Lady Antebellum photo courtesy of Capitol Nashville.

Lady Antebellum wasn’t sure when it wrote “Need You Now” how Capitol Records would react to it. Likewise, the band wasn’t entirely convinced that radio stations would like it or that the general public would warm to it.

They certainly weren’t expecting the song to become a major pop record, but that’s exactly what’s happened. “Need You Now” reached No. 9 this week on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary chart, and it’s likewise at No. 22 on the magazine’s Top Pop Songs list.

It’s not a development the band tried to create. A handful of pop stations started playing the song in November or December. Once the label figured out what was happening, it got proactive in promoting the song to the pop market. In the meantime, Lady A wants to reassure its core country fans that the band won’t suddenly start chasing the other genre.

“We’re a country artist,” group member Charles Kelley says. “The song just started to get played randomly, and so our label obviously saw some opportunity there and has pursued it. It’s been exciting for us to reach more fans, but we’re not goin’ anywhere. It just happens to be the sound of this record. It kinda crosses genres, but I think a song like ‘American Honey’ probably won’t have the flavor to do that. It’s been obviously cool to see, but we aren’t goin’ anywhere.”

“American Honey,” the second single from the Need You Now album, is doing just fine in country. The song jumped into the Top 15 on this week’s USA Today Mediabase country chart, reaching the No. 12 position.

In the meantime, “Need You Now” is sort of symbolically showing just how hot country music has become. In addition to Lady A’s single, the USA Today Adult Contemporary chart also features a pair of Taylor Swift titles — “You Belong With Me” and “Fifteen” — and Keith Urban’s “Kiss A Girl.” Not too long ago, it also boasted Brad Paisley’s “Then.”

The pop success “just represents how the country genre, it’s really broadening itself a lot,” Charles says. “It’s open, it’s America’s music, and we’re just tryin’ to represent country music well. It’s nice to see more fans come into the genre. Taylor Swift’s opened that up, Rascal Flatts have opened the doors of that, Keith Urban had several records that did that, Shania Twain — so we’re not the first, but we definitely want everyone to realize we’re not goin’ anywhere either. We’re just gonna create our music and wherever it gets played, let it be.”

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