Lady A’s Charles Kelley is sharing how his life has changed since starting his sobriety journey.
In an Instagram post shared Monday, the 44-year-old musician shared photos from before and after he began his journey with sobriety, crediting his decision to stop drinking with his healthier appearance.
“My best filter is just…not drinking,” he wrote in the caption. “Swipe to see my before 😬 my wife asked me if I ever look at a photo of myself before I was sober and think ‘who is that guy?’ This is the one 😃.”
The before photo shows him looking dazed as he posed for the selfie, while the after picture shows him posing for a photo with his wife while out on the water.
He added in the caption that there have been countless “blessings that have come from putting it down” in addition to “looking healthier,” noting that the second photo is “a nice reminder of a place I don’t wanna go back to.”
Many fans congratulated him in the comments section and shared their experiences with alcoholism and sobriety.
“I’m 1,148 days sober today! So proud of you! I know it’s hard but so worth it! 👏👏👏” one fan wrote. Another added, “Ahhh yes, the puffy drinking face! 4 years sober and I hope I never have to see that puffy face ever again! Proud of you 👏.”
Kelley’s journey with sobriety first became public knowledge in August 2022, when Lady A shared with its fans that it was postponing its Request Line Tour to support him.
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“We are a band, but more importantly we’re family,” they said in a statement at the time. “We’re proud to say that Charles has embarked on a journey to sobriety. So, right now, in order to be the healthiest, strongest and most creative band we can be, Lady A will take the time with the support of our families and team of professionals to walk through this together. It’s early on this road, but we are determined to do what will best set us up for many more years together.”
He later discussed his decision to get sober during an appearance on “CBS Mornings” in May 2023, saying he would always joke that he was “definitely a functioning alcoholic.”
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The musician shared that as his drinking continued to become concerning, his bandmates brought their concerns to him, but he pushed them aside. He ultimately decided to seek help after his wife threatened to leave him if he didn’t quit drinking, leading him to fly from his vacation in Greece to a treatment center.
“It just makes me feel so grateful at how close I came to losing it all,” he said. “And I think the thing that’s hard is to know how much it affected Cassie the most, and my band and the people around me. And how much it emotionally kinda wrecked them for a while. And that, I can’t really say I’m sorry enough. And it’s just gonna take time to rebuild that.”
Kelley shared that he had attempted to quit before but didn’t think he needed rehab because he believed that was for people with more serious problems with alcohol.
What he learned, however, is that there are different “degrees of alcoholics” and that “just because you’re not living on the street, or you’re not waking up in a bush” doesn’t mean there isn’t a problem.
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Ultimately, the musician stayed in rehab for one month and credited group therapy, a case manager and a blood alcohol detection device that he would blow into twice a day for aiding his recovery.
“I went to treatment for a month in Utah, and I really didn’t know if I was ever going to be coming back home to my bed,” Kelley told People in June 2025. “And that was tough. I’d written a lot of songs about heartbreak, but I don’t know if I ever really knew what heartbreak felt like until I was there and had that moment.”
