Lady A’s Charles Kelley Celebrates Sobriety, Love, & New Chapter With Solo Album

Charles Kelley is entering a new season of life—and he’s bringing gratitude, healing, and music along with him.

The Lady A singer is celebrating the release of his second solo album, “Songs for a New Moon,” a project deeply rooted in personal growth and inspired largely by his wife, Cassie.

A Sobriety Journey Rooted in Love and Grace

“She’s the reason that I got sober,” Kelley, 43, told People in an exclusive interview. “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.”

Kelley began his journey to sobriety in July 2022, a time that he described as “heavy.” “I wanted to fully commit to something new. To unapologetically write about my own personal journey and be really specific about it,” he told MusicRow.

The uncertainty of that period are reflected in tracks like “Can’t Lose You,” an emotional ballad co-written with Lindsay Rimes, Michael Whitworth, and Josh Kear. The song, now climbing the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart, gives a raw glimpse at the couple’s journey and how they found strength in each other.

A New Album Inspired by Love, Resilience, and Renewal

Rather than dwell on the darkness, Kelley chose to create an album filled with light and hope.

“I think music is such a cathartic outlet and basically, the music made me feel good,” he said. “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.”

Kelley also told People the healing process truly began once he returned home from treatment. That’s when he and Cassie reconnected on a deeper level. “She said, ‘I’m choosing to go on this journey with you, and we’re going to try to make this work,’” Kelley recalled. “It was a complete 180 in our relationship.”

“Songs for a New Moon” also includes a moving cover of Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time,” which Kelley said is a message of devotion to his 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,” he shared. “I’ll always love you. I’ll always be there. This is, to me, a song for my kid.”

As Kelley prepares to mark three years of sobriety next month and welcomes his second child with Cassie this fall, he says he wanted this record to reflect the power of love, family, and second chances. “Marriage is tough even when you’re not dealing with something like alcoholism,” he said. “It was nice to be able to have a record from top to bottom about that.”