Lady A announced Thursday it is postponing the Request Line tour until 2023 to support Charles Kelley’s “journey to sobriety.”
The 20-city tour was scheduled to kick off in Nashville on Aug. 13. There were no Canadian dates.
In a statement shared with fans, the country trio said pulling the plug was “a hard but important decision to make.”
The message reads: “We are a band, but more importantly…we’re family. We’re proud to say that Charles has embarked on a journey to sobriety. So, right now in order to be the healthiest, strongest and most creative band we can be, Lady A will take the time with the support of our families and team of professionals to walk through this together.
“It’s early on this road, but we are determined to do what will best set us up for many more years together. We’re grateful for your patience.”
In an Aug. 1st Instagram post, Kelley, 40, said Lady A’s forthcoming collaboration with Breland, “Told You I Could Drink” was “ironic since I stopped drinking haha.”
In 2019, Kelley said Lady A’s Ocean track “Be Patient With My Love” – which he co-wrote with Dave Barnes and Ben West – was inspired by his wife Cassie and his bandmates Hillary Scott and Dave Haywood confronting him about his drinking.
“It feels very therapeutic to actually talk about it and put it into a song,” he said, crediting “the support from Dave, Hillary, when it was kind of like ‘Hey man, you need to get this s**t in check.
“At the time it was, it pissed me off. 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–**t, I've got, I've got to control this.’”
In a 2017 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Kelley asked Scott and Haywood what was the best advice he gave them. Haywood replied, "Drink a little more" and Scott added, “What’s the [saying]? Beer before a liquor, never been sicker."