? Things like
what was the harder sell? Not the kids. They thought
that it was normal because they've been on personally knows
best and because their youngest Grayson and Chloe, are friends
of theirs, so they just thought like oh well, this
(11:03):
is normal, like everybody should just be like waking up
and shooting a television show. Like why would you not?
You know? So they were like, sure, we don't have
to go to school today, Great, let's do it a
jode On and Gary were very supportive because we were
going to retire anyway, so, uh, you know, I couldn't
sit around the house and be bored to tears. I
had to have something else to do, so I thought
it would be fun to give this a try, and
(11:25):
and it really was fun to go through the process
with the whole entire family. I mean, at best, we're
gonna have a bunch of high quality home videos we
can go back to visits. People always are like, why
did you go on the Bachelorette? And I'm like, well,
if nothing else, uh a bunch of memories that are
on iTunes that I can go watch at any time.
So that's easy exactly. And why wouldn't you take advantage
(11:46):
of an opportunity like that? Well embarrassments, Uh you know, well,
let's not go through the list that was splitting hairs.
Where you are today showing my father that I really
am the disappointment that you always said I was. I mean,
there's a lot of stuff, guys, you put it on
film for you did this to me, Dad. This is
(12:10):
why I am like I am. I am now so
tied to the reality TV role. I mean, I film
on every single summer in Paradise, and it's so fun
for me to watch how the sausage is made. And
it's always exciting for me to watch people who are
really good at making reality TV. Exis not an easy thing. Obviously,
you're trying to be yourself, but you're trying to kind
(12:30):
of be like a maybe a little little bit heightened
version of yourself, maybe like a little bit extra. I
wonder who on your show is the best at making
reality TV. Well, I'm gonna have to go with myself.
I've had to carry most of the the scenes and when
you've got that kind of heavy lifting to do and
you've got to be funny. Now, you're so right. The
one thing that I will say that you're exactly correct
(12:51):
about is you'll get these comments from people like, oh,
it looks so scripted, it's so staged. The thing about
it is is you well know it's not scripted, but
you have to make compelling television. You have to be interesting,
and you have to be funny. You have to move
a storyline along, so you have certain responsibilities to do
when you're in any given scene. There were some people
(13:12):
that surprised me that we're better at it than I
thought they would be. And her mother is right at
the top of the list for me, because she was
very nervous about it. But boy, once the cameras turned on,
she came to life and I was like, oh, no,
we've created a monster here. This is this may not
be one we can back away from here. Season two
split off for Grandma gets her Own show. Todd chris
(13:38):
Ley is the next Chris Jenner is a genius. It's amazing. Yeah,
he does know what he's doing. And one thing I
love about Todd's show is it still has heard in it.
At the end of every every episode, the love that
they have for each other and their family always shines through,
no matter how crazy the episode maybe, And that that
was really important for us to do, was to show
that we really do love each other at the end
(13:59):
of the day, even though we disagree a lot and
have a whole lot of crap that we have to
work through. Really is the most important thing It's nice
to see a show like yours or even like Cristally
Knows Best, which has such a big juxtaposition to like
the vapid reality TV that's kind of created out on
my side of the country. Uh, like Your Guys and
(14:21):
Stuff is a much more wholesome and kind of emphasizing
these like Southern values, which I think is really wonderful.
