Early life

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.

Career

DeMarcus co-founded the contemporary Christian music group East to West and moved to Nashville, Tennessee in 1993. In 1997, after East to West disbanded, he called his second cousin, Gary LeVox, 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. The album was nominated for the Dove Award for Inspirational Song of the Year.

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.

On March 4, 2010, DeMarcus and his band mates were guest stars on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, appearing as themselves. In the episode titled "Unshockable" (10.14), he is electro-shocked by his bass guitar during a performance at a Vegas club, leaving him with total amnesia. DeMarcus has continued to explore his acting career, appearing in the film A Country Christmas, as well as episodes of ABC's Nashville and Lifetime's Drop Dead Diva.

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, was born in December 2010. In July 2012, he and Allison welcomed son Dylan Jay.

Non-Rascal Flatts album credits

Year	Album	Artist	Credit
1998	Gospel	Michael English	Producer, engineer, bass, acoustic guitar
2003	Some Things Never Change	Mark Lowry	Keyboards
2006	She Was Country When Country Wasn't Cool: Tribute to Barbara Mandrell	Various artists	Bass
2006	Ten	Brian McKnight	Bass, piano
2006	Whatever We Wanna	LeAnn Rimes	Bass
2006	Chicago XXX	Chicago	Producer, arranger, engineer, guitar, keyboards, vocals
2008	Sunset Man	James Otto	Producer, bass
2008	The Prodigal Comes Home	Michael English	Arranger, vocal producer
2010	Unmistakable: Love	Jo Dee Messina	Producer
2010	Times Like These	Austins Bridge	Producer
2011	New Day	The Martins	Producer, vocal arrangement, guitar, keyboards
2012	New to This Town	Kix Brooks	Producer
2012	Tuskegee	Lionel Richie	Bass
2012	iCarly: iSoundtrack II	Various artists	Producer
2012	Brighter One	Marshall Hall	Producer, electric guitar
2013	Alabama & Friends	Alabama	Producer, bass
2013	Love Is Stronger	Jason Crabb	Producer, bass
2013	Some People Change	Michael English	Producer, engineer, bass
2013	Surrender	Adam Crabb	Bass
2014	Nashville Outlaws: A Tribute to Mötley Crüe	Various artists	Producer, bass, piano

Awards and nominations for producing

See also: Awards received by Rascal Flatts

Year	Award	Work	Result
1999	GMA Dove Award for Inspirational Album of the Year	Gospel - Michael English	Nominated
2011	Grammy Award for Best Southern, Country, or Bluegrass Gospel Album	Times Like These - Austins Bridge	Nominated
2013	GMA Dove Award for Southern Gospel Album of the Year	Love Is Stronger - Jason Crabb	Won
2014	GMA Dove Award for Southern Gospel Performance of the Year	"Love Is Stronger" - Jason Crabb	Pending
2014	GMA Dove Award for Inspirational Album of the Year	Four:Twelve - No Other Name	Pending

Filmography

Film and television appearances

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2006	Yes, Dear	Jay DeMarcus	Episode: "The Limo"
2009	Hannah Montana: The Movie	Rascal Flatts
2010	CSI: Crime Scene Investigation	Jay DeMarcus	Episode: "Unshockable"
2013	A Country Christmas	Chim Ritchels
2014	Drop Dead Diva	Trevor	Episode: "First Date"
2015	Nashville	Himself	Episode: "Forever and for Always"

[ Source: Wikipedia ]