Charles Kelley's big secret is out. Not only has the Lady Antebellum star released his first-ever solo single in "The Driver," he's also embarking on a club tour and dropping a standalone EP!

Kelley collaborated with Dierks Bentley and Eric Paslay on "The Driver," which will only help it make an impact. But the singer has a lot more in store.

“I wrote about half of them and then whatever it was, I’ve just always had some songs that I always wanted to cut, like ‘Southern Accents,'" Kelley says, spilling details of his forthcoming EP.

"It was an old Tom Petty song that the never released. I also just found out that we’re going to go out and Steve Nicks wants to sing on it," he says in disbelief. "I didn’t care if I wrote it or not, my goal is just to find something that would be uniquely different than what I’m doing with Lady Antebellum. It’s just a little more gritty and a little more edgy.”

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Kelley admits that he's making one of his dreams come true by hitting the road solo.

“I’ve always had this kind of fun dream of wanting to put out some songs and go do some clubs and jump right into Lady Antebellum when I’m done, and they gave me their blessing," he shares, noting that he asked bandmates Hillary Scott and Dave Haywood if they were cool with it.

As a one-man show, Kelley will be playing in venues that are much different than those that Lady A harmonize in. They'll be much smaller club-types, and because of that, he probably won't make much of a profit from this venture — and that's just fine by him.

“It was funny, my business manager she goes, ‘You know you’re not gonna make any money with two buses going on a club tour,’" Kelley shares. "I said, ‘I don’t care, I’m doing this for my soul.’ This just one of those dreams I’ve always had ... to be able to really go and do it down and dirty. No setlist. Let it kind of fly by the seat of my pants each night. Lady Antebellum are a much more structured thing — and it should be, ‘cause you got the lights, you got the full production and, you know, people are expecting to hear what they know and all the hits.”

Check out Kelley's first solo single and be on the lookout for his solo EP in early 2016.

Sam Alex is the host of Taste of Country Nights radio, a syndicated night show which airs on more than 60 Townsquare Media Group stations nationwide.

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