When Lady A announced they were postponing their Request Line Tour, slated to begin last year, so Charles Kelley could work on his sobriety, it was a shock to a lot of their fans. But it wasn’t as much of a surprise to fellow bandmates Dave Haywood and Hillary Scott, who had walked with Kelley in his addiction for several years, and became his biggest supporters as he focused on recovery.

“Charles is nine or ten months in right now to his journey to sobriety, and he’s just doing amazing,” Haywood boasts to the Chicago Sun-Times. “I’m so proud of him as a bandmate, but more so as a friend.”

It was Haywood, along with Jimmy Robbins, who sat down with Kelley to pen “As Far As You Could,” Kelley’s goodbye letter to alcohol. The idea began as an exercise during his recovery, becoming a vulnerable single by Kelley, when he was ready to share his story with the world.

“It almost makes me cry now,” Haywood says, recalling that writing session. “We were just three grown men crying in a writing room that day, crying about a battle far too many have to go through.”

Kelley performed the song during the opening weekend of their Request Line Tour at the Ryman Auditorium. It’s a painfully vulnerable song that Haywood hopes is something Lady A will be known for, even for years to come.

“I hope we’re that kind of band where we can always be honest in our lyrics,” Haywood says. “If we’re just writing songs we think will be radio hits, you start to lose the passion for writing impactful stuff. We’re real people going through real things. We’ve all had our ups and downs, and the fans have been with us all the way.”

For a genre known for songs about drinking and partying, Haywood has high praise for his friend and bandmate, for not hiding his struggle with drinking.

“I have to give so many props for Charles and his vulnerability and his bravery to share what he’s been through with the world,” Haywood says. “I don’t know if I have a friend that I’ve spoken to that hasn’t indirectly or directly been impacted by addiction.”

It was Haywood and Scott, along with Kelley’s own wife, Cassie, who convinced him to quit drinking, after his drinking, by his own admission, had become excessive, even by his standards.

“It’s a journey … I think it was obvious to a lot of people, it was time,” Kelley admitted on The Bobby Bones Show. “It wasn’t fun anymore for me. The last three years just had gotten to this point where it escalated. It was, I had to do it. It wasn’t even like I was getting any joy out of it. It just became a crutch.”

Not only was Kelley’s health on the line, but his relationships with others, including Cassie, were perilously close to collapsing before he embraced sobriety.

“I knew it. I knew something was going to have to happen,” Kelley acknowledged. “I was just waiting. And luckily, I didn’t lose it all, but I almost did. My marriage was kind of really, really shaky. The band definitely was concerned. It was like, ‘Something’s going to happen. What is going to happen? Am I going to get pulled over? Am I going to do something awful?’ And it just eventually was like, ‘Why am I waiting for some giant disaster?’ But it’s been unbelievable.”

In addition to touring, Lady A is also working on a new album. Find music and upcoming shows at  LadyAMusic.com

Read ’12 Country Music Singers Who Are Sober’ here.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of The GreenRoom  / Hodges Usry