Blues Singer Lady A Shares Why She Went Against Lady Antebellum After Name Change
Lady A recently explained why she felt it was the right decision to battle the band formerly known as Lady Antebellum for the name she acquired years ago.
The blues singer, whose real name is Anita White, spoke to Rolling Stone about the mishap with the country band on Friday, July 10. As The Inquisitr previously noted, Lady Antebellum officially opted to change its moniker to “Lady A” due to their name being associated with the racist Antebellum South era. While the band has held onto the name since 2006, the recent deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor encouraged them to reconsider the tribute.
Soon after it was announced, White said she wasn’t interested in sharing the name, as she’s been going by Lady A for two decades. On Wednesday, July 8, the band decided to hit the singer with a lawsuit in the hopes that they could keep their name to distribute new music. The group stated they acquired the name in 2010 and White doesn’t have any legal access to it. Instead of accepting the offer, White sought new legal representation against the group and is now planning on receiving a settlement offer.
“They want to change the narrative by minimizing my voice, by belittling me and by not telling the entire truth,” White shared. “I don’t think of myself as a victim, but I’ve worked too long and too hard to just walk away and say I’ll share the name with them. They want to appropriate something I used for decades. Just because I don’t have 40 million fans or $40 million, that should not matter.”
White asked the group — which consists of Hillary Scott, Charles Kelley and Dave Haywood — to give her $10 million. She plans on dividing the money between herself, Black Lives Matter, a charity for seniors and youth in Seattle, and musicians in need of legal counsel. For White, she wants to be financially compensated by the band for making her rebrand, and she feels $5 million is enough to do so. The singer also shared that since Lady Antebellum announced their name change, she’s had trouble searching for her stage name on search engines, and said it will only get worse if the two acts decided to perform under the exact same name.
“They never talked outside of trying to get me to do what they wanted me to do, which is coexist, and that’s something I never wanted,” she said. “I stand by that. I’ve said it so many times.”
White alleged that the group is using the recent deaths and police brutality issues as a trend and a way to catch the attention of the Black Lives Matter movement.
