Lady Antebellum Enjoying the Perks of Headlining Tour

Last week, Lady Antebellum launched their first headlining tour, which has already been selling out across the country. The award-winning trio have learned what it takes to run a successful show throughout the three years since releasing their debut self-titled album. The Boot caught up with Lady A's Dave Haywood just a few days after kicking off their Need You Now 2010 tour to find out how life at the top of the concert bill has been treating them.

"I hate to say it's exciting because we always say that, but it is," Dave tells The Boot. "I feel like our whole career has been leading up to this moment. We have been touring and opening up ever since we started for all kinds of artists ... Kenny Chensey, Tim McGraw, Keith Urban, Jason Aldean, Martina McBride ... they were all so nice to give us a shot and let us come out and open for them. It's like a football game; I feel like we've been on the sidelines the past three years, watching all these artists who gave us a shot to come out and open for them from the side of the stage every single night. This was our first chance to do it. The fans have just been incredible."

Dave says one of the perks of being the headliner is not having to keep their eye on the clock. "It's so exciting to finally have as much time as we want to really slow down and let our fans in on a little more of who we are. We normally just try to squeeze in 10 songs in 45 minutes or something quick. For once, we can start slower, talk to our fans, tell them about what we love, the way we got into this, about the songs that inspire us and the songs that we love to write. It's really just a chance for us to give them the whole, full spectrum of Lady Antebellum. We're just through the roof about it. We couldn't be more excited. We've got a cool set and production things happening that we've never been able to do. I'm really excited, in case you can't tell!"

The tour will run throughout the rest of the year with special guest, David Nail, as the opening act. "We're huge fans of David Nail," Dave says. "A lot of time, we would just play his record before we would go onstage while we were warming up because we just love his music. Now we really get to listen to it before we go onstage. He's loving [the tour], and our fans have been really gracious to him and loving the stuff he's doing. I think the guy has great, great songs and a great voice. He's a great guy, and he's always thanking us every night for having him out."

Lady A's next tour stops are in St. Louis, Mo. on September 30 and Jonesboro, Ark. on October 1. Click here for a complete list of cities and dates.

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