Lady A has released their long-awaited new song, “Love You Back.”
Although the trio’s Hillary Scott, Charles Kelley and Dave Haywood didn’t pen it, Charles recalls sharing a strong affinity with the track as soon as he heard it.
“It’s funny, we had written a ton for this record, as we usually do, and it always seems to work this way that sometime around the 11th hour there, a song just comes in,” says Charles. “I thought the hook [of ‘Love You Back’] was just so simply well done. I was like, ‘Gosh, how did I not come up with that,’ you know? ‘You can love a memory, but a memory can’t love you back.'”
“I get sent a lot of songs. We all do,” he notes. “[This] was just one I kept listening to over and over again.”
With half a mind to record “Love You Back,” Charles approached Emily Weisband, who co-wrote the track with James McNair and Lindsay Rimes, to do a little test run.
“I texted [one of the song’s co-writers] Emily Weisband and I said, ‘Hey, I have an idea. Lyrically, this would be great for a duet. Before I send it to the guys, can I come over and sing with you? You play Hillary,'” Charles recounts of his text exchange. “We changed the key and we did that.”
“Once she put her vocal on it and it had mine in there together, I was like, it just sounded like a Lady A song,” he recalls. “So the minute I sent it to the guys and our team, they were flipping out over it.”
“Love You Back” is the first preview of Lady A’s forthcoming as-yet-untitled new album.
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