In 2006, three musicians came together to form a country music powerhouse.
Before long, they started racking up Grammys and riches, becoming mainstays on the scene.
So, who is this rocking trio, how did they get their start...and what's up with that
name?
What's your earliest childhood memory?
For most people, it won't involve going on tour with one of the world's most famous music
singers, but that's exactly the case for Lady Antebellum's lead singer Hillary Scott.
Scott spent much of her young life on the road with her mother, country music singer
Linda Davis.
The country music legend Reba McEntire had discovered Davis after inquiring about the
voice she kept hearing on demo recordings.
Davis and her husband, who played in McEntire's band, brought their daughter along to support
McEntire's tour, but little did she know the profound effect it would have on her.
As Davis later told Homecoming Magazine:
"We didn't think Hillary was paying attention to what we were doing back then, but now,
when I hear her interviews, I see that she really was!"
But it wasn't always easy.
In 2012, Scott spoke to CBS News about her childhood memories on the road as part of
the country music scene.
She said:
"For kindergarten I was home-schooled, and I literally lived on the bus and would watch
school on videotape.
I would, like, cry when the school bus would go by.
I'm like, 'I want friends that aren't 35!'"
Though Lady Antebellum only has three members, the trio have quite a few notable family connections.
Singer Charles Kelley and his wife Cassie McConnell began dating at the time that she
was a publicist for Kelley's older brother, Josh Kelley, who is also a popular country
music singer.
In fact, in their early days, Lady Antebellum wrote most of their songs at Josh's house.
Lady Antebellum's on-tour drummer is Chris Tyrrell, Hillary Scott's husband.
In sticking with true family values, he took time off touring to stay home and look after
his and Scott's twin baby girls when they were born.
Speaking about his new role, Tyrell told People magazine:
"I've been a bandmate, employee, husband and dad, so I'm okay removing a hat."
As for the band's third member?
Well, Dave Haywood briefly played in a jazz band together with Josh Kelley, having known
each other at school, a connection they had made through Charles himself.
By far the quietest member of Lady Antebellum, Dave Haywood had quite the unique childhood.
For one, he grew up in a household with a father who is considered dentist royalty.
Discussing his dad to GAC, Haywood said:
"In the dental world, he is a rock star.
He's the Bruce Springsteen of the dental world!"
Why?
The elder Haywood's dental claim to fame is that he invented the overnight teeth-whitening
method in the 1980s.
And it wasn't just pearly whites in the Haywood household, they had a knack for making music,
too.
As Haywood said of his childhood:
"My dad taught me to play guitar back in middle school, and my mom taught me how to play piano
in elementary school…Everyone in my family sings, so it all comes directly from them."
Not only did Haywood grow up in a musical family, but he also found his own family in
the music industry.
In fact, his wife Kelli Cashiola was a marketing vice president at Warner Music Nashville.
Lady Antebellum started when two musically-inclined friends from Georgia crashed courses with
an aspiring songbird.
Describing the long personal history of her two bandmates, lead singer Hillary Scott told
NPR:
"The boys went to middle school, high school, college together, and then right out of college
after they'd been out a year, moved up to Nashville to start writing songs."
Kelley and Haywood both ditched their post-University of Georgia real world gigs for a shot at stardom
in Music City.
On a night out in Nashville, Scott, then an aspiring musician, recognized Kelley from
his Myspace page.
Scott admitted that she liked his music, so Kelley suggested the two write together.
The rest, as they say, is history.
And while fate seemed to set a happy path for this songwriting trio, one thing wasn't
written in the stars.
Kelly also confessed:
"[I] thought I might get a little date out of it, if nothing else."
Looks like those Grammy statues will have to do.
Surprisingly enough, "Lady Antebellum" isn't actually a pseudonym for the band's lead singer,
Hillary Scott.
So why is the band called that?
Well, Dave Haywood disclosed the origins of the now famous moniker in an interview with
NPR, saying:
"[We were] taking some photos one day in front of one of these old antebellum homes and,
you know, one of us said the word and we all kind of stopped and said, man, that could
be a name."
What exactly is an antebellum?
Think back to history class: the Antebellum Period was the historical era in the southern
United States leading up the country's civil war.
From there, all of the band's members agreed that the term antebellum had a nice ring to
it, sounding equally nostalgic and unique.
Haywood further explained that, because they had a woman in the group, they threw the word
"lady" in there for no real reason.
After that, the name just stuck.
Country music lyrics are often about celebrating the good life, and the parties that go along
with it.
So it's unsurprising that a country music act like Lady Antebellum enjoy a good party,
too.
In fact, it's a long-gone trait of the band that singer Charles Kelley is actually still
pretty open about.
He recounted to Rare:
"We'd be drinking and playing ping pong for four hours before every show."
Eventually, he and the rest of his bandmates found significant others, and all of them
had children of their own.
Settling down and becoming a dad definitely changed Kelley's perspective on life.
In an interview with The Boot, he admitted:
"I've definitely had a little bit of a come-to-Jesus with my wife and the band about controlling
my drinking."
By 2017, he'd found a different kind of excitement before each show in the form of bathing his
baby and putting them down to sleep.
