On August 6th, 2012 radio stations across America received the first single from the debut album of an unknown duo. With over 10 mio. units sold, it was going to become one of the commercially most successful country singles of all time and would form the cornerstone for one of the most significant music careers of the past 10 years.
Today the duo of songwriters Brian Kelley und Tyler Hubbard, who met at Belmont University in Nashville, is known in accordance with their origin as Florida Georgia Line and their self written first single was titled 'Cruise'.
10 years later they are able to look back at 16 number-one hits, 33 million downloads sold and over 9 billion streams. This makes them one of the commercially most successful artists in country music of the past 10 years and due to their consistent use of hip-hop elements also one of the most influential. Even though many fans did not consider Bro-Country -which was significantly shaped by Florida Georgia Line- as country music, thus making the duo also highly controversial.
They have made 5 studio albums in the past decade, the latest of which ("Life Rolls On") was released already one and a half years ago (February 2021). Since then they have gradually faded into the background, after their last single 'Long Live' from that album reached the top of the Radio (Billboard Country Airplay) Chart shortly after the release of the album.
Even though Brian Kelley subsequently released his first and unexptectedly traditional album "Sunshine State of Mind" in June of 2021, no mention regarding the future of Florida Georgia Line was made. Yet in the summer of 2021 R&B star Nelly took the duo into the Top-40 on the Billboard Hot 100 with his single 'Lil Bit'. It may have gotten lost in the throws of the pandemic, but as of today this song turned out to be the last new music heard from Florida Georgia Line.
When Tyler Hubbard ultimately also released his first solo single '5 Foot 9' in May of 2022, rumors began to float - even though nobody yet dared to speculate about a temporay hiatus or even a breakup of Florida Georiga Line for good. After all the duo is still playing shows all the way into September of 2022.
On the other hand speculations have circulated on social media for a few months already about a potential political division between the two. But it wasn't until Radio Personality Bobby Bones talked to Tyler Hubbard on his Bobbycast on July 29th, 2022 that he adressed the burning question directly. That way the world would finally learn what happened. Or maybe it didn't.
To which Tyler Hubbard initially replied: "My official wording was: we are not breaking up, we are taking a break." But from there he moves on to bring up Brian Kelley as the one who initiated the whole going-solo thing and that a potential comeback of Florida Georgia Line may not be reassessed until some 5 to 10 years down the line. "For me this is going to be a thing, that I will be doing for a while." In other words it seems as if Tyler Hubbard initially was not too enthusiastic about the split, but is looking forward to it now.
This also means -at least for the time being- that Florida Georgia Line is history!
Yet, Tyler Hubbard feels the need to stress, that it was not a split based on politics: "They got to blame it on something. They can't just say: oh, the guys want to have some individuality and do something different. They have been doing this for 10 years!"
While Brian Kelley failed to achieve a real hit from his first solo album, Tyler Hubbard is just doing that with his very first single, which has reached the Top-20 (number 17) on the Radio (Billboard Country Airplay) Chart after only 11 weeks, still trenging upwards. It has also garnered well over 24 million streams on Spotify by now.
'5 Foot 9' is a catchy, easygoing single, made for radio play as a likeable background summer hit. It is a love declaration to his wife, who is actually 5 foot 10 tall as opposed to the 5 foot 9 the song uses in its title. Written by Tyler Hubbard together with Chase McGill and Jaren Johnston of The Cadillac Three, it even makes the connection to faith, when it says:
Loves Tim McGraw and a small-town accent
Ain't no way that me and this truck made her fall in love
Jack makes good whiskey
But God makes the good stuff.
Starting September 2022 Tyler Hubbard has been invited to join Keith Urbans' The Speed of Now World Tour. Being a well established artist (with Florida Georgia Line) he will get a 60 minute time slot, as opposed to the typical 30 minutes an opening act gets. So in order to fill it with as much new material as possible, he is going to release new music over the coming weeks. And since the official first studio album is not scheduled until 2023, a first EP titled "Dancin' In The Country" will release on August 19th, 2022 and contain 6 songs, one of them being the current single.
Another new song with the title '35's' was already released in June of 2022, which however will not be part of the upcoming EP. While the lyrics of the song walks through well known country themes (35-inch weels on a truck, which rolls over red rock roads at 35 m/h), the video for the song adds another dimension to it. By making the artist unearth memories from this childhood (among them a CD of the debut album of the group Blackhawk) at the age of 35, it becomes a sweet time-capsule story.
On July 15th, 2022 a third new song was released by the title of 'Way Home'. Written by Tyler Hubbard with Corey Crowder and Canaan Smith, it is a reflective mid-tempo ballad, which lets faith become a guide to his life:
Well, they say that life is a highway
And I've put some miles on mine
More than one time, I took the wrong two-lane
Just lettin' my horses run wild.
Until I got found (Until I got found)
Oh, and now that it's well with my soul
I just ride in the seat next to Jesus
'Cause I know He knows the way home.
Somehow one can't help but believe the now father Tyler Hubbard that he does take his new career chapter very seriously. "It is my intention, to tell fans more about my personal story [with these songs]", he describes the road ahead in the conversation with Bobby Bones.
A road, that not only potential new fans might travel with him, but also and in particular many FGL-fans: "I even had a fan, that said to me: thank you for your new music, so glad you are doing this because it allows us to continue to grow with you. Cause when we were growing up with your music in FGL we were also kids and we were young and wanting to go party, go to the bars and listen to FGL. Now a lot of us are in the season you are in, where we are having kids, we are exhausted, life got a different perspective. We still want to go out and have a good time occasionally, but there is more depth."
5 foot 9, brown eyes in a sundress
Loves Tim McGraw and a small-town accent
Ain't no way that me and this truck made her fall in love
Jack makes good whiskey
But God makes the good stuff
Well, they say that life is a highway
And I've put some miles on mine
More than one time, I took the wrong two-lane
Just lettin' my horses run wild
eah, I got lost (Yeah, I got lost)
Until I got found (Until I got found)
Oh, and now that it's well with my soul
I just ride in the seat next to Jesus
'Cause I know He knows the way home
I even had a fan, that said to me: thank you for your new music, so glad
you are doing this because it allows us to continue to grow with you.
Cause when we were growing up with your music in FGL we were also kids
and we were young and wanting to go party, go to the bars and listen to
FGL. Now a lot of us are in the season you are in, where we are having
kids, we are exhausted, life got a different perspective. We still want
to go out and have a good time occasionally, but there is more depth.
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