Little Big Town Shares Three Ways Sugarland Elevated Their Career: Exclusive

When Sugarland and Little Big Town reunited on stage at the 2024 CMT Music Awards on Sunday, it was the bands’ first joint appearance on the show since their Grammy-winning 2008 spin on “Life In A Northern Town.”

This time, the crews reunited for a remake of Phil Collins’ classic “Take Me Home” with similar hope for success. Their version of “Take Me Home” is streaming now.

“That is unreal,” Little Big Town’s Kimberly Schlapman told American Songwriter of their initial Grammy win. “Let’s do that again. Yes, we’ll have a twofer on that. I tell you what, Sugarland is so special to us.”

The friends reunited for the performance and announced their Take Me Home Tour, which will launch in October in Greenville, SC. The run will conclude in December at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena. The Castellows are tour openers. The Take Me Home Tour celebrates Little Big Town’s 25 years as a group and marks 20 years of Sugarland. Tickets for the Take Me Home Tour go on sale to the general public on Friday.

For Schlapman, the opportunity to tour with Sugarland again conjures the sweetest memories. Sugarland took Little Big Town on an arena tour early in their career and helped the vocal group elevate their show and touring experience.

“That was my Daisy’s first tour,” recalled Schlapman of her oldest daughter, who is now 16. “I gave birth, and then a couple of months later, we were on the road with Sugarland, and I had a baby girl in tow. So, for that reason, those days were so special to me, and I just have so many memories of that. We adore (Sugarland members) Jennifer (Nettles) and Kristian (Bush), and there are stories about them in our lives that the fans would never know.”

Three ways Sugarland changed Little Big Town’s career – according to Little Big Town:

Sugarland gifted Little Big Town wireless technology

“When we started as a band, not long after we were on the road with them, our boys, Jimi and Phillip, their guitar packs had to be wired so they couldn’t move everywhere,” Schlapman said. “Jennifer and Kristian gave us wireless guitar packs for them as a gift, and that changed our show. It totally changed our show.”

Sugarland gave Little Big Town wardrobe cases for touring

“A few years later, when we toured with them again, we were always lugging these huge suitcases back and forth on and off the road that were full of our clothes, our stage clothes, because we didn’t have any wardrobe cases, and they gifted us wardrobe cases,” Schlapman said. “They’ve just done things for us that are behind the scenes that nobody knows about it, but they’ve been so generous. And those two things, the guys being able to move on stage and us being able to have those wardrobe cases where we didn’t have to lug as many bags on and off the road, it made such a huge difference for us as a band. Huge difference.

Sugarland piloted Little Big Town to their first Grammy Award

“That one song, ‘Life In a Northern Town,’ led us to the Grammys and got a Grammy,” Schlapman said. “That’s crazy. So, we adore them and the fact that we get to tour again with them is it’s just going to be incredibly fun. We’ve all had more life experience; we’ve had more kids. Some of us have had more marriages and more wisdom. So it’s going to be amazing. And besides that, they’re just lovable people. We make great music together.”

(Photo by Chris Saucedo/WireImage)