Lady Antebellum’s Charles Kelley Credits Tough Love With Track on ‘Ocean’

When Lady Antebellum wrote and chose songs for their latest Ocean album, just released, they […]

November 19, 2019, 1:52pm

When Lady Antebellum wrote and chose songs for their latest Ocean album, just released, they decided to be honest, vulnerable and even a bit raw. While that transparency comes through on all 13 tracks on the record, perhaps none gives a glimpse into at least one of their lives, Charles Kelley’s, as much as the song, “Be Patient With My Love.” Kelley co-wrote the song with Dave Barnes and Ben West after being confronted by both his wife, Cassie, and his fellow bandmates, Hillary Scott and Dave Haywood, while going through a particularly dark season in his life.

“There’s some fun stuff too in there, there’s a lot of hope, and then there’s a lot of honesty and a little bit of that on this record as well. I’ve never, ever, in the past really been willing to talk about stuff like that,” Kelley told PopCulture.com and other media. “I’d have been like, ‘Nah, nobody needs to know our struggles.’ It’s just natural stuff I think that we all kind of can go through it, and it just, it feels very therapeutic to actually talk about it and put it into a song.”

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Kelley, who admitted he was drinking too much at the time, knew he needed to get a handle on the struggles in his life, instead of heading down the path he was already on.

“My dad, he said he cried because he’s been praying for me he said for the longest time to kind of find God again and really get that connection,” Kelley recalled. “It means a lot to him and I hope that maybe even some fans hear that, because I was very stubborn with that concept a lot. I know for a fact it’s made me feel that even more. But also the support from Dave, Hillary, when it was kind of like ‘Hey man, you need to get this s–– in check.’

“At the time it was, it pissed me off,” he admitted. “I look back and I’m like, if they had not done that, who was going to do it, you know? Because my wife could tell me all she wanted to but until you’ve got your bandmates [speaking up], you’re like, ‘Oh s––, I’ve got, I’ve got to control this.’ There’s a lot of that on this record I think.”