NEED TO KNOW
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Charles Kelley’s new album, Songs for a New Moon, is out now
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The Lady A member tells PEOPLE how his wife Cassie inspired the project
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“She’s the reason that I got sober,” says the Grammy-winning artist of Cassie, whom he married in July 2009
The last thing Charles Kelley wanted to make was a serious record.
“I feel like I’ve lived in so much seriousness — especially during that first year of sobriety,” Kelley, 43, tells PEOPLE from Oklahoma. “It was such a heavy time.”
Ironically, it was the heaviest moments of the Lady A member’s life that inspired his second solo album, Songs for a New Moon, a 16-track sonic journey crafted to transport listeners back to a time when music, and the world around it, simply felt better.
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Charles Kelley ‘Songs for a New Moon’ album cover
“I think music is such a cathartic outlet and basically, the music made me feel good,” Kelley says. “I think over the last three years during this sobriety journey, I’ve just felt this little awakening, and I just wanted to make a happy record that spoke a little bit of this journey and this second chance at life that I feel like I’ve been given.”
Next month, Kelley will mark three years of sobriety — a milestone that once felt uncertain back in July 2022, when he entered rehab for alcohol addiction and Lady A was forced to postpone their Request Line Tour.
“I went to treatment for a month in Utah and I really didn’t know if I was ever going to be coming back home to my bed,” admits Kelley, reflecting on the challenges he and wife Cassie faced during that time. “And that was tough. I’d written a lot of songs about heartbreak, but I don’t know if I ever really knew what heartbreak felt like until I was there and had that moment.”
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Charles Kelley
The heartbreak rematerialized on the emotionally raw ballad “Can’t Lose You,” written alongside Lindsay Rimes, Michael Whitworth and Josh Kear, a song that now finds itself quickly climbing the Billboard Adult Contemporary radio chart. The track clearly demonstrates how close the couple was to watching their love story completely fall apart.
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“She’s the reason that I got sober,” says the Grammy-winning artist of Cassie, whom he married in July 2009. “She had so much grace for me and went along through the journey with me doing all the work, and I could go so far as to say there’s no way she would’ve stayed with me if I had not gotten sober.”
Once he got sober, Kelley says he began searching for comfort — and found it not only in the nostalgic sounds of ’80s pop groups like Toto and Ambrosia, but also in the unwavering love he shares with his wife, Cassie.
“When I finally came home [from rehab], we reconnected,” Kelley says of his and Cassie’s journey, reflected on songs like “Can’t Be Alone Tonight” and “Never Let You Go.”
“She said, ‘I’m choosing to go on this journey with you, and we’re going to try to make this work.’ It was a complete 180 in our relationship,” he continues.
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Charles Kelley and Cassie McConnell in September 2024
The two will not only celebrate their 16th wedding anniversary next month but are also eagerly awaiting the arrival of their second child this fall.
“I wanted the music to reflect that feeling of gratitude and getting through the tough times together because marriage is tough even when you’re not dealing with something like alcoholism,” says Kelley, who ends the album with the ultra-tender “Look What We Did,” written alongside Sam Ellis and Laura Veltz. “You go through waves, and we’ve been together for a long time. I don’t know. We’ve lived a lot of life. And so, it was nice to be able to have a record from top to bottom about that.”
Songs for a New Moon also includes Kelley’s luscious cover of Cyndi Lauper’s immortal hit “Time After Time.” But that one isn’t necessarily for Cassie. Rather, that one is for their 9-year-old son, Ward.
“When you’re lost, you will find me, time after time — I don’t think about some relationship when I sing that song,” Kelley says. “I’ll always love you. I’ll always be there. This is, to me, a song for my kid.”
Songs for a New Moon is out now.
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, please contact the SAMHSA helpline at 1-800-662-HELP.
Read the original article on People
