Little Big Town and Sugarland Collaboration on CMT Awards Wasn’t a One-Off: LBT Members Talk Covering Phil Collins for Joint Single, Plus Fall Tour
For the group’s 25th anniversary, Little Big Town is pouring some sugar on it. Some Sugarland, actually, as the two country groups will be spending some quality time together later this year, in the wake of their joint performance Sunday night on the CMT Music Awards, where they hooked up to sing their newly arranged cover of Phil Collins’ 1985 smash “Take Me Home.”
The day after the meeting of the vocal-group titans on the CBS awards telecast, LBT and Sugarland have released a studio version of the Collins tune they performed live, along with announcing a joint tour in the fall that will see them hit the road together for 18 dates. The tour starts Oct. 24 in Greenville, SC and wraps Dec. 13 with a hometown show at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena.
More from Variety
The tour is produced by Live Nation and Sandbox Entertainment, and is billed as Little Big Town with special guest Sugarland, and support from the Castellows. Pre-sales for the Take Me Home Tour will take place throughout this week on the way to a general on-sale Friday at 10 a.m.
There’s a throwback element to the new single and tour, as well as Sunday’s CMTs appearance: The two groups toured together in the late 2000s, and they sang a cover of the Dream Academy’s “Life in a Northern Town” (then joined by Jake Owen as well) on the 2008 show that at the time went under the name of the CMT Flameworthy Awards.
Backstage at Austin’s Moody Center during CMT Awards rehearsals, the four members of Little Big Town sat down to discuss with Variety their feelings about reuniting with their old vocal-harmony pals.
The tour plan preceded choosing which song to do together, says Karen Fairchild. “When we were on the road together years ago, we would really learn songs in the afternoon and then sing ’em,” she recalls. “Like, if we were in Memphis, we’d do ‘Walking in Memphis.’ So it was just something fun that we did on the road. So when this tour was gonna be announced and we were gonna get to do a song, then it was like, what do we do? And this song was Kristian Bush’s (of Sugarland) idea. and then we decided that we should get in the studio, because it sounded so good, and make it our own.”
They grew up on Collins’ music. “I saw Phil Collins sing this song at the Omni in Atlanta when I was a kid and it was one of my first shows ever,” reports Kimberly Schlapman. Adds Jimi Westbrook, “It’s just an iconic song with huge harmonies, and then ‘Take Me Home’ (as a title) felt relevant for the tour.”
There’s a more personal, if slightly indirect, connection as well. “We should tell you: Akil Thompson that plays in the band — he’s on keys, but he plays everything — his dad is Chester Thompson. Well, Chester, created the drum part on this. There are so many followers of drummers of just his part on that, on YouTube. So that’s why there’s so many drums out there on the CMTs stage — because Hubert (Payne, the group’s drummer) is channeling his inner Chester Thompson… with Akil sitting next to him. Akil showed us a picture of himself standing side-stage at a Phil Collins concert, watching his dad play on this song, so it’s kind of a full-circle moment for him.”
There is plenty of full circling happening now with the Little Big Town/Sugarland reconnection, which couldn’t have happened that many times in other recent years, since the latter duo’s Jennifer Nettles and Bush have been pursuing solo activities more than band work for the most part.
Says Fairchild, “We used to hang out with them because we went to see them open up for Brooks and Dunn, and we played cards one night, and then we just became fast friends.” Although LBT has been in existence as a unit slightly longer, Sugarland broke big in country first, so she tells a story of Nettles and Bush being helpful as they struggled.
“We ran into them again at a festival, back in the day when we were broke and we didn’t have any gear. The guys were locked down on wired packs and we really wanted to invest in some wireless packs — ad this seems really silly now, but back then that was an important thing; we didn’t have any freedom to move around the stage. Sugarland had just had their first big No. 1 or something. And they bought us wireless packs — gave ’em to us and said, ‘Just pay the kindness forward.'”
Says Westbook, “They were so sweet, and I know they felt like they were investing in in our future and helping us out, because they know what that means.”
“And then they bought us wardrobe cases!” adds Fairchild. “And then we gifted those wardrobe cases to Old Dominion, but they kept our names on there, so the guys had Kimberly, Karen, Phillip and Jimi on their wardrobe cases. They just gave those cases away — I don’t know who they gave the old ones to — but we’re trying to just keep the tradition going.”
As for their collaborating now… four-part harmony is hard enough. Isn’t six-part harmony going to be tougher?
They laugh. There isn’t quite so much of that, in actuality, as usually someone is singing a lead vocal that doesn’t have to fit in with the background parts. “The great thing about that is, there’s so many like ad libs in this song,” Schlapman says. “The rest of us keep the harmonies going while the ad libs also go along, so that’s where the six voices come in really handy.” But, as CMT Awards viewers say, all six members of the two groups got in at least a little lead-vocal time as the song went on.
They haven’t exactly mapped out setlists yet for the fall, but, says Fairchild, “Surprising the crowd is always fun. I think that’s what makes the chance to sing with Sugarland again interesting. You know, it’s like getting the whole gang back together, and they haven’t been together in a while. So I know that we’ll do what we did before, which is just surprise the fans with some little ditties here and there — covers, or maybe we’ll write, who knows? I mean, the sky’s the limit.”
The concluding night of the tour at Nashville’s big arena will mark the first time Little Big Town has headlined in Music City since a multi-night residency at the Ryman in 2017.
“With COVID, we didn’t plan on staying away that long,” says Fairchild. “But touring in the last few years, we did play there with George Strait, but yeah, we have not headlined anything until this Bridgestone show coming up. And that’s gonna be the last night of the tour. So it’s gonna be a party.” Chimes in Schlapman: “Katy-bar the door.”
After the CMTs, Fairchild was trying to figure out how to stick around Austin long enough to get in some vintage clothes-shopping, as is her habit when visiting the city. “This is one of my favorite places to shop, and I’m trying to figure out how I’m going to do that because they have us pretty busy. The vintage shopping here is phenomenal. I could stay and watch the eclipse, I guess, and shop.”
It’s suggested that she could shop in the dark, during the blackout. “She brought a headlamp,” quips Westbrook.
“Spelunking?” says Fairchild. “No, shopping.”
Best of Variety
Sign up for Variety’s Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
