Lady Antebellum, ‘We Owned the Night’ – Lyrics Uncovered

The lyrics of Lady Antebellum's latest single, 'We Owned the Night,' were penned by Lady A's Charles Kelley and Dave Haywood, as well as Peach Picker and hit songwriter Dallas Davidson. The song has been the inspiration for the trio's forthcoming third studio album and the name of their fall tour, and it's their latest hit to climb up the country singles chart.

"I had gone out on the road with the band, and we were on the bus," Davidson tells Taste of Country of the spark that ignited the song's lyrics. "The night before we wrote the song, I had watched their show from the crowd rather than from backstage. They played this song on their first or second record, and it had this mandolin thing on there. It made me feel good. I got back on the bus, and the next day I was telling Charles and Dave about it. I said, 'Let's write something kind of fun like that song. Dave grabbed his mandolin and started playing that opening lick on there. Charles dove all over it and came up with 'We Owned the Night.'"

"Tell me have you ever wanted / For someone so much it hurts / Your lips keep trying to speak / But you just can't find the words / But I had this dream once / I held you in my hands / She was the purest beauty / But not the common kind / She had a way about her / That bid you through the night / And for a moment / You made the world stand still / Yeah we own the night," the wrote in the opening lyrics of the song.

"We wanted to write a fun song for the crowd," recalls Davidson. "Charles doesn't remember this, but before we even wrote the song, me and him and our wives went out to Patterson House one night. Charles and I stayed out later that night than the girls. He was talking to me and said, 'Let's own the night!' I think subconsciously that came out that day when we started writing that thing. We really dialed into their fans and started making stuff up like we do."

"Throughout the different lights / You danced just like a child / But once here in these hands / All you did was smile / But it was perfect / I hold it in my mind / Yeah we own the night / We own the night," they wrote.

"Charles was driving the truck that day with the lyrics," notes Davidson. "We actually went in a cool place. We tried to make those lyrics really mean something, and I think we did. I'm proud of that song and the lyric content. It's a fun thing, and it has a cool lyric that people can latch onto."

Listen to Lady Antebellum's 'We Owned the Night'