A few years ago, Lady Antebellum had the honor of performing with actual servicemen and women as part of a Salute to the Troops for the Academy of Country Music, and Charles Kelley says an interaction he had at that event was one of the most humbling of his life.
"One of the servicemen that was performing with us gave me a bracelet – apparently, I guess when one of their brothers falls, a fallen soldier, you know, they give him a bracelet in his honor," he recalls in a statement from the trio's label. "It has their name and all those things, and their numbers and stuff – but he gave it to me and said, 'Man, if he knew that you were wearing it and being up on stage and doing this …' I was like, 'I can't take this. This is like your friend that died in battle. I can't do that.' He's like, 'Just trust me, this would mean so much to him.'"
Charles says he still occasionally wears the bracelet as a reminder of all the men and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice in the name of freedom.
