Photo: Alysse Gafkjen
Kimberly Perry said she “couldn’t live with” The Band Perry’s “disappearance.”
Perry and her husband, Johnny Costello, caught up with Bobby Bones on a new BobbyCast episode that premiered on Tuesday (March 17). The married duo recently released “PSYCHOLOGICAL,” The Band Perry’s first new release in nearly a decade as the iconic group marks the beginning of a fresh era. The single arrives after The Band Perry — which originally included Perry and her two brothers, Reid Perry and Neil Perry — opted to take a break and reconnect later. Bobby asked, “what happened when the band paused?”
“When we took a break in 2022, it was like, ‘We all need a minute.’ We’d been on the road since I was 15. Reid was 10. Neil was 8 at our first show. Their entire childhood and my young adulthood went to The Band Perry,” Perry explained. “Season one happened and it was magical. But by 2022 we’d been through so many changes creatively and otherwise—a lot that people didn’t see. We needed a spiritual health break. We needed a mental health break. We couldn’t keep touring without taking a hot minute to pause.
“We made an agreement then that if we were ever going to come back and turn the lights on, it had to be an intentional option from everybody,” she continued. “Timing played into season two. Both of my brothers are married now. We were the perpetual kids of country music for so long. It was actually kind of cool to grow up a little out of the spotlight. But for me, after getting to do the solo moment, I was chomping at the bit. I had the energy to rebuild this. We are not going out this way. We are not letting it end with the disappearance of The Band Perry. I couldn’t live with that. Thank God I married a guitar player who can keep the family band alive with me.”
Perry and her brothers made their debut with The Band Perry’s self-titled album in 2010. They marked a meteoric rise in country music, tallying No. 1 hits (“If I Die Young,” “Better Dig Two,” “Done” and others), winning awards from the Country Music Association, the Academy of Country Music and more. Perry and her brothers announced in early 2023 that they’d “decided to take a creative break as a group and each focus on our individual creative pursuits.” Perry, Reid Perry and Costello reunited for the hometown show to help with Hurricane Helene relief efforts in early 2025, and confirmed an official comeback months later. Reid Perry has since left the band, but his sister said in a recent conversation on Rolling Stone’s Nashville Now podcast that there’s always room to share the stage with her brothers again if they choose to return.
“Stepping back into The Band Perry with Johnny by my side feels like coming home and starting a brand new adventure all at once,” Kimberly Perry said in a statement. “We wanted our first song of Season 2 of The Band Perry to be the perfect blend of nostalgia - everything our fans know and love TBP to be - and authentically reflective of where we are here in 2026. It’s loud, it’s passionate, it’s devoted, it’s delusional. It is quintessentially ‘us.’”
“Today marks Day 1 of a new era, and our hearts are overflowing,” The Band Perry added when “PSYCHOLOGICAL” released last month. “Welcome to Season 2 of the family band! PSYCHOLOGICAL is so much more than just a song to us - it’s our story, our spirit, and our vision coming to life, and we are so incredibly grateful to share it with you.”
Throughout their conversation on The BobbyCast, Perry “opens up about protecting what they built,” in the band’s second season, how she and Costello opted to elope in Las Vegas eight months after meeting, how her life has changed since becoming a mother and more. Find the full episode on iHeartRadio or watch it on Netflix.