If you’ve ever been within earshot of a Boston Red Sox game, you have certainly heard Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline.” It’s not just for baseball fans, either. The 1969 tune has played after every Iowa State Cyclones football victory since 2006. Something about the infectious soft rock hit fosters feelings of camaraderie among its listeners—for better or for worse, as country trio Rascal Flatts found out during a recent West Virginia show.
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“What Did Y’all Say?:” Rascal Flatts Leads Charleston Crowd in R-Rated Rendition of “Sweet Caroline”
Selling 27 million albums and charting 14 No. 1 hits, Rascal Flatts shocked fans in 2021 by revealing they had quietly gone their separate ways following the cancellation of the previous year’s farewell tour. Lead vocalist Gary LeVox also publicly expressed his frustration, telling People, “I hate the way that it ended… I can’t stand the fact that it just feels there’s no closure with something that we’ve been so blessed with.”
Fortunately for those fans, the “Bless the Broken Road” hitmakers announced last October that they would reunite for the 21-date Life Is A Highway Tour in commemoration of their 25th anniversary. Levox joined multi-instrumentalist Jay DeMarcus and guitarist Joe Don Rooney for a Friday (Feb. 14.) show at Charleston Coliseum in West Virginia.
Fan-captured footage shows the six-time CMA Vocal Group of the Year leading the crowd in a spirited rendition of “Sweet Caroline.” Everything is going smoothly until the familiar ba ba ba refrain. Here, the crowd seizes an opportunity to yell, “Eat s—, Pitt!”
Astonished, Levox asks, “What did y’all say?” as laughter fills the venue. He continues the chorus, but the crowd staunchly echoes, “Eat s—, eat s—, eat s—.”
Rascal Flats tonight in Charleston. They decided to play Sweet Caroline.
— Jonathan Martin (@JonathanKMartin) February 15, 2025
The crowd did not disappoint. Enjoy. pic.twitter.com/wFGeMVl99a
“That’s not very Christian,” Levox chides the crowd. “I’m just saying, y’all need to get your a—es to church on Sunday.”
[RELATED: Rascal Flatts and 2 Other 2000s Country Music Acts Due for a 2025 Comeback]
A Look into the WVU-Pitt Rivalry
In the spirit of never being caught off guard like Gary Levox at a Rascal Flatts concert in Charleston, let’s peek into the storied rivalry between the West Virginia Mountaineers and the University of Pittsburgh Panthers.
A mere 75 miles apart, the two universities boast one of college football’s most intense rivalries with the Backyard Brawl. In 2008, the Panthers unofficially adopted “Sweet Caroline” for their own, inserting, “Let’s go Pitt!” in place of the instrumental ba ba ba beat.
Sensing a prime trolling opportunity, the Mountaineers have “adapted” the song to throw shade at Pitt—even when Pitt is not their opponent.
Featured image by Kristina Bumphrey/Shutterstock
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