Lady Antebellum Ready to Hit the Road with Kelsea Ballerini and Brett Young
"We love to tour with our friends. It always makes for a really fun environment," said the band's Hillary Scott.
In just a few short months, Lady Antebellum will criss-cross the globe for their international headlining You Look Good World Tour in support of their upcoming album Heart Break. The group, comprised of Charles Kelley, Hillary Scott and Dave Haywood, will hit cities across North America, as well as Europe and South Africa. For the North American leg of the journey, the band will be joined by rising country star Kelsea Ballerini and up-and-coming singer/songwriter Brett Young. The choice to bring the two budding acts on the road was an easy decision for the trio, who has been watching the young acts develop over the last year or so.
“Kelsea had opened up probably eight shows for us over the past couple years and I remember the first time I saw her I was like, ‘Man, she’s got something,’ but you could tell she was kind of green still on stage,” said Kelley during a recent press conference with Sounds Like Nashville and other media. “Then now seeing here, you’re like, ‘Wow!’ She just … The amount of growth and she’s a rock star, man, and so first off you, want people with some hits out there because we want to put on an entertaining … We want everybody to get fired up by the time we get out on stage and she’s starting to really just … She’s blown up this year and so it’s you always want someone like that.”
The same could be said for Brett Young, who recently notched his first No.1 with his single “Sleep Without You” and will release his debut self-titled album in February.
“We’ve been really lucky, like a couple years ago we lucked out and had Hunter Hayes and Sam Hunt,” Kelley continued. “We didn’t know that he was going to be as big as he is and so we’re hoping Brett Young is going to be our Sam Hunt this year too (laughs), but no, you just want a fun show more than anything. You want to show some different kind of what’s happening, what’s new, what’s hot and I think [Kelsea] represents this new female kicking butt thing that’s happening in country music right now, which I love. Then Brett, we had heard his first single. I think it wasn’t even top 20 and I was like, ‘I think this guy’s going to be big, man.’ We had met him at a couple charity events, some St. Jude events that I had done on the solo run, I had met him down there and he seemed like a nice guy. He’s 6′-6′ like me…”
The entire tour will be a reunion of sorts for the artists, who hang out together outside of work.
“We love to tour with our friends. It always makes for a really fun environment,” added Scott. “The whole culture of our tour is just really easy going and inclusive. We hang out together. We’re never the artist that just stays in our bus all day. We’re in playing ping pong, working out. Honestly, Eisele, my little girl, goes in and is like the mayor. She goes around and does the welcoming every morning, just going to and saying hi to everybody. We want people with us on the road especially when it’s months out of a year and 60-something shows, like you want to have fun. You want to know that you’re going to have fun [with].”
Lady Antebellum’s You Look Good World Tour, presented by Nabisco, kicks off on May 26 in Bakersfield, CA.