And also it's a nice type of reality TV that
I think that we need in very, very weird times
right now. So good on you guys. That's very kind,
That is very kind. Thank you for saying that we've
all been through enough lately. God knows that we need
(14:45):
something to laugh at and something to laugh at ourselves,
that's for sure. Yeah. Day, So Family Rules is daring
right now on Netflix. I guess my question is is
when did you film this? And is there more seasons
are coming? We started filming last fall October through December,
(15:09):
and which obviously was pre COVID, so we j was
genuinely coming off to all the things that were happening
on the show we're literally and legitimately happening in our lives,
and then we rolled into working together leading up to
the holidays of the holidays and then into quarantine life,
so nothing about you know. That's why there's no masks,
(15:32):
there's no mention of life as it is today because
this was all pre COVID. So we filmed together, Holidays together,
COVID quarantine together. I don't know if you can see me,
but I'm blinking S O S in morse code. Please
dear God, come safely. So is there a thought to
pick back up when I guess this pandemic kind of
(15:55):
dies down, to film some more. You know, we would
love for a season two to be picked up. We're
still waiting to see We're early in right now, we're
not even a month into the show, so we're still
waiting to see some numbers from Netflix. But the weird thing,
well not the weird thing, but the thing that makes
Netflix unique is that there aren't any Nielsen ratings and
they don't sell advertisements, so it's word of mouth. And
(16:16):
we're just trying to tell everybody. If you like the show,
please tell ten of your friends, get on social media
and say a little blurb about it, because the more
eyes we can get on it, the better our chances
are getting picked back up. Well, I think you guys
got a pretty good shot considering everyone's stuck at home
and they can only really watch TV right now, and
everyone is clamoring for some more content. So but yeah,
(16:37):
but everyone out there go watch The Marcus Family Rules.
It's on Netflix. It came out the middle of August,
right and so it's brand new. But Sara and I,
like I said, we watched a couple of episodes fantastic,
So everyone out there go check it out. And uh,
like Jay said, tell your friends about it as well.
I want to take a quick break and when we
come back. I don't know if anyone one told you,
but the kind of the idea for this show is
(16:59):
origin story reason. I like to talk to really successful
and interesting people and find out where they came from
and how the hell they got to this point. You guys,
got a couple of minutes just to uh divulge some
information from your past. Absolutely alright, to stick around. Jane
Allison from DeMarcus Family Rules coming back on the Wells Guys,
(17:28):
all right back in the Wells cast. Dan Allison, DeMarcus
from DeMarcus Family Rules on Netflix right now. On the show,
I saw that Allison tried to run away during the break. Uh,
totally did, because I feel like if she didn't want
you to know her origin story, that she's afraid her
folks are going to find out. She was in rehab
a couple of times. And Jay has a very interesting story,
(17:52):
and I just didn't want to sit here like, well, no,
actually I want to. But he does have a very
fascinating story from the little bit of reach or said
I did on you, you have a very fascinating story too,
And it's kind of close to my heart because my
mom was a beauty queen out in California, and so
I grew up hearing her her title, Well, she was
(18:13):
Miss los Angeles. I think that she was running up
for Miss California and then she was in Miss America.
But she dropped out in the middle of it. That's amazing.
I mean, can you believe, like Miss los Angeles, that's
so like important. Yeah, I mean there's a lot of
hot chicks in Los Angeles, you know, so that's she's
doing pretty good and that's an accomplishment right there. Well,
(18:33):
I'm so pleased to hear that because earlier today I
spoke to someone who was Miss tat day. Oh yeah, yes,
and in one interview J and I did believe spoken
to someone who was Miss Scuba International. I did not
know that scuba people had badgets, but they do. I
mean they're everywhere. Obviously, the judges actually have to be
underwater to judge in. Yeah, apparatus, mermaids everywhere, like this
(18:59):
is radiculous. We should be able to do this one, Allison,
since you don't want to do this, let's get yours
over with really quickly. Want I totally want you. I
just think that Jay has a really interesting story. And
I didn't know that we would talk about I was
Miss Memphis, which is not as big of a deal
as Miss Los Angeles, but I was living in Memphis
at the time. Thank god you weren't Miss Tater Ye,
(19:22):
Miss taker Day. Can you imagine who you're going out with?
The miss she's a spud. My sister was Miss Milon
no Tell, and that meant that when you were in
that part of West Tennessee, you didn't till the farmland.
So she was Miss Milon no Tell. So you got
(19:43):
to not have to go to work, and you still do,
but you don't till the land. It's like the way
that they fertilized the farmland, but you don't use it
till I don't even know what it till live. Were
you born in Memphis or are you born in Jackson?
