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Success didn't come easy for country quartet Little Big Town. Throughout the course of the band's decade-long existence, its members have overcome divorce, record label disputes and even death. Despite those setbacks, the band persevered and has seen its last two albums — 2005's The Road to Here and last year's A Place To Land — combine to sell more than 1 million copies. That success was not lost on country legend — and San Antonio's own — George Strait, who invited Little Big Town to be the opening act on his latest nationwide tour. That tour opens with a stop at Austin's Frank Erwin Center on Thursday, Jan. 10, and before the tour opened, 210SA chatted with Little Big Town's Kimberly Roads Schlapman.

Clint Hale | 210SA
 

How much of a thrill was it to have George Strait personally invite the band to open the tour?

It's really a thrill. It was very humbling and gratifying that he likes our music that much. The whole thing is a huge deal. We've had some success, and we've played a few times in front of crowds this big, but never night after night in front of a huge crowd. It's just an amazing opportunity for us, and the fact that (Strait is) putting his stamp on it is huge.

How much of a struggle has it been getting to this point in the band's career?

It was a huge struggle. We went through three record deals, and we were dropped from the first two. Our very first CD (2002's Little Big Town) was out on Sony, but most people don't even know about it. It was just trashed by the critics. Of course, that blew the wind right out of our sails. After we were dropped by Sony, we wanted to continue making music ..... but we couldn't get a record in Nashville. We holed up in (producer Wayne Kirkpatrick's) studio, and it was very therapeutic. At the time, nobody wanted us. We'd been through a lot already and had a lot to say and vent about. We even went through some personal tragedies. Karen (Fairchild) and Phillip (Sweet) got divorced, my husband (Steven Roads) passed away (from a heart attack). Not only was the business seemingly in pieces, but so were our personal lives.

That had to be crushing, losing a spouse at such a young age.

It was. At the time, I never thought I'd make it through that. God has been so good to me and given me a multitude of lessons, and I'm so grateful for that.

In a day when music sales are down, what does it feel like to have each of your albums debut better than the one before it?

That does feel great. When we make a record, we try really hard to make a full body of work, not just a few singles, but something people really enjoy listening to. We don't want anybody to hit the skip button, and we worked very hard for that. Hopefully, we can attribute our sales to that, and hopefully, people enjoy the whole CD. I grew up listening to (Fleetwood Mac's) Rumours, and records like that had so many great songs. You never wanted to skip over any of them.

It sounds like the band has plenty of musical interests outside of country music.

We're all four fans of all kinds of music, and we all have our preferences. My favorite is bluegrass, but it runs all through the spectrum to Foo Fighters. There's a melting pot of ideas, and it works so well.

How much pride do you take in the fact that Little Big Town writes all of its own music?

That's very important to us, and it's a very gratifying thing. We put a lot of hard work and a lot of heart and soul (into songwriting). It's like birthing a baby in so many ways ..... We try to tell real-life stories, and our CDs are the story of our journey and what's happened to us along the way, the good and bad that happen to people every day. I think that's resonated with people.