Lady Antebellum on reuniting for new album, "Heart Break," and creating a legacy

Country music trio Lady Antebellum has had a lot of success over their 11 years together, with over 18 million albums sold worldwide and nine No. 1 hits.

The band's hit song, "Need You Now," from 2010, won two Grammy awards and was on Billboard's Hot 100 for 60 weeks.

Hillary Scott, Charles Kelley, and Dave Haywood announced they'd be taking a break to focus on solo projects back in 2015, but the group is now back with a new album called "Heart Break."

"CBS This Morning" co-host Gayle King spoke with the band about how they're pushing creative boundaries to find a soulful sound.

King admitted that when Lady Antebellum announced their break, she didn't think the band would be getting back together. The trio, however, always knew they would. 

"Yeah, we probably could've worded it all better. I mean, more than anything, it was kind of a creative break," Charles Kelley said.

"We said we're gonna get together, we're gonna go to Florida, we're gonna go to L.A., we're gonna write and record, and that was — that was the plan," Hilary Scott explained.

After an almost two-year hiatus, Lady Antebellum reunited with a plan to take their creativity to the next level: a songwriting retreat to focus on the music while staying under the same roof.

"It was actually great. It was so funny. It was like, let's go on the beach, let's write a couple songs and hang out on the beach. Of course, we get down there and we never go to the beach one time. We never see the sand. It was one of those things — once we started writin', it was so much fun. We were havin' a blast. I mean, we really were. We were writin' two songs a day," Kelley said of their time in Florida together at an Airbnb. 

When asked about how their creative process works, Dave Haywood explained the initial inspiration for "Heart Break."

"I had written down 'heart break summer' with the concept being if you could have a whole summer for your heart to take a break and not do anything, and not jump from one relationship to the next like a serial dater or something like that," Haywood said of the song that would become the title track of the group's sixth studio album.  

The band experiments with a new sound on its first single, "You Look Good."

"We're always wonderin' how we can stay in our lane but also stay relevant with what we're doin'. And we thought, you know, 'You Look Good' was such a great representation of our excitement for this record. It had horns, which is somethin' brand new for us," Haywood said.  

King said she'd never though she'd hear a Lady Antebellum song with "soulful, funky kind of horns." But Scott said she's been wanting to use for horns for years. 

"I mean, so many songs. I mean, I'll never forget the first time I heard 'Sir Duke' by Stevie Wonder. And I played it over and over and over in my room. Like, just very prominent, signature horn parts in songs I've always gravitated towards. And so, for me, it was, like, guilty pleasure," Scott said. 

King said when she heard the group perform "You Look Good" at this year's American Country Music Awards, "I was sitting in my bedroom and I — honestly, I felt I could feel the energy through the TV."

"That was one of the most electric performances we've ever had and felt. I mean, we — we walked off stage and it was like, did that just happen?" Kelley said.

Lady Antebellum is keeping that momentum on their current six-country tour, which they say will include extra security measures for fans in wake of the recent terror attack at Ariana Grande's concert in Manchester, England.

King asked, "Is that something you think about, worry about, or you don't live your lives that way?"

"Try not to live our lives that way. But you know, we actually are — are gonna be playin' that actual venue," Kelley said.

Scott said it was a "sobering moment" when they saw the news of the attack the day they were leaving Nashville to head out on tour. 

"But you can't live in fear. You know, we saw an incredible event take place, not a week later, where over 50,000 people joined and enjoyed great music and loved on one another, and that's the goal, is music brings people together," Scott said.

After over a decade of making music, these longtime friends are now focused on creating a legacy.

"When we were livin' in a house together, writin' songs all day long, it reminded me that we are still the same friends, same band. Musically, I think this was a special moment for us. Like Charles said, a beginning of chapter two, in a way, to figure out how can we be here like a band like Earth, Wind, and Fire who we get to play with the other night. How can we be here like these acts that we opened up for,  like Tim McGraw and Kenny Chesney," Haywood said. "We wanna be here for another 20 years, 30 years."