Pulling back the curtain on the breakup.
Florida Georgia Line was undeniably one of the biggest acts of the 2010s, for better or worse. (And let’s be honest, it was worse). The bro-country duo of Tyler Hubbard and Brian Kelley changed the sound of country music with the release of their single “Cruise” in 2013, and in the dark years that followed it seemed that everybody was trying to replicate their sound.
Luckily things have gotten better in the past few years, and not just because Florida Georgia Line broke up in 2022. Country music has swung much more towards a traditional sound, and artists from outside the mainstream began having massive success as fans got sick of hearing song after song about driving down a back road to a bonfire with your girl and shooting Fireball in the back of your truck.
The duo decided to go their separate ways a couple of years ago, with both Hubbard and Kelley releasing solo projects since then (although it seems like Hubbard’s had more success as a solo artist so far).
But they’ve never really discussed the reason for the split.
Of course a lot of people assumed it was because of politics after Hubbard unfollowed Kelley on social media during the 2020 election. (Hubbard and his wife Hayley supported Joe Biden, while Kelley and his wife Brittney supported Donald Trump). But since they never really discussed it, all we could do was speculate.
Aside from Kelley recently releasing his latest single, “Kiss My Boots,” that seemed to be a shot at Hubbard with some cryptic messages on social media that sounded a lot like a high school girl trying to prove that she was over her ex, we haven’t gotten a peek behind the curtain at what led to the breakup of the genre-changing band.
Well seems Tyler Hubbard is finally ready to tell his side of the story.
Hubbard joined the Barstool Sports podcast Bussin’ With the Boys, hosted by Will Compton and Taylor Lewan, and they asked him about what led to the band’s breakup. And Hubbard admit that it took him by surprise:
“For me it was really unexpected. But BK came to me and said, ‘Man I’m really feeling like I want to do a solo thing.'”
He also revealed that he tried to talk Kelley out of it, with the duo even going to therapy together to try to work through their issues. But turns out Kelley was adamant about it, though he still wanted to keep Florida Georgia Line together. Hubbard wasn’t going to do that though, and basically gave him an ultimatum: It was either FGL or solo, but not both.
“I don’t have capacity to do two careers. And also it’s going to get super sticky. When we’re writing songs, who are we writing for? When we got two show offers, an FGL date and a solo date, what are we taking?
I’m like, I don’t even logistically see how that would work, much less emotionally.”
Well obviously Kelley made his choice and they both went their separate ways – and Hubbard says that it had nothing to do with their political disagreements.
Of course everybody keeps speculating that they’re going to reunite when they realize their solo careers aren’t as big (or as lucrative) as FGL was. But according to Hubbard, that’s probably not happening any time soon.
When asked whether he still talks to BK, Hubbard reveals that there’s not much of a relationship between the two these days:
“It’s pretty minimal now, bro. I don’t know if BK needs some space or what but I still try to reach out on text, just ‘Congrats on the new song’ or whatever, but there’s not a whole lot of engagement at this point to be honest.”
And he said a lot would have to change for an FGL reunion to happen:
“I’ll never say never, but a lot of stuff would have to change to be honest. A lot of dynamics would have to – there would have to be some real long, open conversations. Some healing would have to be done for sure before that happens.”
Sounds like we’re safe from a Florida Georgia Line reunion for the foreseeable future.