I'm from Jackson. My parents are from Jackson. Both sets
are grandparents are from Jackson, like deep roots in Jackson, Tennessee.
(20:04):
And then I went to college at Rhodes in Memphis
and then moved to Nashville. Wait, who did you say
was went there? Dixie Carter? I mean, I am obsessed
with designing women. She was also in pageantry, by the way,
So you moved to Memphis and what gets you into pageants?
(20:26):
Was like, it was like your mom into it? How
did that work? Bill? My mom wasn't in them. She's
never been in one. Now, she was elected Miss Southside
High School, but that was like a senior superlative, not
like a pageant. So um. But she even laughed at
me when I told her that I was going to
be in a pageant. And of course at that point
(20:49):
nothing was digital. So she threw the brochure in the trash.
She was like, oh, threw in the trash and I
got it. I was like, no, I'm going to do this.
Some young women only have one pathway out of Jackson.
They're a really great opportunity for small town girls. That's
why people are always asking me if my daughter is
going to do passions. I'm like, Lord, no, she needs
to do whatever she wants to do. She'll have more
(21:10):
opportunities than I did. Okay, So what was the first
pageant that you got into. I was in Miss Tennessee
t e e N as a teenager. I did win,
and then I went to the national pageant to America's
Miss t e e N. And I was Miss America's
t e in in nineteen and ninety three. Why are
(21:32):
you spelling it? Are we not allowed to say the
name of it? Or I'm confused to it was the
name of it. It was t e e N for
Teens Encouraging Excellence Nationally? So you won Miss t e
e N. And and but here I am today. Can
(21:52):
you believe it? Wait? But you and I are learning together. Yeah,
I gotta tell you I haven't heard this before either.
I'm just excited that there's a Miss Scuba out there somewhere.
Scuba international too, Like it's not just domestic, worldwide, like
it's global. This Miss Scuba is apparently I read something
that I thought was a kind of a crazy status.
(22:14):
So you're the only woman in pageant history to represent
the state of Tennessee at the Miss teen USA, the
Miss America and Miss USA pageants. You clearly got on
my Wikipedia page I did. So did you win all those?
I did well? I mean you, I mean you. You
didn't want to Miss USA or Miss America. You placed
(22:35):
high though, Yeah, but I was missed Tennessee and all
those yeas. I mean that was just like for like
my sister always teases me and she's like, oh God,
and she's still like acting like she's still Miss Tennessee today,
crown winner right here. Yeah, that's that's bigg What was
your What was your talent? I saying, Anne played the
piano too. Ain't no mountain high enough, ain't no valley
(22:56):
low enough, Ain't no river wide enough to keep me
from you else. I really wish this was a visual podcast,
because she just pantomimed the entire thing for us and
it was wonderful. I had full choreography. Don't worry, I
still can do the choreography for you, and she won't
sing in front of me. Now, is that unreal or what? Well?
I can understand Jay, like, you're obviously very musically talented person. Well,
(23:19):
I appreciate that. But we did do one du it
we did after all about Peter Sittera and share at
a pageant one time, and it was phenomenal, I mean
phenomenals pushing it long. They're not gonna lie that. You know.
Jay's kind and like wants to clearly still be married
to me. So that was that was sweet of him
to say. All right, so then you moved to Nashville
after all the pageant stuff. So I was missed in
(23:41):
the c USA in two thousand two, and I moved
to Nashville because my sister lived here and she worked
for Mercury Records, and I was going to go audition
for a video for These Days by Rascal Flats, and
I didn't know who they were. So I called my
sister and she was like, oh, yeah, they are really hot.
They just had a number one. You should go to
(24:01):
the audition. And so I went to the audition audition
and got the role of playing Jay's cousin, who's in
the Flats, who's the lead singer, um as his love interest.
And so that's where I met Jane, her sister was right.
We were really hut. So at that moment, is that
when you knew that she was the one? J like,
did you cast her? Being like, I'm gonna marry this girl?
(24:23):
Cast her? Yeah? I mean I was taken with her immediately.
