The Grammy-winning trio boasts prodigious talent, but chance drew them together, and earned them their name
They’re a Nashville trio that has pulled off a remarkable double-play, reports Ben Tracy:
Lady Antebellum is one of the hottest country and pop acts around.Last year’s «Need You Now» was the second-bestselling album of the year.
Now they’re out with a new record, «Own the Night,» which debuted at number one on the Billboard charts.
The tracks on their new album are a mix of lost-love longing and Southern comfort — fitting for a band that Charles Kelley says is finally easing into its whirlwind success.
«We’re hitting that stride of, ‘OK, man, let’s take a little pressure off. Let’s really try to enjoy this, let’s try to live in these moments that we’re having and appreciate ’em,'» said Kelley.
After all, it’s an odd twist of fate that these three ever even met.
As a Nashville native, country music has been in 25-year-old Hillary Scott’s blood her whole life. Her dad is a musician; her mother, a singer who had a number one hit with Reba McIntire in 1993.
Hillary spent part of her childhood on the road touring with them.
«For kindergarten I was home-schooled, and I literally lived on the bus and would watch school on videotape,» said Scott. «I would, like, cry when the school bus would go by. I’m like, ‘I want friends that aren’t 35!'»
By the time she was in high school, she was performing with her parents in an annual Christmas show.
«And I knew, after doing that for three years, if I can sing Christmas songs night after night for, like, two months straight, that I can definitely do this, you know?» Scott laughed.
Dave Haywood,29, and Charles Kelley,30, met in middle school.
«We’ve been buddies, you know, for 15 or more years now,» Haywood said. «We grew up together in Augusta, Georgia. So there’s just a comfort level of somebody you’ve known forever.»
They played in cover bands together, attended the University of Georgia, and then began to write songs.
Their first attempt: «Carpe Diem is on Vacation.» «It’s pretty deep, if you think about it,» said Haywood.
«We were really bad!» laughed Kelley. «I mean, it took a long time to really catch our stride. I was walking in the wrong direction.
For a time it looked like they might not make music again.
