Jay DeMarcus

Jay DeMarcus
DeMarcus at a ceremony to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in September 2012
Background information
Birth name	Stanley Wayne DeMarcus, Jr.
Born	(1971-04-26) April 26, 1971 Columbus, Ohio, USA
Genres	Country, contemporary Christian
Occupations	Musician, songwriter, producer
Instruments	Keyboards, guitar, bass guitar, drums, vocals
Years active	1992–present
Labels	Lyric Street, Big Machine
Associated acts	East to West, Rascal Flatts
Website	www.rascalflatts.com

Jay DeMarcus (born Stanley Wayne DeMarcus, Jr.; April 26, 1971) is an American bass guitarist, harmony vocalist, pianist, record producer and songwriter,^[1] who is a member of the country group Rascal Flatts.

Biography

DeMarcus was born in Columbus, Ohio. He graduated from the Tree of Life Christian School in Columbus while living with his mother and sister. He also has a half-sister from his father's side of the family. DeMarcus attended Lee College in Cleveland, Tennessee, from 1990 to 1992. At the time, he traveled and performed as a keyboard player in the Christian music group New Harvest, led by Danny Murray. Later, DeMarcus helped start contemporary Christian music group East to West and moved to Nashville in 1992. In 1997, he called his second cousin, Gary LeVox,^[2] with whom he played with when they were younger, and convinced him to come to Nashville and provide some harmonies on Michael English's album Gospel, for which he was producing. They engineered the album together, and became English's back-up band.^[3] The album was nominated for the Dove Award for Best Gospel Record.

In addition to producing for English, he has also produced albums for James Otto, Jo Dee Messina, Austins Bridge and others. He produced the 2006 release for the band Chicago titled, Chicago XXX.

He soon became bandleader for Chely Wright. Eventually, he met Joe Don who is now the group's other member. DeMarcus called Joe Don to fill in for a guitarist who had left the band one night.

Personal life

On May 15, 2004, DeMarcus married Allison Alderson a former beauty queen who has held the titles Miss Tennessee 1999 and Miss Tennessee USA 2002. DeMarcus met her on the set while filming the video for the Rascal Flatts song, "These Days". Their first child, Madeline Leigh DeMarcus, was born on December 17, 2010, at 4:49 p.m. CST and weighed 6 lbs. 9 oz. On January 25, 2012, he announced via Twitter that he and his wife were expecting their second child, a son, in summer of 2012. He and Allison welcomed son Dylan Jay on July 20, 2012 at 4:02 p.m.

2010–present

On March 4, 2010, DeMarcus and his band mates were guest stars on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, starring as themselves. In the episode, he is electro-shocked by his own bass guitar during a performance at a Vegas club, leaving him with total amnesia.

References

External links

• Jay DeMarcus at the Internet Movie Database