She was beautiful, and we sat down next to each
other in the makeup chair, and she was very um,
outgoing and friendly, and I just spent the whole day
trying to follow her around and talk to her more.
And so I devised an evil plan to keep her
longer for the shoot. I came up with a shot
(24:44):
at the end of the video and I took it
to the director and I said, I think it'd be
really great to get our point of view. And she's
standing behind the fence, still looking at us on the tarmac,
and he was like, I love that. I'm gonna go
talk to her and see if she can stay. So
I got her the state until three am, which was amazing.
She was supposed to have been cut I think around
(25:05):
nine or ten or something, So of course said, aren't
you excited you're gonna stay. I'm like, I'm gonna get
paid three in her bucks. I gotta go to work tomorrow.
I just don't know that I'm gonna be able to stay.
Come on, we've got Papa John's. You know, you know
we wouldn't want to stay for some Papa John's, right.
Did you ask her out like after the shoot? What
(25:26):
I did was I, uh, she said, I don't really
want to use a porter potty, I don't use Can
I go on your bus and use the restroom? I said, sure,
come on up. So after she got finished, she came
out and I said, look, I'm gonna go ahead and
write my number down because I know you're gonna ask
for it anyway, I'm gonna go ahead and give it
to you. And she slid it back across the desk
and she said, my daddy told me that I could
(25:48):
never call boys, but if you want my number, here
it is. And she wrote it down and gave it
to me. And at the time I didn't know that
she was engaged, because they've made her take her ring off.
But you know, there's trouble in paradise if you're giving
a boy your number. You know what I'm saying. I
didn't trouble in Paradise. Well as even though Jay likes
to just decide that it was only him, and that
(26:09):
I met him and immediately knew that I had been
swept off my feet and fell madly in love with him. Well,
I saved your life, Alison. Would you have ever given
your number to Jay if he wasn't in a very
hot country band at the time. Well, let's also note, wells,
that I thought that his first single, which is actually
Praying for Daylight, was waiting for Midnight. So I can't
(26:31):
say that I was like a huge fan. Um. I mean,
I was just kind of being witty and funny. You're like, well,
I'll show him. I'm not going to take his number.
I'm not going to call him so and I knew
I could like decline the call, so it wasn't a
big deal, like, my, here's my number whatever. I still
remember her phone number two from back then. Really seven. Okay,
(26:53):
I'm gonna i'll bleep that out, but no, she didn't
have It's not her number anymore, but I remember it
because I've memorized it as soon as she wrote it down.
But you're you're you're yeah, you're obviously we can't no
one can see me. But I am wildly good looking
and very funny, so of course she was going to
give her a number to me, you know what I'm saying.
(27:13):
I mean, let's be honest, and then the rest is
history history. It's pure bliss in history right there. I
do want to say, though, I saw that you were
on the board of directors the Vanderbilt Children's Hospital, which
is a place that you know, I used to do
broadcasts from when I lived in Nashville, and it's a
really amazing special place, and so I mean, I just
(27:36):
think that that's such a cool footnote of all the
things that you've done. That's such a really really cool
and bright thing to shine a light on. So thank
you for that. Appreciate And I have to brag on
her and tell you she was actually the president of
the board for four years I think it was, so
she's you know, she's been running that ship for a
long time over there, and I couldn't be more proud
of her. And it's and it's an amazing place. You're right,
(27:58):
And it's one of the things I'm most proud of
that we've been able to do with Rascal Flats is
have the Racks Rascal Flats Surgery Center over there long
after we're gone from the Face of the earth. We'll
have a place that will always be a wonderful part
of our legacy that we leave behind. And I couldn't
be more proud of that. Wells I am totally took
the legally Blonde to movie poster and superimposed my face
(28:21):
on top of Reese and put my choo Ias face
on top of Bruiser's face, And that was like the
first image that I popped up because I'm in this
room with all these older men and it's just me,
and I'm like, hey, guys, you're a guy. So I
at least try to like pep up the entertainment value
of all of our board meetings because they were at much. Yeah,
(28:43):
like being on the board is hard. All right, Jay,
you're up. Let's let's go through your your origin story.
