Lady Antebellum member Charles Kelley is going his own way in a solo attempt and his first release tells of good things to come from it.
“The Driver”, released last month, has met much praise from critics and fans.
Now, Kelley has released a music video to go along with it which features fellow singers on the track Dierks Bentley and co-writer Eric Paslay.
The video features images to go along with the story of the song, which is what Kelley describes as how his life has been since becoming a touring musician.
The song has elements of a classic rock balled and previous songs about life on the road such as Jackson Brown’s road crew tribute, “The Load-Out.”
“Yeah, for sure,” Kelley agrees.
“There’s definitely inspiration from all kinds of my favorite bands. There’s definitely a little ‘Load-Out’ going on in that song for sure. When I started the song, I had the idea for the first verse, talking about the driver who also represents the crew and everybody behind the scenes. When I sat down with [co-writers] Eric [Paslay] and Abe [Stoklasa], they were kind of like, ‘Well, that’s not going to be very relatable with the fans. We gotta bring the fans in.’”
“So we started talking about the believers and the dreamers, and they’re the fans that fuel the whole thing and keep us inspired and who we make the music for. And then the final verse, the singer. So it’s pretty much my life for the past nine years, working with all these different people, all these facets of the business that, especially the road life, that make it all happen.”
Many people have commented that it seems Kelley can’t get away from a trio, alluding to the fact that the Lady Antebellum member has released his first solo song with two other singers; Bentley and Paslay.
“Yeah, well, the funny thing is, of course the rest of the project is just me,” Kelley laughs, during an interview with Radio.com about the upcoming solo album, which he paid for on his own, giving him full creative control.
“But I knew that would happen when I went to the label [with the project]. I said, ‘I’ll bet you money that the song they wanna put out first is, of course, the collaboration.’ But it was the catalyst for the project. It’s the song I’m probably the most proud of on the project. And it just happens to be that that’s the one with another trio of voices.”
More of Kelley’s solo project will be released in early 2016. Before that, he’ll hit the road for his first solo tour with support from newcomer Maren Morris. The tour is set to kick off Nov. 28 in Cleveland, Ohio at the House of Blues, and will continue through late February.
Watch the video for “The Driver” below!
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