A decades-long partnership! Gary LeVox and Tara LeVox (née Vernon) have been married for more than 20 years and remain as in love as ever.
“[Our secret is] just keeping God in the center of our marriage,” the Rascal Flatts crooner, 52, exclusively told Us Weekly on Wednesday, October 5, while promoting his song “Get Down Like That,” his first solo single. “Truly that’s the main thing [because] we can screw it up a lot when it’s just us trying to handle everything. So just keeping God at the center of our marriage has been the anchor point for us.”
Gary and Tara met backstage at a gospel music festival before they started dating. The twosome tied the knot in 1999 — and the “Life Is a Highway” singer is “absolutely” still as romantic as the day they exchanged vows.
“Little Olive Garden on a Wednesday? Come on,” Gary quipped to Us. “Oh, yeah. Little Baskin Robbins? You ready? You ain’t ready.”
The married couple balances their romantic date nights with raising their two daughters: Brittany, 22, and Brooklyn, 18.
“Just because of [my] work and stuff, Tara was always like, ‘You know, you cannot come home [from touring] and just be the good cop,’” the Ohio native recalled of their parenting dynamic on Wednesday. “But, you know, dads are different because, like, it doesn’t take so much energy for us to correct our children than it does for moms. I can look at them or something and go, ‘Are you serious?’ And [they say], ‘I’m so sorry,’ whereas Tara would have to sit there and talk for 30 minutes on why it was wrong and they’ll go, ‘OK, I know. Gosh, I get it.’”
As Brittany and Brooklyn have grown up, they’ve shown interest in following in Gary’s musical footsteps.
“It blows my mind how gifted and talented that they are, you know?” the “My Wish” performer gushed to Us about their singing skills. “And they just have undeniable talent. So it’s awfully fun to sit there and watch them do their thing. … I just want them to be happy and do what they love to do and they can be anything that they wanna be.”
While Gary doesn’t want to push his girls to go into the music business, he’s eager to help them “all the way through” if that’s what they want.
After performing with Rascal Flatts — alongside Jay DeMarcus and Joe Don Rooney — for 20 years, Gary is branching out as a solo artist. His debut country single, “Get Down Like That,” dropped last month.
“Things have been off and rolling, so I’m excited. Well, I’ve already got five or six other things already in the can and so we’ll wait to see when we release them and how we drop them,” Gary hinted to Us. “But, you know, we’re off to a great start and I’m just, I’m having so much fun. I can’t even begin to tell you.”
With reporting by Christina Garibaldi