Where the hell did you come from and how the
hell did you get on this podcast. That's a great question. Um.
I grew up in Columbus, Ohio, so I'm a Midwesterner,
but my folks were from West Virginia and Kentucky, so
(29:04):
I was raised on country music. My my family were
a bunch of hillbillies living in the middle of Ohio,
so we were a little displaced. UM music was all
that I knew. My mom and dad were musicians. My
mom was actually country music Queen of Ohio in nineteen
sixty nine won a recording contract with Decca Records. And
my dad was a fantastic musician and basically taught me
(29:26):
from an early age how to play several different instruments.
And I was just consumed by music. But I didn't
have a way out of Columbus, Ohio. And I've always
heard if you want to go making in the entertainment
industry and music, you've got to go to Los Angeles,
New York, or Nashville. And since I had spent most
of my childhood summers coming to Nashville, going to the
(29:46):
Grand ol Opery, loving country music, UM, Nashville was a
no brainer for me, and it was an obvious choice.
Actually got a scholarship from music to go to Lee
University in Cleveland, Tennessee, which is just a little north
of Chattanooga. So I went to college in Cleveland, Tennessee.
(30:07):
Got a record deal my senior year in college with
a Christian duo that I was part of called East
to West. We made two records and were together for
about five years. In the mid nineties. We want a
bunch of double awards, had had a few number ones,
and then I got a girl pregnant that I was
dating and sort of screwed up the Christian career and uh,
(30:28):
that's the true, and thought that my life was over, obviously.
And a few short years later my cousin moved to town.
We started singing out in some bars together, and I
at the same time went to work for a girl
named shelling Right and I became her musical director. I
hired Jodan in to play guitar. We became fast friends.
(30:48):
I introduced him to Gary and the three of us
started singing together. We developed sort of this grassroots following
fan base around town here, and we got signed to
a record deal in October of nine nine and here
we are one years later. It's been an amazing ride.
I was reading and this is only going to be interesting,
(31:10):
I think for people who are very ingrained in the
nightlife that is Nashville, Tennessee. But I was reading that
the start of the band was on Printer's Alley. It
was at a little place called the Fiddle and Steel
Guitar Bar that is no longer there, but it was
right next to Lonnie's Western Room, the big karaoke bar
down there was Bourbon Street Boogie Bar right there as well.
(31:30):
Oh yeah yeah, it was right down right next to
Skulls was the Bourbon Street Blues Bar. Yeah, and really yeah,
that whole strip. And now they've torn all that out
and they're making some boutique hotel down there. Is have
they completed it? That's such a bummer because that was
such a cool little alleyway. Tourists didn't really know about it.
(31:52):
It was very kind of like a locally hang for
downtown Lower Broadway, and that was a bummer when I
heard that they were redoing that whole thing. What was
great is you're absolutely right. It was off the beaten path,
so a lot of the country stars would come into
the fiddle and steel guitar Bar because nobody would bother them.
So Toby Keith, Mark Chestnut, a bunch of these guys
would come in and hang out and get up with
(32:13):
us and sing because no one knew it was there,
and the ones that were there were sort of hometown
people anyway that weren't going to bother celebrities when they
came in there. It was really cool. So talk about
the creation of Rascal Flats in those early days. You know,
it really kind of happened organically. I I wanted to
produce and write for Gary and get him a record deal.
(32:34):
Um he came and sang for me on his way
down to vacation in Florida one weekend, and I said, Man,
you gotta move down here. Your voice is extraordinary and
if you don't try it, your window is gonna close. Uh.
I think he was twenty seven at the time, something
like that. So I talked him into moving in with me.
We had a little one bedroom apartment that I had,
and he slept on the couch, and I really wanted
(32:56):
to kind of be on the I had been an
artist already and and that kind of didn't appeal to
me anymore. So I wanted to be a producer and
a writer. And so the more he went out to sing,
he didn't play an instrument, so I always ended up
playing guitar piano for him when he sang, and it
just sort of evolved into this thing that you know
that we were known as the Cousins, and we play
(33:16):
all over downtown together and it became fun, not something
we were pursuing. You know, to try to be a band.
