Rascal Flatts dropped some big news today, and that announcement is that new, old music is on the way.
The country group is teaming up with other artists for a collaborative album titled Life is a Highway: Refueled Duets. It’s set to be released on June 6, and fans will be able to hear 10 of Rascal Flatts’ biggest hits reimagined to include artists like Blake Shelton, the Backstreet Boys, and Kelly Clarkson… just to name a few.
Lead singer Gary LeVox described the project as a “thank you” to their fans for blessing them over the past couple of decades, and all in all, the country group got a number of big names inside and outside of the country music genre to help them out. Here’s the entire set list for the Refueled Duets album:
1) “I Dare You” (with Jonas Brothers)
2) “Fast Cars And Freedom” (with Jason Aldean)
3) “My Wish” (with Carly Pearce)
4) “Mayberry” (with Blake Shelton)
5) “Stand” (with Brandon Lake)
6) “Summer Nights” (with Ashley Cooke)
7) “What Hurts The Most” (with Backstreet Boys)
8) “Yours If You Want It” (with Jordan Davis)
9) “Life Is A Highway” (with Lzzy Hale)
10) “I’m Movin’ On” (with Kelly Clarkson)
New album, Life Is A Highway: Refueled Duets, coming your way June 6! Featuring reimagined versions of our hits with @jonasbrothers, @Jason_Aldean, @carlypearce, @blakeshelton, @brandonlake, @theashleycooke, @backstreetboys, @JordanCWDavis, @LZZYHALE, and @kellyclarkson!… pic.twitter.com/CiEZRi8mp6
— Rascal Flatts (@rascalflatts) March 6, 2025
Hey, that’s great for Rascal Flatts… but does anyone else kind of see it as a ripoff of what the legendary Brooks and Dunn did with their Reboot projects?
Brooks and Dunn released their first Reboot in 2019, and then followed it up with their Reboot II album in November of last year. Calling their second Reboot project a full-fledged success could be an understatement. The project helped them bring home the 2024 CMA Vocal Duo of the Year award, which was the 15th time they’ve been honored with the title, and now ties them with the most CMA Awards ever at 19 total wins.
Unlike the first edition of Reboot, where many of the artists included stayed true to the original song structure, Reboot II featured some wild departures from the source material. When Brooks & Dunn sat down with Rob + Holly on Audacy, Dunn said that was all part of the plan:
“The mandate for (the first) Reboot was to stick with what brought us there, but give everyone the freedom to do whatever they want to do. This one (Reboot II) is no holds barred. You come in as an artist, you want to take on a song, you pick it, you do it. We’re there for support.”
That’s the fun part about the Reboot projects – especially the second time around. They breathed new life into all of our favorite Brooks & Dunn songs, and it was welcomed because the duo of Kix and Ronnie (doesn’t have the same ring as Brooks and Dunn, does it?) had been broken up for almost a decade.
Rascal Flatts went on a hiatus as well, but their plan to part ways only happened in 2020. Five years later, they decided to reunite for a Life Is a Highway Tour, and now they’ve got this duet album to pair with it. Obviously, it’s not like Brooks and Dunn own a patent for albums that include reimagined duets… but this move by Rascal Flatts certainly comes off as a, “Well it worked for them, why don’t we try it ourselves?” kind of move. They even got Lzzy Hale, one of the outliers collaborators (she’s a rocker) on the Reboot project.
And I don’t know about you, but I’ll always prefer (and side with) the musical styling of one Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn over Rascal Flatts:
