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Interview Podcast

Three appears to be the magic number for Lady Antebellum. Hillary Scott, Charles Kelley, and Dave Haywood formed a songwriting relationship back in the summer of 2006. Immediately, the three realized their potential for penning addictive hooks that appeal to not only fans of contemporary country but also those who enjoy a good ole-fashion pop radio song.

After a brief period writing and recording demos together, the newly christened Lady Antebellum tried their luck on the stages of Nashville. Within a short period, Lady A--as their fans call them--began to pack the house and soon attracted Capitol Records bigwig Mike Dungan. The rest is history in the making.

MP3.com chatted with Lady A's Hillary Scott on the release date of the group's self-titled album. An enthusiastic Scott explained how the three met, the etymology of the name Lady Antebellum, and her love of corn dogs.

Hello. Hi, Chris. How are you? Fantastic. How are you? I'm wonderful. It's nice to talk to you today. It's wonderful to talk to you. You're very sprightly and enthusiastic this afternoon. Oh, thank you. It's a big day today. I have a lot of to be excited about. Oh, OK. Well, let's get down to it. What do you have to be excited about today? Today is actually the release of our debut album. That is correct. And it is your self-titled album. Yes. It's self-titled Lady Antebellum. We thought our name was confusing enough. It is. Maybe you could actually demystify it a little bit for our readers. Where does the name come from? Absolutely. I will try my best. We got together, you know, as just songwriters. Became friends and started writing songs. And we wanted to put up a MySpace page. So we wanted to take pictures to put on MySpace to get people's attention, and we ended up going out outside of Nashville to this little town. It's this historic town called Franklin, Tennessee, and there's tons of antebellum homes with the columns, like, from Gone With the Wind. And we ended up in front of these houses, and Charles, the other lead singer in the group, he kind of looked back through the pictures and said, "Wow, that's a really beautiful antebellum home." And I said, "What does that mean?" I didn't know what it meant. But after he explained it to me, I was like, "Oh, yeah. It is. It's really pretty." And he goes, "Isn't that a cool word?" And then we just put a bunch of words in front of it, and "Lady" is what stuck. Oh. So it's purely a name of your own device, so to speak. I know, it's such an anticlimactic story. I wish there was a better explanation. But it kind of just happened. And it was--honestly, compared to the other names that we were throwing around and trying to, like, trying to narrow it down to, like, this was the best one we had. Can you give me some of the other names? Oh my gosh. We went to Cracker Barrel all the time for lunch when we were writing a ton, like, in the very beginning. And we would look around on the tin signs at Cracker Barrel, trying to find some kind of city or cool-sounding city or word or something. And Springdale struck our fancy, which now looking back it's like, "Wow, that really, really is horrible." And then we also had, like, I think Charles had said, "What about Crooked Creek?" And we were like, "No, there's a Nickel Creek already." So we were just honestly so desperate, and Lady Antebellum was the best, so that's what we stuck with. Good. Well, it's a unique name, and, you know, it doesn't seem like it will get as lost in the shuffle. I hope not. And honestly it's been so neat because early on we started--after we wrote a handful of songs we started playing shows out every other week in Nashville and we built a small but mighty little fan base pretty quickly. And they even started shortening the name down to Lady A, which is cool and it's way easier to say and spell. So hopefully that'll catch on. I'm sure it probably will. Speaking of catching on, that seems to be exactly what's happening with Lady A. Thank you. How can you describe in your own words this sort of meteoric rise to success? Oh my gosh. Like, honestly it has been the most amazing experience. Just the way that the three of us met each other and just the whole--it's been such an organic process. I mean, every single decision has just been, like, we were just placed in the same place at the same time. And we just feel so lucky to have clicked so well creatively, because you never know when you get together to write a song with two people you don't know how that's going to go. And the fact that the three of us were just compatible creatively and then just got along really, really well as friends, too. I mean, I'm experiencing all of this with two of my best friends in the whole entire world. And, I mean, what more could you ask for?

And not only that but just to be on a record label like Capitol Records, and everyone that works there and they've just gotten behind us 150 percent and they're working so hard. And we have amazing management and booking agents. And honestly, we feel so lucky and just honored to be doing what we're doing. We don't take it lightly at all. So what do you think was really the tipping point that led to the interest of Capitol and a larger fan base for you? I mean, you're going from writing songs presumably in someone's living room and playing a few select shows in the beginning. Looking back, what do you think was really the moment where you knew that something was going to happen? You know, we started playing shows in Nashville every other week at this place called 3rd and Lindsley. It's this little music venue bar that is just real homey and we got really, really comfortable there and that's where we started getting our chops up. And we would send out bulletins and messages to get people out there, and Nashville being such a small town--I mean, it's kind of a big little town is what I like to call it--and just word starting spreading. And honestly, both my parents are in the music industry in some way, shape, or form and, you know, had friends, and I had been working with a really talented songwriter in town prior to Lady Antebellum. And so she told her friends, and it just--I think word of mouth.

We never really did an official, formal showcase where we invited people out, just because we wanted everyone to kind of hear through the grapevine and feel like they found it instead of someone begging them to come somewhere that they didn't necessarily want to be.