But the more we played together, and then when we
added Jod onto the mix, we had this blend in
this sound that you can't manufacture. It either happens and
you have chemistry or you don't. And we had a
very magical thing that happened when the three of our
voices blended together in harmony. And Jodan is not family,
(33:40):
but he blends and sings with us like he is
because he's got so much of the same history and
the same background and grew up loving the same things
that Gary and I did. So it's not something you
could ever pick three random people out in and recreate.
So we were we were. We were very lucky to
catch lightning in a bottle when we did, and the
(34:00):
world was just ready for something new and something sort
of different. In the sound that Gary has. He's a
country singer, but he's influenced by gospel and R and B,
and all of these flavors come out of his voice.
When you hear him sing. It's not typical of what
you would hear a country singer, particularly back then. And now,
of course we've got all these singers that are in
(34:20):
country music that really well a lot of them will
tell you have been influenced by Gary Levox and the
way that he sung over the past twenty years on
the radio with Rascal Flats. They you know, they have
to attribute a lot of their influence to what he's
been able to do, and that's an amazing thing to
be a part of. How did you guys come up
(34:41):
with a name for the band? And that's funny story too.
So we were signed a record deal and didn't have
a name, and the head of our record label, let's
the time, Randy Goodman said, you guys, we need to
come up with a name. We can't call you guys
the cousins because one of you is not a cousin,
so we need a name. So every night we would
play down in Printer's Alley, I would say, hey, guys,
we've got a record deal. If you've got any names
(35:02):
of bands, we sure could use him because we we
don't have a name. I had those many cassettes full
of Gary driving home to Ohio by himself talking into
the recorder going route nine seven, possible band names, food ahead.
I mean we I had like hours worth the recordings
(35:24):
of him putting potential names into this so if this
old guy that had come in to see us all
the time. His name was Jelly Roll. He was an
old piano player, had been on the road with all
kinds of country acts, used to sit at the end
of the bar every time we would playing. Came in
faithfully to hear us. Every night. He walked up to
me and he said, hey, Jay, when you all go
on break next time, I need to talk to you
(35:44):
for a minute. I said, okay, Jelly, I'll be over.
So I went over there and it was a loud
bar room. Jukebox was playing, and he said, I know
you boys need a name. By God, I got it
for you. You look like Rascal Flats. And I said,
what in the hill is the rascal flats Jelly He said, well,
I had a bad back in high school and we
(36:05):
used to play high school dances and bar Mitzer's and whatnot.
We called ourselves rascal Flats, and by god, you boys
look black rascal Flats, and you have that name. So
we were meeting with the record label the very next week,
and along Behold. They said, do you have a name.
And Gary's looking at me like, don't say it, don't
say it. I said, what do you think about Rascal
(36:27):
and um, so Randy Goodman looked at me, he goes,
I love that it's different. I think people will remember it.
And so it took Gary a little bit to get
get used to the name. He hated it at first,
but we didn't have any other options. So we scraped
together five thousand dollars and and wrote up a contract
and had Jelly Rolls sign it. And it was the
(36:49):
greatest thing to happen in his life. He was just
so touched and uh, that was a lot of money
for us back then. So that's how we got the
name Rascal Flats. I mean, the fact the guy's name
was jelly roll is like the and then awesome, absolutely beautiful,
Like that's like one of those things where like you'd
see that in a movie and you like, that's that's
not real, Like you couldn't write that. You know. Yeah,
(37:12):
the band is massively successful. You're supposed to go on
I guess kind of a farewell tour, but you know,
the world's ending, so that had to be put on hold.
Why why in the hell are you guys hanging it up?
