Both members shared their sides of the story during separate appearances on the ‘Bussin’ with the Boys’ podcast this week,
Tyler Hubbard and Brian Kelley have different takes on what ended their country duo Florida Georgia Line
Each musician is moving on with the release of their second solo albums: Hubbard’s Strong in April and Kelley’s Tennessee Truth in May
They each appeared — separately — on the Bussin’ with the Boys podcast this week
Tyler Hubbard claims that Florida Georgia Line disbanding wasn’t entirely his decision but more of Brian Kelley’s call — while Kelley has his own take on the matter.
The former duo each joined the Bussin’ with the Boys podcast this week, Hubbard, 37, on Tuesday, May 7, and Kelley, 38, on Thursday, May 9, to shed some light on the disintegration of their country duo with hosts Will Compton and Taylor Lewan.
“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. And I’m like, ‘Really?’ We were just getting out of our first deal. We were kind of in a sweet spot that we had worked for 10 years to get to,” Hubbard shared on Tuesday. “I’m like, ‘Why don’t we ride this thing out for like five more years, 10 more years, and then we can do the solo thing or whatever?'”
“But again, like, I wanted to support him. He was adamant, like, ‘Nah, now’s my time. I really need to do this for myself.’ And I’m like, ‘Well, hey, whatever you need to do, bro. Like, what do you want from me?’ He’s like, ‘I just want support.’ So I’m like, OK you got it,” said Hubbard, adding how he threw out the idea that one day down the line they could “do a reunion tour.’”
“He definitely initiated the whole thing from the beginning,” explained Hubbard. “When I say caught me off-guard, it wasn’t that we had never mentioned it before. It’s just I didn’t think it was going to happen then.”
As Hubbard continued the interview, he confessed to Compton and Lewan that the duo’s separation felt like a “divorce,” explaining, “BK had this thing where he wanted to still do Florida Georgia Line, but he wanted to do the solo thing, too, and I had to tell him … I can’t do both.”
This led to Hubbard asking his partner to decided between Florida Georgia Line or pursuing separate solo paths, noting how he didn’t have the “capacity to do two careers.”
During Kelley’s Thursday interview, he immediately said their division isnt “really a beef situation.” He then explained that he wanted to continue with their duo but use his “off time” to work on his own songs to “honor [his] artistry,” noting he “had voiced that for a long time.”
“It wasn’t a surprise because the marker was once the deal was up,” explained Kelley. “I had an idea that once the deal was up, Tyler would get a solo deal under the same label, I would get a record deal and we would renegotiate a new record deal.”
Kelley said that he had brought up the idea to perform lengthy three-hour concerts, with no openers, that would include Florida Georgia Line songs as well as space for each of them to perform solo music.
“It wasn’t just that I had to have a solo career — I would word it as ‘I want a solo outlet, as a creative, as a songwriter.’ I wanted to reshape that part of the story. It gets sticky about what things go where? I think it’s easy to figure out. It’s not an emotional thing for me when we’re talking about business and creativity.”
Kelley then shared the two decided to wait to pursue solo music until they released their fifth album and their recording contract ended. But then Hubbard joined Tim McGraw for a single, “Undivided,” in January 2021, which they performed at President Biden’s inauguration concert later that month. Kelley shared how he was “surprised [and] shocked,” adding “I didn’t think that was a good look, if I’d have done it or if he had done it.”
But by June 2021, when Kelley’s album Sunshine State of Mind came out, the duo was done, explaining how he and Hubbard spoke about it after the fact. As a result, the pair canceled their upcoming tour and separated, until their final performance more than a year later.
Florida Georgia Line played their last show together in September 2022 after 12 years as a duo. Along with the ongoing debates about their solo careers, the concert came amid a rumored brief politically tinged spat on social media in 2020. Both men addressed the issue during their respective interviews and refuted how their differing opinions during the 2020 election were not a part of their separation.
Hubbard explained how they “didn’t talk about [politics] very candidly from the beginning. So it allowed a lot of that, like, people to make up stories in this manner,” noting how adding politics into it made it an easy target.”
Kelley added that Hubbard and his wife, Hayley, unfollowed him and his wife Brittney on social media after the election, but their political differences then began “framing that” as the core cause of contention.
