Lady Antebellum has racked up dozens of awards and honors over the years since they’ve been together, but perhaps none has meant more to them than their recent accolade. The trio, made up of Hillary Scott, Charles Kelley and Dave Haywood, received the prestigious Randy Owen Angels Among Us Award, honoring their work with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
“I can’t help but just feel even more gratitude for the success of ‘What if I Never Get Over You’ and the career that we’ve had up to this point because of the platform that it gives us to use our voices to bring life to amazing places like St Jude to give back and see lives changed,” Scott told PopCulture.com. “I mean, we love what we do and we feel like it’s what we’re called to be doing, singing and writing and recording and performing these songs. But what we witnessed today, again, touring this hospital and everything that they do, that’s the real good stuff, what they’re doing.”
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Lady Antebellum’s work with St. Jude began as their career began, inspired by Alabama‘s Randy Owen and his work with St. Jude.
“It is wild,” Kelley noted. “We came into this genre 13, 14 years ago. This was the rite of passage and it was like they were teaching you. All your heroes were saying, ‘Hey, all right, you’re about to obviously go on this crazy journey and chase down this dream, but you have a responsibility as well, to show up and give back.’ That’s got to be just such an amazing, humbling feeling to think of something that he really helped spearhead.
“I don’t see it stopping,” he continued. “I only see it growing. Even looking at this year and how much money our genre has raised as a whole and as a family is pretty, pretty wild, but it takes that. It’s, $2 million every day that it takes just to keep the lights on.”
Lady Antebellum hadn’t thought much about which causes they would contribute to early in their career, but one visit to St. Jude made them determined to do all they could to help the worthwhile cause.
“I think from the moment we stepped through those doors, it changed our trajectory from a philanthropic standpoint,” Haywood acknowledged. “It was our top priority and it’s been a huge part of our LadyAID fund that we give to every year and all the events that we’re able to do. But I see all these first-time artists and that really inspires me because I hope a few of them go home and go, ‘Man, this is going to be a part of our every day, every year commitment.’”
“So I’m thrilled to see so many fresh new faces here,” he added. “We were those people ten years ago looking up, still looking up to Randy Owen and what he’s done here. But it’s people like him that started the tidal wave.”
To donate to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, visit their website.
Photo Credit: Getty / Brett Carlse / Courtesy of St. Jude