I think after twenty years we got to this spot
to where we started talking about what we were going
to do next and what we had left on our
(37:32):
list of things to accomplish, and the more we discussed it,
it was like we've had twenty wonderful years and there
are things that each of us are passionate about individually
that we want to try before we're too old to
try them. And so I think that for us will
never be one of those bands that says that's it.
We're not doing anything else together, we're breaking up forever.
(37:54):
I think it. This is a break not a breakup,
and it's been good for us to be on twenty
years together, going at a breakneck speed, being together, three
individuals with three individual personalities. I think that this may
be one of the best things to happen for us.
We needed a break from each other and it's been
(38:15):
great to concentrate on some other things that we're all
passionate about. Gary's doing a solo record, Jodan has been
writing and producing. I've been working on this TV show,
and I started record label in two thousand and eighteen,
so I'm trying to get that up and off the ground.
So we love each other still, which is a feat
in and of itself for a band to be able
to say after twenty years, but there definitely comes a
(38:38):
time when everyone's human and they look around and they go,
I think we need a break. I think we need
a breather here, and so this is not the way
we want to go out. I know that we'll be
back on the road to love on our fans and
and have give them a chance to see us again.
So as soon as we know what that looks like,
you'll be the first to know. Speaking of breaks, I'm
(38:58):
gonna let you guys go here in a second. But
before right, dude, you guys have some time for some
rapid fire questions, absolutely honest, rapid fire questions with Jay
and Alison DeMarcus. Number one favorite pizza topping Chez Pepperoni, mushroom,
favorite book. I don't read, no, I just read Instagram
past and if somebody likes a really long one, I'm
(39:19):
not reading that. I think it quick caption and I'm out.
I'm a d H. D Wells and I gotta I
gotta keep scrolling. I can't read stuff like that. You Yeah,
in the group of Grace, Max and Kato, who's your
first kiss, Bob Franklin, it sounds like a grown man.
He had dad, Bob somebody I mean he was I
(39:42):
didn't kiss his dad. They were in the eighth grading. Bomb.
He was really hot. He's still really hot. They couldn't
call him Robbie or something that they just called him Bomb.
Mine was Jody Karrico, the next door neighbor. Bob Franklin
does sound like a used car salesman. Come on down
to practice where you're seeing make kids and little girls.
(40:07):
It was the first concert you went to. Debbie Gibson
Dolly Parton. What was your first job? I was the
secretary at Carolina Air Center. Dante's Pizza in Columbus, Ohio.
Most famous person in your phone Billy'safka. Did you have
a poster hanging on your bedroom wall? Yes? No, my
mother did not let me hang stuff up like that.
Def Leppard. What was the first record LP cassette CD
(40:31):
that you bought? Thriller Chicago six? Hard to say? I'm sorry.
If superpowers are real, what would be yours? Teleporting places
so I don't have to sit in traffic? The impossible
ability to make my wife happy at all times. The
show is called DeMarcus Family Rules. What is your number
one rule? Live? In the moment. Be in the moment.
My number one rule is remind your spouse how lucky
(40:53):
they are. You are very lucky. Guys. Thank you so
much being on this show. This is so funny and
so much fun to get to know you all. Everyone
out there, don't forget to go watch on Netflix to
Marcus Family Rules. It is absolutely hilarious. It's wonderful, it's wholesome.
It's everything that really the world needs right now, because,
let's be fair, there's a lot of bad right now.
(41:15):
That's a fair statement. Yeah, thank you guys so much.
You guys rock I appreciate a said Hi, I will
see you guys. Well, they're just the sweetest freaking thing
in the world right. Oh my god, I love him
so much. I want to go. I just want to
be part of their family. I think. Yeah, he's like
a guy that would be embarrassed by my reality. He's
(41:37):
like he'd be proud of it. I gotta go because
we're about to record another episode back to back, so
I'm out of here. I love you guys, and don't forget.
You know, if you if you haven't rated it and
reviewed the show, please go do so it helps out
and Tell your friends about the show because I need
more money. Subscribe to wealthcast on I Heart Radio, Apple podcasts,
(41:59):
or where you get your podcasts. It's the Internet.
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