Lady Antebellum: Irish fans on 'another level'
Last updated 13th Oct 2017
American country music group Lady Antebellum has told Downtown Country of their love for Irish fans.
The band caught up with Stuart Banford in Dublin during their most recent 'You Look Good' world tour.
The group, made up of Charles Kelley, Hillary Scott and Dave Haywood, said the band's following here are among some of their most loyal supporters:
“They just consume the entire record I think that’s what I love about it," said Charles Kelley.
He added: “It’s not necessarily a single’s driven listener, they really dig in.
“We’ll have people come to the meet and greet and they’re talking about songs off the new record like ‘Hurt’ or ‘Somebody else’s heart.’
“Not to say that there aren’t die-hard fans in the States that of course know all the songs off the record but not to this level.
“I feel like when you come over to places like Dublin, the fans that are coming to your show are so die hard and so excited to see you that it’s almost like they go and do their research.
“They know who wrote the songs, the whole background behind it and I think that’s what to me is the coolest thing.”
Front woman Hillary Scott said despite travelling all over the world to perform, they have a particular affinity with the Irish audience.
“We pour our heart and soul into every single track on every record so it’s not just the songs that get put on the radio.
"So to feel that love and that investment from the fans here is just really, em it’s a real amazing feeling.”
The band have recently been supported on their world tour by grammy award nominated country star Kelsea Ballerini along with Brett Young.
However, it is not the first time the band and Kelsea have been together.
“She came through our meet and greet as a fan of ours when she was 13-years-old so we were at CMA music festival in Nashville Tennessee and this was probably 2009/8 somewhere around there and em…obviously we didn’t know at the time," said Dave.
“We got on tour together and Kelsea showed us this picture earlier this year and she’s like ‘I got my picture with you guys, I was 13, ya’ll had just started and had a few songs out' and it made us feel really old.
“Man it’s been great to watch her star rise I mean she is on top of the world, even the past few weeks just with this new record that’s coming out soon for her…she’s just on fire.
“We really tour with people we love, we try to hand pick artists we love and we believe in and we believe in their music.
"Brett's no exception, I mean his first few songs have been killing it in the US and I'm so excited for people to see him here.
"It's fun, this is their first time I believe playing in Dublin so for us, that's a big honour.
"We had that role underneath people like Keith Urban and some other people that took us to different places...so for us to help introduce Ireland to these two superstars is really a big honour for us," he added.
Having started their music career in 2006 in Nashville, Tennessee, the group have experienced over a decade in the country music industry.
They say there has been a lot of changes in that time.
"The genre has just changed so much and I think it's because there is a need for just bands, especially in pop music," said Charles.
He continued: "This genre has opened up to me a voice for traditional country still but also for, kind of...bands like us that were just as much influenced by Tim McGraw as we were Led Zeppelin and Pearl Jam."
The trio's debut UK and Europe single 'Need you Now' is perhaps their best known.
The record won four Grammy awards in 2009 including both song of the year and record of the year.
Hillary said despite its success, it was written very quickly.
"It was the second song we wrote that day.
"We had started one with our co-writer and finished it and it was like not even lunchtime you know.
"Charles grabbed the guitar and started playing the chord progression and some of the lyric and the verse that he had had as a voice memo on his phone and it was off to the races.
"We wrote it so quickly, it was just one of those songs too that when we wrote it we didn't really know what we had.
"We just got into the studio and it took on a whole new life and we're just so grateful because that's the song that changed it all," she finished.