Gary LeVox, Jay DeMarcus and Joe Don Rooney of Rascal Flatts have severed ties with restaurant developer RF Restaurants, LLC.
In 2017, the trio licensed the use of its name to RF Restaurants to open a chain of restaurants, reportedly in Cleveland, L.A., Orlando and more. However, according to Rascal Flatts’ recent post on Instagram, the group has terminated its agreement with RF Restaurants, saying, in part: “We ended the agreement and do not have a business relationship with the developer. They are not authorized to use our name in any way. We wanted to be transparent to our fans in case there was any confusion related to our involvement in the restaurants.”
In 2018, it was reported by WKYC that RF Restaurants’ project in L.A. was mired in a lawsuit and its project in Cleveland was stalled, while also noting a possible mafia connection.
In April 2017, Jay DeMarcus told Nash Country Daily, “We’re excited about [the restaurants]. We’re not running it. There’s a group that came to us and pitched us this idea to license our names.”
“God, can you imagine if we tried to run it on our own?” added Joe Don. “That place would be a wreck.”
You can read Rascal Flatts’ full statement via Instagram below.
photo by Jason Simanek
