Could a full-blown reunion be in the future?
Tyler Hubbard and Brian Kelley took the stage together last night for the first time in four years, after the duo formerly known as Florida Georgia Line announced back in 2022 that they would be going their separate ways to pursue solo careers.
Of course Florida Georgia Line is one of the most successful heroes in the history of country music. But they were also a driving force behind one of the darkest periods of country music with the “bro-country” era. While they weren’t the only offenders, their shallow lyrics and pop-heavy production, as well as their success, made FGL the target of a lot of criticism and the face of a genre of country that often served as a punchline to critics of the genre.
But back in 2022, after years of declining sales of their new music and a changing sound in country music, Hubbard and Kelley announced that they were bringing an end to FGL and would instead continue making music as solo artists.
At the time, there was a lot of speculation that the duo split due to political differences between the two 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).
The duo denied that their split had to do with politics, but it became clear that it was a nasty breakup between the two when both began telling their side of the story.
Hubbard, the “Georgia” half of FGL, made an appearance on the Bussin’ With the Boys podcast featuring Will Compton and Taylor Lewan last year, where he confirmed that he wasn’t speak much with his former bandmate and saying that the split caught 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, those comments didn’t sit well with Kelley, who was then given his own appearance on the podcast to tell his side of the story.
During his interview, Kelley confirmed a lot of what Hubbard had said: He wanted to release solo music, Hubbard didn’t see how it would work if they tried to have solo careers while also being a duo, and they ended up splitting.
But there were a lot of disagreements too.
Kelley says that there had been talks about doing solo music as far back as 2016, but that the two had agreed that they would wait until the end of their contract, and after the release of FGL’s fifth album, before pursuing these other avenues.
Well it turns out that, although Hubbard said he didn’t want them to pursue solo careers apart from FGL, he had actually gone behind Kelley’s back and recorded a song with Tim McGraw amidst the social unrest of 2020 – and when he told Kelley about the song, he also informed him that they would be performing it at Biden’s inauguration.
“Tyler had solo music out before I even did. Before we even got our fifth album out, he had released a couple songs, he had played Biden’s inauguration which was a huge look to be a solo act with Tim McGraw. He released another song. I didn’t start releasing music ’til April…
He was rockin’ at radio immediately, top of January of 2021 and I didn’t get music out ’til April and then the album in June.”
And Kelley says he was blindsided by Hubbard’s decision to make the first step to go solo with “Undivided,” the duet with Tim McGraw:
“Surprised. Shocked for sure. I thought we had a deal about what the plan was.
Going back to my main thing, is protecting FGL. I didn’t think that was a good look, if I’d have done it or if he did it.”
All that to say, it wasn’t an amicable split and there were plenty of hurt feelings on both sides of the Florida/Georgia line.
But over the past few months, there have been signs that the two have been working on healing their relationship. Hubbard and Kelley were spotted together at the CMA Awards last year for the first time, and during an appearance on the Human School Podcast late last year, Hubbard revealed that the two were actively working to repair their friendship and even had a hike planned together.
Then earlier this year they shared photos from the hike, and have shared pictures of themselves getting together a couple times since then.
But last night, for the first time since the split, they appeared together on stage.
The surprise appearance came during Broken Bow Records’ annual late night bash during Country Radio Seminar, an industry event held here in Nashville.
The event was a celebration of Jason Aldean’s 30 #1 hits, and when taking the stage Hubbard paid tribute to the “Try That In A Small Town” singer:
“Man it feels good to be here tonight. It feels good to be here with my brother to celebrate our other brother.”
They then performed “You Make It Easy,” one of Aldean’s #1 songs that was co-written by Hubbard and Kelley along with Morgan Wallen and Jordan Schmidt.
Now, just because the two appear to have repaired their friendship and reunited on stage together doesn’t mean that a full-blown Florida Georgia Line reunion is in the cards any time soon. But it seems like there have been a lot of people who are nostalgic for that era of music lately, so it wouldn’t surprise me to see some one-off performances from FGL in the not-so-distant future.
