A fresh start.
The 2020 iHeartCountry Festival is tonight, but before superstar acts like Lady A take the virtual stage, E!'s Carissa Culiner caught up with the band to discuss their plans for the show, and more importantly, why they decided to change their name.
The trio that makes up the band—Hillary Scott, Charles Kelly and Dave Haywood—made the announcement that they'd be going from "Lady Antebellum" to "Lady A" in an open letter to fans on June 11.
Though the country singers noted that "Lady A" was a nickname fans had given them "almost from the start," they also apologized for not previously considering the "associations that weigh down this word referencing the period of history before the Civil War, which includes slavery."
The bandmates reflected on their decision on Friday, Oct. 23's Daily Pop, with Hillary telling Carissa, "I think we've become much more aware of just the world around us and what's going on."
At the time, people across the U.S. were protesting the murder of George Floyd, shining a renewed spotlight on racism, police brutality and social injustice.
Charles then pointed to their roles as parents, prompting Hillary to add, "As parents, just the things that we believe in and wanting to do our part in helping move forward...we just felt collectively as a band that it was time that we wanted to be called Lady A."
She continued, explaining that the decision "reflects our hearts and what we stand for and the music we make," which is "all about unity and love and everyone feeling invited."
"We had a lot of deep, strong conversations, you know, with our friends and a lot of people in the Black community," Charles added. "And it was like, OK, even if this wasn't something that was intentional, we feel like it's important for us to change this name to Lady A and that's what our fans have been calling us literally since 2007. So I think it felt like the right time to do it."
The band's been plenty busy ever since, apparently having written "at least 40 or 50 songs," Charles revealed on Daily Pop.
And now, they're ready to get back on stage.
"We're excited just because we're playing again," Dave said, noting that during rehearsals for tonight's iHeartCountry Festival, "just playing the first chord got me so fired up."
"It's just an energy that we have not felt in a really long time and so you'll see me with a cheesy grin the whole time," Hillary added.
Watch the complete Daily Pop interview in the above clip!
The iHeartCountry Festival will stream exclusively on LiveXLive.com and broadcast across iHeartMedia's Country music radio stations in local markets and at iHeartRadio.com tonight at 8 p.m. ET.