2 minutes | Monday, December 1, 2025
This song had me in a chokehold in 2010 – During a late-night writing session with Hillary Scott, Charles Kelley, Dave Haywood, and hit songwriter Josh Kear – Lady A’s “Need You Now” was born
The original lyric was “It’s 1:15 in the morning, and I’m a little drunk…” and to make it sound smoother, they switched it to “It’s a quarter after one, I’m a little drunk, and I need you now…”
And in the early drafts, Charles sang the entire song by himself, and when Hilary tried some harmony lines, it quickly turned into a duet. “Need You Now” became one of the biggest cross-genre country hits of the late 2000s, winning four Grammys in 2011 and changing Lady A’s career overnight