Engaging personalities and feel-good country anthems are a recipe for success. For duo Florida Georgia Line, that success has been uncanny. Released in December 2012, Tyler Hubbard and Brian Kelley’s smash debut album Here’s to the Good Times quickly became the undisputed soundtrack of summer. Their hit single “Cruise” saw unprecedented success when it not only went 6x platinum, but also broke the record for longest #1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart. Grab your cowboy boots and saddle up for a long ride, because Florida Georgia Line isn’t going anywhere soon. The Bite had the opportunity to speak with FGL’s Tyler Hubbard about their music, touring and the Northwest.
You two have been together since 2010, what is it like traveling the country together and how has it impacted your relationship?
It’s great you know, we are best friends and we wouldn’t have it any other way. We love being on the road together and doing this business together, writing songs, being on stage, the whole thing is just awesome.
You’ve exploded onto the music scene, getting huge buzz from fans and superstars alike. Who is the coolest person that’s reached out to you, whether to congratulate you on the album or invite you on tour?
I mean all of the people that we have gotten to be on tour with has been a dream come true for us. We’ve been out with Jake Owen, Taylor Swift [and] Luke Bryan, which has been a dream come true. The fact that Nelly reached out to us and we worked together on the [“Cruise”] remix and did some shows together and stuff like that was pretty big too. That was awesome.
Did you see the video of Taylor Swift dancing to “Cruise” at one of the awards shows?
I did, I think that was the CMT awards.
Most artists have a feeling or an emotion in mind that they want people to have when they listen to their music. What do you think would be yours and why?
I think it would just be a good feeling. Most of our music right now is just about having a good time and hanging out with friends. I think our music makes people feel good.
Thus far, what do you think your biggest accomplishment has been and how do you think that impacted you now?
I think our biggest accomplishment is probably just way back in the day when we were starting music, not giving up and just doing all of the tough-to-do jobs, the odds and ends to pay the bills so that we could write during the day and travel on the weekends and tour. Those were hard times, and I think that kind of got us to where we’re at.
Congratulations on getting your first CMA and AMA nominations. What did it feel like to hear that you were nominated for these awards?
Thank you. It’s great. That’s something that we all dream about doing. We used to sit around the house and watch those awards and just laugh and hope that one day we could just be there. To be nominated is definitely a dream come true for us.
How did you two get together and start your duo?
We met in college at Belmont University. We started writing songs and it just kind of clicked, and I said, “I think we’ve got something special here.” So we just continued to write songs together and became good friends. We lived in the same house with me and [Brian Kelley] and a couple of others and just one thing led to the next .
If you could choose one city to play in for the rest of your life, what would it be?
That’s a good question. I don’t know! Every city is different and we like a lot of different places for different reasons. I really liked the Northwest—maybe Portland, Oregon or Seattle or somewhere up there.