Kelley told Rare:
"And then you have to flip that switch and an hour later jump onstage and try to be a
rock star.
That's really weird."
But the kids don't always get to come on tour, and it's never easy leaving them behind.
"We've been away from our kids for a little over a week, so I'm like watching them and
just getting teary."
Every big band has their signature "breakthrough" moment, a moment when everything seems to
click, and the group is launched into the musical stratosphere.
For Lady Antebellum, this moment came with the release of their second studio album Need
You Now, as well as the single of the same name.
As it happens, Lady Antebellum's "Need You Now" is the second best-selling digital country
song of all time.
The album itself received glowing critical acclaim on its release, going on to win the
Record of the Year prize at the 2011 Grammy Awards, while the single itself won Song of
the Year, too.
On accepting the award, Charles Kelley said:
"This song has completely flipped our world upside down."
Before "Need You Now" took off, the band thought the song wasn't even good enough to be recorded.
Hillary Scott admitted to Billboard:
"It was literally the last song we played in our A&R meeting for this record."
It seems like Lady Antebellum can count their lucky stars that their producers recognized
the earliest stage of a smash hit.
The record company took a chance and encouraged the band to fine tune the song.
And look what happened.
When Hillary Scott opened up about one of the most devastating losses she had ever endured,
she did so because she wanted to be open about a topic not often discussed by anyone at all,
let alone a famous musician.
On Good Morning America, Scott detailed her struggle after enduring a miscarriage, saying
it fundamentally changed her as a mother, and made her want to recognize some of the
untold pain of the experience that so many women endure.
"There's this pressure that you're just supposed to be able to snap your fingers and walk through
life like it never happened."
Scott seemed to come out stronger from her devastating experience.
She turned her heartbreak into music by releasing an album of hymns called Love Remains.
Scott recorded the album with her family, her mother, Linda Davis, father Lang Scott,
and her sister Rylee Scott.
The Lady Antebellum singer has since opened up about writing the album's first single
called "Thy Will."
"It was at my most raw place that I could have ever been when this song truly poured
out of me."
Part of Lady Antebellum's success can be attributed to the group's genre-crossing ability, expertly
combining pop and country music.
But the band didn't develop this knack alone, singer-songwriter Michael Busbee played a
huge role in developing Lady Antebellum's unique sound.
Busbee was at the top of his game in both genres, lending his talent to songs for some
of the world's most popular and iconic musicians.
Sadly, Busbee passed away in 2019, at just 43 years old.
Soon after, Lady Antebellum posted a touching video tribute to their friend and producer
on Instagram.
"Do do dude on the piano right now, Mike Busby.
Busby they call him, with a little B."
Lady Antebellum's 2019 album Ocean featured the song "Alright," which the band co-wrote
alongside Busbee.
Speaking with Taste of Country about the collaboration, Hillary Scott said:
"To me, ['Alright'] embodies how he lived: living in the moment.
Enjoying what life has to offer.
Knowing that it's going to have ups and downs."
Busbee's passing only added to Scott's support for cancer research, and led her to use the
band's popularity to raise awareness for the cause.
With eight studio albums under their belt as of 2019, Lady Antebellum are worth a pretty
penny.
As reported by Yahoo!
Finance, the band was worth a collective $41 million in 2019.
Leading the pack is Charles Kelley, who alone is worth $20 million, in part thanks to his
solo album The Driver.
His real estate prowess helped too, considering the nearly $1.3 million profit he likely earned
from the sale of his Nashville home in 2017.
Next up is Hillary Scott, who was reportedly worth $11 million as of 2019.
She also had her solo album, Love Remains, which was released in 2016.
Some of these earnings from that record probably went to the upkeep of her own sweet crib.
Variety reports that Scott and her husband, drummer Chris Tyrell, bought a roughly $2
million home near Nashville back in 2012.
Not to be outdone in the real estate market, Dave Haywood and his wife acquired a sizable
home of their own, unsurprisingly located near Nashville.
Variety reported that the Haywoods purchased a $2.1 million home in 2012, which was quite
the upgrade from the much more modest condo the couple had purchased one year earlier.
They won't be strapped for cash anytime soon, though, since the guitarist is reportedly
worth a cool $10 million.
Before Lady Antebellum became the country music juggernaut that they are today, the
band was just one of many acts on the Nashville music scene.
When it was finally time to play live shows, the band got their start at the popular local
bar and music venue 3rd & Lindsley.
In 2018, Lady Antebellum played their first show as a band at the historic Red Rocks Amphitheater,
and the gig served as a poignant contrast for singer Charles Kelley.
Speaking with Rolling Stone about the momentous occasion, and marveling at how far the band
had come from its earliest days, Kelley specifically name-dropped his old watering hole.
He said:
"It's kind of exciting to see how long we can do this thing, you know?...We might not
always be able to play Red Rocks, but we'll play the hell out of 3rd & Lindsley."
It's true that, even after 12 years of world tours and a whole lot of fame, Lady Antebellum
still likes to rock out at 3rd & Lindsley.
The band even taps the venue for important events, such as the special album preview
party held for Ocean, the group's eighth studio album.
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