Lady A members say they could not be more thrilled to see Luke Bryan‘s success more than a decade after he opened one of their tours.
Band members Hillary Scott, Charles Kelley and Dave Haywood spoke with ET from the red carpet of the CMA Awards Wednesday night in Nashville and shared overwhelming excitement for Bryan, 47, who hosted the show alongside Peyton Manning.
Bryan served as the opener for Lady A’s Own the Night Tour in 2012 before moving on to his own tours and his uber-successful career.
“He owes us,” joked Haywood about helping the “Country Girl” singer get his start.
“We’ve been friends since the early days and I helped write his first No. 1, ‘Do I,’ and we just celebrated that for him a few weeks ago,” Haywood continued. “[We] just love watching his star continue to rise farther than you can predict, he’s still killing it.”
As for how they saw the night unfolding with the American Idol judge holding the mic for hosting duties, the trio joked that everything would go great so long as one thing didn’t happen.
“We just gotta, you know, keep him down to only a couple cocktails before this thing,” Kelley said, laughing alongside his bandmates. “After about four or five, it could go off the rails.”
Kelley said that he wasn’t really worried about Bryan’s hosting chops and added that the dynamic between the two hosts would work perfectly for the annual event honoring country singers and artists.
Lady A was nominated for the Vocal Group of the Year award, which they lost to Old Dominion. In their nearly two decades together as a band, the group has racked up an impressive 26 CMA nominations and six awards.
“It’s a great night to be here, celebrating country music,” Scott told ET.
You can find more coverage from the CMA Awards including a full list of winners by clicking HERE.
The 2023 CMA Awards, hosted by Luke Bryan and Peyton Manning, aired live on Wednesday, Nov. 8 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC. The 57th annual awards show is now available to stream on Hulu.
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