I just can’t help myself.  When Rascal Flatts start a winter leg of their tour, tease me with clips of their brand new single and are releasing a new album this spring.  I just can’t help but talk about them.  So, until the actual release in April you are just going to have to suck it up and read about them…….I know a lot of you won’t be very upset about that!  

Ok, so still not many videos up from the Kansas City show.  Here is the only one that I have found so far.  “Life is a Highway”.

I am going through Rascal Flatts withdraws and need them to come back to Nashville or Ohio VERY soon for a show.  And I would rather they leave Jessica Simpson at home.

Ok – onto other news.  There is another writer to the new song “Here Comes Goodbye” and we haven’t really talked about him.  His name is Clint Lagerberg.  He is blogging about where the song came from and it looks like the song was written especially with Rascal Flatts in mind.    Here is his blog entry from MySpace:

THE STORY BEHIND RASCAL FLATTS SINGLE…. “HERE COMES GOODBYE”

Thought it’d be cool for y’all to know the story behind my song “Here Comes Goodbye” that Rascal Flatts chose as the first single off the new record “Unstoppable”… I apologize for the novel but its just hard to say it in a few words. I had just signed a publishing contract with Extreme Writers Group/Big Loud Shirt and was told Flatts were looking for songs. I was determined to get them a batch of songs they couldn’t refuse… So I devised a way to come up with Flatts specific titles and the first title I came up with was “Here Comes Goodbye”. I went into my studio and sat down with the idea and all of a sudden it just started falling out of me. I wrote the first verse and half the chorus then took a break. Next morning I had a writing session with Chris Sligh and showed it to him. We finished the chorus lyric then he had to take off to visit his parents who were in town. I couldn’t get to sleep that night so I got out of bed and wrote the second verse… Chris came back soon after and played a cool piano chord progression that we worked into what is now the intro and verse. A bridge was written and Chris went back to hanging with his parents ( they were in from Germany ). Later I had Nashville artist Sean McConnell over to record a demo of one of his songs at my studio. Sean and I are great friends so we made a day out of it. When we finished his demo he felt like he needed to return the favor so I had him sing on a piano track I had a friend lay down for “Here Comes Goodbye”. Sean is so amazing he nailed it in no time with ridiculous emotion. I mixed the piano vocal demo while Sean worked on his laptop. I pushed play at about 11:30 that night and about 4 minutes later we sat there speechless. I know if I opened my mouth the huge lump in my throat would’ve fallen out and I’d have been a bumbling fool… Both our eyes were watering but we managed to hold it together. We both knew this was something very special. Next morning I had a writing session in Nashville and on the way called my publishers. I told them that I had just written the next big Rascal Flatts single. I dropped by their office and let them hear it… It had the same effect on them that it did on Sean and I the night before. I left for my session and they got busy sending the song to the appropriate people in the Flatts camp. About 3 hours later I got a call from my publishers while in my session telling me that Lyric Street Records and Joe Don Rooney loved the song and wanted to hold it for the record. That was I believe to be April 7th, 2008… Time went by and we found out that they cut the song in November ’08. Later we heard rumors that they were wanting it to be one of the singles off the new record… Well, on Jan 14, 2009 I was called out of a writing session to jump in on a conference call with Lyric Street Records Director of A&R, Kirk Boyer. I had no idea he was about to tell me that Rascal Flatts had chosen “Here Comes Goodbye” to be their first single the night before… I had all I could do to hold it together again. I got a chance to hear it on Jan 16th and am still trying to recover. “Here Comes Goodbye” is going to radio Monday, Jan 19th with an official add date of Jan 26th… Make sure to listen for the song that changed my life (and Chris Sligh’s) on Country and eventually AC and Hot AC radio.

Geez, that was long and drawn out but kinda a neat story. Well, I suppose that’s my Rascal Flatts news for the day – unless someone sends me a full copy of “Here Comes Goodbye” today. I will post it for all of you AS SOON AS I RECEIVE IT. I’m not gonna lie – I am going to listen to it first! Then I will post it.