Lady Antebellum sent their fans into a bit of a frenzy at the end of 2015. After the completion of their tour that year, the group announced their plans to take a break and enjoy some downtime.
During that period, each of the group members went on to pursue some individual passion projects. Dave Haywood worked on a variety of projects, and did production work for country trio Post Monroe. Charles Kelley released his debut solo album The Driver in September 2015, which peaked at the second spot on the country charts.
Hillary Scott also released an album during the break, a gospel record called Love Remains. Her song “Thy Will” was nominated for Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song at the 2017 Grammys and the entire album was also nominated for Best Contemporary Christian Music Album.
Since the trio kept busy with their individual projects, they didn’t appear together many times in 2016. One of their few appearances together was for the “Forever Country” video, which was released on September 20, 2016.
Fans started to grow concerned that the group’s interest in seperate projects meant that a breakup was in the future. Their lack of public appearances added fuel to that fire, with many speculating that the Grammy-winning group may have been on more than just a break.
But Lady Antebellum proved they are here to stay with a big announcement they made on January 19. On that day, they announced the release of a new single “You Look Good,” and shared a lyric video to go along with it. They also announced their plans to release an album, titled Heart Break, on June 9. But that’s not all! In May, the group is taking off on a world tour to help promote the new album.
In the end, it seems that some fans got all worked up about nothing. Addressing the breakup rumors in an interview with Nash Country Daily, Kelley stated that there was never any doubt that they’d get back to work after their much-needed break.
“Honestly, we always knew what we were doing,” he said. “It may have seemed kind of odd to everybody outside, but we knew. We just needed this time more than anything away and we could give the fans a little break from us too, you know?”
As it turns out, Haywood said the trio still got together all of the time to work on writing for the new album. “We saw each other every day last year anyway,” he said.
Overall, everyone in the group feels like the break was the best choice for them. As Haywood explained, it gave them the chance to take a step back and focus on writing great songs.
“We need a breather, we got to reset and figure out how to get back in the writing room and start like we did in 2006—with that kind of excitement and innocence and write that way,” he said.
You can feel the excitement in the group’s new single, “You Look Good.” Check out its lyric video below!