ON, OFF THE ROAD
Tour break led to new music from Lady Antebellum
S ome bands take a break from the road to recharge their batteries and kick back from the all the touring madness. For country music powerhouse Lady Antebellum, a happy break from touring — after the birth of lead vocalist Hillary Scott’s daughter last summer — was anything but a vacation. Band members Dave Haywood (vocals, guitar, piano) and Charles Kelley (lead vocals) returned to the recording studio (later joined by Scott) to do what they love most: make music.
Not that they didn’t have some downtime.
“We had been [touring] hard for seven or eight years without more than two or three weeks off,” Kelley said. “So to have a few months off, I did stop and take a breath for a little while. I went to Italy with my wife, played some golf. [Laughs] Had a little life outside work. On the flip side, it made me realize how much I miss music and touring.”
During the break, Lady Antebellum recorded three new tracks for a special edition of “Golden,” the trio’s fourth studio album. “Golden Deluxe” includes five bonus tracks and the group’s most recent hit, the hugely catchy and uptempo rocker “Compass.”
On “Golden,” Kelley said, “there weren’t really any true upbeat songs that our fans were used to. So we went back in and recorded ‘Compass’ and ‘And the Radio Played.’ ”
The strategy worked. “The show now is basically everybody up and on their feet the whole time,” he said. “We’ve got the ballads, but we’ve also got the really rockin’ uptempo songs that get people excited and singing along.”