Lady A Listened to Fans — and Found a Hidden Gem in 'Love You Back': We Felt the 'Response Early On' (Exclusive)

Lady A’s Charles Kelley may have now tired of talking about his past.

“I hope the narrative changes to where I don't have to anymore,” remarks Kelley, 42, to PEOPLE about his previous battle with alcohol. “It's almost like I have this weird little fear that I'm talking about it too much."

Certainly, even though he is currently celebrating over a year of sobriety, Kelley has found himself often talking about heavy subjects such as addiction and rehab and recovery, in the hopes that he may be able to help someone else. 

But maybe, enough is enough.

"Part of this journey for me is making sure that I'm a part of that narrative of helping to take the stigma off of what it is to recover from being an alcoholic and move past it, and the fact that it can be done,” Kelley says with conviction. “So, there's definitely this tug and pull that I'm kind of fighting with emotionally, wanting to just change that narrative and let it focus on the music."

So change the narrative we will.

Because as 2023 comes to a close, Lady A finds themselves in a rather sweet place of their career, with the controversies and struggles firmly in their rear-view mirror, and instead finding themselves heading in a direction that takes the legendary country trio back to the sound their fans fell in love with in the first place.

In fact, when the fans stepped up during the country trio’s Request Line Tour, their voices were heard loud and clear when they pretty much begged for Lady A’s song "Love You Back" to be released as a single.

"We started to feel the response early on," remarks Lady A’s Dave Haywood, 41, to PEOPLE about the song written by James McNair, Lindsay Rhimes, and Emily Weisband. "We even had a fan event during CMA Fest week in June, where we had a closed-door listening party to listen to some of the new stuff we'd been recording, and they were just flipping out over this song as well."

Perhaps the excitement surrounding the song stems from the fact that "Love You Back" is so very purely Lady A, conjuring up memories of harmonies gone by.

"Our biggest songs, and the ones that really resonate the most, are those back-and-forth duets," says Kelley. "They feel like Lady A songs. The whole theme of the rest of the music we are recording is about getting back to those warm tones of ‘American Honey’ and ‘Need You Now’ and ‘I Run to You.'"

Add the mandolin, and “Love You Back” officially takes one back to that familiar sonic dirt road that Lady A built a career on. 

"I think musically, you really want to match the lyrics,” Haywood says of the song which Lady A debuting during a recent performance on NBC’S TODAY show. “When you look at these lyrics, it just hits deep and takes you back to a love lost and takes you back to that desperation. I think to find instrumentation that aligns with the lyrics is always the goal and the sort of soft country feel."

Certainly, the subject matter also hits a nerve, even while each one of the members of Lady A are happily married. 

"You think you've moved on, but then it comes out the blue, and you're just totally thrown," says Lady A’s Hillary Scott, 37, to PEOPLE about the relatable lyrics of "Love You Back."

"You go down that rabbit hole of, 'I wonder how they are.’ And then you have that moment of, 'But this is over. I need to move on.' That's really what I think the song is touching on. It's a big message when you dissect it."

So is the big message that lies within the story of Lady A.

Says Haywood, "We can look down the road a lot longer now knowing that we have a good healthy dynamic between the three of us."