Good things don’t come to those who wait. They come to those who are forced to wait. Lady Antebellum would vouch for that.
After all, the band’s album Need You Now, is better off because the group had to push back its schedule for the record in order to open for Keith Urban last year.
“We wish we could have put it out last year,” multi-instrumentalist Dave Haywood says. “But I’ll tell you, we wouldn’t trade it for the world.” Because of the delay, Haywood says, the group found “two or three songs” that substantially improved the album.
Waiting — not to mention blind luck — have proven to be worthwhile for the three-piece country-pop outfit. The trio only began writing songs together in 2006. But by the next year, the group had been signed by Capitol Records and was recording its debut.
Haywood says the band’s tour with Keith Urban in support of its self-titled debut was the best thing that could have happened. “Hello World,” a song the band covered on Need You Now, was literally a last-minute addition — it came up for discussion by e-mail just days before the final recording session.
“We were sending e-mails around, and we were, like, ‘You know what? We don’t have one of those deep songs that actually makes you think and really kind of gives you hope,’” Haywood says. “That song has changed my life personally. [It] has an awakening of why you’re here and why you do what you do and the things that really matter in this life, your relationships and stuff. That song makes the record for me.”
“Hello World” is a highlight of the new CD — but it’s not the one that boosted Need You Now to No. 1 on the country charts. That honor belongs to the title track, which topped the Billboard country singles chart and was still in the top 10 when the album was released on Jan. 26. The second single, “American Honey,” recently followed suit and currently sits at No. 2.
“Need You Now” wasn’t a song the group envisioned as a single. But they also didn’t expect big things from “I Run to You” (the signature song from the group’s 2008 self-titled debut album) either.
“‘I Run to You’ was our favorite song on the first record, but it was one of those things where we always said, ‘Yeah, that’s our favorite song, but it will never be a radio single,’” Haywood says.
They couldn’t have been more wrong. That song topped country music singles charts, and won a pair of 2009 Country Music Association awards and a Grammy.
So, maybe good things, in fact, come to those who just don’t have any idea they’re coming.
Lady Antebellum with Tim McGraw and Love and Theft at the Spokane Arena on Thursday, May 20, at 7 pm. Tickets: $50-$66. Visit ticketswest.com or call (800) 325-SEAT.
