Songfacts®:

• In this song, Rascal Flatts lead singer Gary LeVox encounters an old flame, which is always awkward. When she asks the inevitable question, "What are you doing these days," we hear his internal dialogue. He wakes up in tears, puts on the song they used to dance to, heads to work, goes home and dreams of her. Turns out she ran off to Vegas and married a rodeo cowboy, which he didn't see coming, but there's a lot he got wrong in this relationship.
• "These Days" was written by the Nashville tunesmiths Jeffrey Steele, Steve Robson and Danny Wells. Steele and Robson later co-wrote the Rascal Flatts hits "What Hurts The Most," "My Wish," and "Here."
• This was the lead single from Rascal Flatts' second album, Melt. Their brand of country-pop caught on right away - their first album, released two years earlier, sold over 2 million copies and contained four Top 10 Country hits that also made the Hot 100. "These Days" took them a step higher, giving them their first #1 Country hit and their highest Hot 100 placing to that point at #23. By the time the group called it quits in 2020, they had 12 Country chart-toppers.
• Rascal Flatts had just three members, but like that other massive-selling country trio The Chicks, got a lot of help from Nashville session stars. "These Days" features drummer Lonnie Wilson and guitarists Dann Huff and Jerry McPherson. Huff became the group's producer starting with their 2006 album Me And My Gang.
• In the music video, Gary LeVox bumps into his old flame at Nashville International Airport, where they have their stilted conversation as his bandmates wait for him. These scenes are interspersed with performance footage outside in the rain.
  
  The girl in the video is Allison Alderson, a former Miss Tennessee. LeVox had been married since 1999 but his bandmates were single, and Alderson ended up pairing off with the group's bass player Jay Demarcus. They got married in 2004 and had two children together.
• After delivering the goods with their debut album, Rascal Flatts' record label, Lyric Street, commissioned a big-budget video for "These Days," made by Deaton-Flanigen Productions. It was an arduous shoot: they spent about five hours under a rain machine for the performance scenes and many more in the airport for the indoor part. An array of cameras was set up outdoors to do the rotoscoping effect to make it look like a camera is moving around a still image.
  
  Gary LeVox did most of the acting while his bandmates played the part of aggrieved onlookers. Deaton-Flanigen Productions also made the group's next video, for "I Melt." In that one, guitarist Joe Don Rooney got the lead role.