Lady Antebellum is criss-crossing the country on its 2014 Take Me Downtown Tour, a trek that takes the country trio to what vocalist Charles Kelley hopes is "the next level." "We definitely learned a lot about ourselves as live performers and the type of catalog we wanted to have, so that we could go out and try to give the fans the best show they've ever experienced," he explains of the band's previous tour, during which they wrote several songs for their current album, Golden. "All of that was the jumping off point for this tour."

Kelley, along with bandmates Dave Haywood and Hillary Scott, invited Rolling Stone Country backstage and onstage at their recent stop in Irvine, California, where we captured them doing everything from introducing new songs to playing ping-pong.

All photographs by Joseph Llanes