Rascal Flatts Reveal How They Found ‘Riot’

Rascal Flatts are currently storming up the charts with "Riot," the latest single from their No. 1 Rewind album. None of the band members wrote the tune -- it was actually penned by Jaron Boyer and Sara Haze -- but they all agreed the first time they heard it that they wanted to include it on the album.

"It came to us after a very long day of having a bunch of song meetings over at Big Machine," Jay DeMarcus recalled to The Boot and other reporters at a recent media event. "We were sitting around with different [song] plugger groups. At the very end of the day, that was one of the last songs to be played. It was just Sara Haze singing with the piano. It just absolutely blew me away.

"After you have a long day like that, your ears are sort of fatigued to begin with. When I heard that song, and it caused me to stop everything I was doing and zone in on it, I knew that it was at least worthy of a play for these guys to hear it," he continues. "So I took it immediately -- I think we were leaving that night, and the next day, I called them over to my bus, and I said, 'You've got to hear this song. I think this is a winner.' And Gary [LeVox] said, 'Can we cut it tomorrow?'

"So it was just one of those things, it was a no-brainer," DeMarcus concludes. "I knew with that chorus, it was the kind of chorus Gary could really sink his teeth into."

With lines like "I would do most anything, baby / If only you would come back to me / Come back to me / There would be a riot," the trio was drawn to the song's unique message as much as its melody.

"It's just such a cool way to say that you'd be lost without that person," Joe Don Rooney adds. "Saying it completely different, which is the key to a great song -- finding something that is so ordinary, but saying it differently."

Rascal Flatts are nominated for an ACM Award, for Vocal Group of the Year, at the 2015 awards ceremony, set for April 19. Beginning in May, they'll be hitting the road for their Riot Tour 2015.

Watch Rascal Flatts Perform an Acoustic Version of 'Riot'