Country music fans mourned when Rascal Flatts announced in 2020 that they were disbanding, following a farewell tour that never happened due to the pandemic. By the time Rascal Flatts was officially history, band member Jay DeMarcus was already deeply involved in another business endeavor, his Christian label, Red Street Records. Earlier this year, DeMarcus announced he was expanding the label to include a country music division as well, signing Ryan Griffin as the flagship artist, and increasing his staff to be able to compete with the other major labels.
“The immediate goal for me is to be a real player in this industry because I’m really passionate about what we’re building over here,” DeMarcus tells MusicRow. “You can tell by some of the people that we’ve brought on to the staff and the people that we’ve already had on the team, that we’re bringing on people that are very experienced in the music industry. I’m really thrilled with the moves, promotions and new hires that we’ve made, and hopefully it makes the statement that we’re here to stay and leave our mark on the music industry.
“This is all I know how to do—I don’t know what my life would be like without music,” he adds. “I’m really grateful for the opportunity.”
Having spent more than two decades as one-third of one of the most successful acts in country music, the experience gave DeMarcus a strong foothold as he launched Red Street Records, while also showing him how much he still had to learn.
“One of the major things that I’ve learned is I love it very much,” DeMarcus says. “It’s very rewarding for me to be able to pass the baton to the next generation of country music stars. I’ve also learned that there was so much more about the music business that I didn’t know. I’ve had to surround myself with really good people and, thank God, we’ve had really good people come to us that I can lean on and that can teach me the things that I don’t know.
“I didn’t understand the administrative side of running a label and the nuts and bolts that make a label run,” he continues. “The basics of running a business have been a fast education for me, and I’ve been grateful to have good people around me.”
DeMarcus’ name and notoriety certainly could have opened some doors for him on his own, but the 51-year-old wanted to make sure he did everything the right way, even if it took a long time.
“When I first opened Red Street, I wanted to make sure it was something I was going to be good at and that I wasn’t just wasting everybody’s time,” DeMarcus explains. “We started out really slow, signing a couple acts out of the gate. The more we got into it, the more we started to take some baby steps toward success. I realized it was something that I had a real passion for. I was really excited about the opportunity to pass on whatever experience I’d had in the last 22 years with Rascal Flatts to younger, up-and-coming artists and help them be prepared for things that I wish somebody had been around to tell me. That concept of being not only a label head, but also a quasi-mentor, was really appealing to me.”
Red Street Records has also signed the country duo Neon Union to its country roster. Find more information at RedStreetRecords.com.