So that's how all of that happened, and then Capitol, Mike Dungan, the President of Capitol Records, came out to one of our shows...a couple, actually. And that's when we started talking to him and set the groundwork to be on Capitol. So it was a lot of legwork, a little bit of inside connection, and just some good music, right? Yes. All of that and you throw a little luck in there, and that's how it happened, absolutely. Yeah. Wow, that's exciting. Where do you foresee--I mean, as today is the release of the album, how is this going to impact you for the remainder of the year? I assume touring, promotions, and very little time for your own life. Yeah. I mean, that's very true. We are just honestly--this week we're doing as much as we possibly can, just talking to as many people as we can. We're actually taping. We're out in LA taping The Ellen DeGeneres Show on Thursday, which airs on Friday. And we're just--we're doing a show here in LA tonight at the Key Club. Or not tonight, tomorrow night, excuse me. At the Key Club. And then this summer we have tons of fairs all over the country with Kenny Chesney, with Tim McGraw, with--I'm sorry. Dave is, like, slapping at a gnat here. He's sitting right here by me. So Tim McGraw, Kenny Chesney, Jason Aldean, Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood... It's kind of the final cake-and-corndog tour. These are all over, playing with different people. And then in the fall we're hoping for a tour but we don't know yet. Well, it seems like if you're playing with all these incredibly established people that it's only a matter of time before you're headlining your own tour. Oh, well, I sure hope so. We just honestly want to get our music out there to as many people. Get in front of as many people as we possibly can. And the three of us, Charles and Dave especially, are just workaholics. I mean, we can't be home for longer than a couple of days before we all-- You can tell. They can't seem to find the time to shave. I know. I know. Aren't their beards, like, going crazy because they don't make time to shave? But, you know, we're home for two days and we get stir-crazy. So it's one of those things. It's like we're all young and just enjoying this so much. This is everything we've ever dreamed of. How old--what's the average age? What are we looking at? I'm 22. I just turned 22 in April, April 1. Dave is 25, and Charles is 26. Wow. You all are very young. So we're young and ready to go. We're rearing to go. Young and restless. And then I can leave you with one last question here. Well, maybe another question is which do you prefer, funnel cake or corn dogs? Oh, gosh. It depends on which day it is. Right. Probably I really like corn dogs more than funnel cakes. Yeah, of course you do. Everybody likes corndogs. I think you'd have to be brain-dead to not enjoy a corn dog. I agree with that. And they have some good ones at these fairs we're going to be at. Well, you know, this might be the weight-gain tour. Oh my gosh, I know. I'm going to have to run an extra five miles every day. Maybe you could explain the songwriting process? I mean, you said you all three came together as songwriters, so I assume there was no immediate desire to get out and perform. Right. That's exactly right. You know, I've been writing since I was a kid. Everything from poems to journaling and little songs, you know, that I would write. And Charles and Dave, they grew up together in Augusta, Georgia. They've known each other since middle school, and they were always in bands, either the school band or little garage bands that they would put together, like, between them and their friends. And so they've been writing their whole lives, too. And then Charles and Dave actually started writing together in college. Then they both graduated the University of Georgia, worked for a year out in the real world, they like to call it--that wasn't the path for them.

And so Charles reached out to Dave and said, you know, "Let's get together and write." And they started writing, and they are such a great team. Like, they write really, really great together.

And then for me, my story is kind of, being born and raised in Nashville...writing. And then I met Charles, he introduced me to Dave, and then the three of us just got together not long after that. And the first song we wrote together is the third track on our album. And honestly it was just--it felt like magic. There's really no other way to put it. Like, "All We'd Ever Need" is probably the most special song to the three of us not only because it was the first song we ever wrote but it's personal experience for all three of us. Like, we've all been through a very similar situation to what the song's about.

And then we frankly--like, I pretty much camped out at their house all summer. I would get there in the morning, we'd start a song, we'd finish a song, Dave would start doing a demo of the song--because they lived with Charles' brother, Josh, and he had studio equipment and instruments. And Dave would produce and play all the instruments on these demos. And then we would sing it that night and it would be done. I mean, we were writing like crazy. And it was just for the pure joy of it. I mean, it was the most amazing just pure and beautiful time. I mean, it was so innocent. We were just so excited to have met each other and to be clicking like this and to be writing these songs that we were writing.

And then after we had written about probably close to 10, we were having such a great time we were like, "Why don't we go book a show somewhere? Nobody will probably show up, but who cares? You know, we'll go and we'll play these songs that we've written and sing some covers and just have a great time." And then once we did that once we were hooked. I mean, there was no going back after that. Yeah, it is addictive, isn't it? It is. Getting up in front of everyone. We'll see how much you love it after 200 dates this year. Oh gosh. You know what? Then you just take a good 10-day vacation and then you're ready to go again. I'm sure you will be. Well, I sincerely appreciate your time. Oh, no problem. It was so nice talking to you. Absolutely. And enjoy yourself out there and, you know, try and revel in the freshness of all of this. Thank you so much, Chris. Well, take care. Bye bye.