The “Need You Now” group Lady Antebellum has decided to drop antebellum from their name “after much personal reflection, band discussion, prayer, and many honest discussions with some of our closest friends and colleagues.”
The trio will now go by Lady A, a name in which fans and colleagues have been referring to them since they stepped out onto the music scene 14 years ago.
The band says it’s “regretful and embarrassed” not to have accounted for the associations with the slavery era when choosing their name.
“When we set out together almost 14 years ago, we named our band after the Southern ‘antebellum’ style home where we took our first photos. As musicians, it reminded us of all the music born in the South that influenced us… Southern rock, blues, R&B, gospel, and of course country. But we are regretful and embarrassed to say that we did not take into account the associations that weigh down this word referring to the period of history before the Civil War, which includes slavery,” the band said in a public letter.
They also addressed why they are only switching their name now and they said they had no excuse, but that they acknowledged their mistake and regretted waiting this long. They will also be making donations to the Equal Justice Initiative.
