Today is release date for Taylor Swift’s 1989, the former country superstar’s first big pop album. As part of a huge promotional blitz for the album Swift shared the Hollywood Bowl stage Friday night with Pharrell Williams, Sia, Iggy Azalea, Ariana Grande and many more as part of CBS Radio’s We Can Survive show.
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The one country act on the bill, Lady Antebellum, spoke to Billboard before their strong set and the Nashville group say that they are proud of and happy for Swift.
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“Nights like tonight make you realize just good music wins and people love great songs. So many of those tracks Taylor has been releasing are so catchy and so good, and if it’s a great song people are gonna love it — no matter what it is,” Dave Haywood said.
“We love all music, and [we’re] proud of Taylor. Taylor is a global artist, so to talk country and pop with Taylor, she’s just bigger than all of it,” Charles Kelley added.
Lady A have had their own brushes with pop success, like “Need You Now,” and they are grateful for that crossover acceptance. “We were always with the attitude if it ever finds its way there, great. We’ve said it all along, any station that wants to play our music go for it,” Hillary Scott said.
Ultimately though, country remains their base. “Country music is our home — that’s where our heart is, that’s where we’re from, that’s what we know,” she said.
“I think for us though, our home has always been country and will continue [to be], just because we feel like our music fits in that genre. I think for us we’ve always been much more of a contemporary country band, so it’s not a stretch to have songs go on the pop side. But I think the majority of our music is always gonna live in that country world,” said Kelley.
As the one country act on this diverse bill, Lady A were also happy to embrace the opportunity to be around so many big-name stars from different walks of musical lives. “We’re always learning. We love to go to live shows and watch and learn and grow, because that’s one thing we want to continue to build is our live show. All the artists on this bill know how to do that,” Scott said.
The trio will be taking the lessons from having acts like Iggy Azalea play right before them on the road in support of new album 747. As they do, there are several tracks from the album they are excited to see evolve on stage, starting with “Freestyle.” “Our current single is one that kind of represents us as a band trying to explore some different sounds and try new things, because I do think we’re known for that mid-tempo ‘Need You Now’ yearning stuff, but we also like to have a lot of fun and we’ve had songs like ‘Lookin’ For A Good Time’ and ‘Our Kind Of Love’ in the past that have been really fun songs. And this record has a lot of that,” Kelley said.