The musical minds behind one of country music’s hottest duos Florida Georgia Line are on fire! Straight off their Academy of Country Music award for Vocal Duo of the year, Brian Kelley and Tyler Hubbard were honored Monday morning with more accolades: FGL was nominated for five CMT Awards.
“It’s crazy just to be at awards shows for us—sitting next to George Strait, Blake Shelton, and all those guys—it’s very surreal,” Kelley told Parade.com at a recent event for Outnumber Hunger. “It’s kind of hard putting into words … We’ve worked really hard and feel very blessed to be where we’re at.”
Parade.com caught up with half of the duo after a high-energy performance at Hill Country Barbecue Market in New York City. Unfortunately, Hubbard was battling the flu, but Kelley didn’t miss a beat filling us in on their recent honors, who their dream collaborators are, and the band name they almost picked.
Congratulations on your recent ACM win!
“Oh my gosh, you dream and dream and dream. It’s crazy just to be at awards shows for us—sitting next to George Strait, Blake Shelton, and all those guys—it’s very surreal. It’s kind of hard putting into words. It just started so organically. We just wanted to write songs and play them for people, but this was the plan all along. Pretty crazy. We’ve worked really hard and feel very blessed to be where we’re at. Our fans, man, we love them, they’re just incredible and they’ve completely changed our lives. Country radio has been incredible to us. It’s pretty crazy what’s going on.”
What was it like when you first heard one of your songs on the radio?
“Very emotional. You dream of that and you work really hard and fight for years to try to get a publishing deal and try to be a songwriter. Man, we wrote that song before we had a deal and it was very special to have a hand in creating something and hear it on the radio. Music is pretty powerful, it’s just crazy.”
Who were some of your musical idols growing up?
“Garth Brooks is probably my all-time favorite. He’s just the ultimate entertainer, he’s a great singer-songwriter, just an amazing artist. He had the ability to write a ton of his hits and it takes a complete artist to not write all of them, but have the ability to pick them, know what makes a great album, and know what a hit song is and go out and entertain like he did. To us, Tyler and myself, he’s the man.
What makes your music stand out in the country world?
“It’s kind of all of our influences rolled into one on every song. We just wanted to create our own brand of country music. The best thing about country music is you have so many different brands of it and fans can go from us to Dustin Lynch to Tim McGraw and they’re all going to sound different. We just wanted to create something that we love and that our fans would enjoy. You just take chances and you never know what’s going to happen, what’s going to be a success, and what’s going to hit at the right time. It really is a testament to a lot of other artists that have come before us—Garth Brooks, Alabama, Jason Aldean—who’ve knocked down these doors with their own brand of music that’s allowed us to come up.”
You’ve already worked with some big names like Nelly and Luke Bryan. Who are some other musicians you’d love to collaborate with?
“Definitely outside of country Rihanna, Drake, Wiz Khalifa—those three, but not on the same track, however that would be cool. I don’t think that would ever happen, but any of those would be amazing. And country-wise Ronny Dunn or Garth Brooks would be… they’re two country legends.”
And you’re drawing so many comparisons to them, too.
“Yeah, that’s crazy. They have countless awards and just to be even mentioned in the same breath with them is humbling.”
When you were coming up with names for your group, what were some you passed on before landing on Florida Georgia Line?
“I can’t remember… something peach and then an orange, we were thinking states and, you know it was probably 2:30 or 3 in the morning, we were all at the house and we’d been playing writers rounds and were like, ‘well, if we’re going to be a duo, we’re going to take this thing seriously, we need a name.’ We had to stop showing up as Brian and Tyler, we needed a name, so we put our heads together and said ‘I want to represent where I’m from and you want to represent where you’re from.’ Two states got thrown out and then the ‘Line’ and it kind of stuck, it never felt like we should change it.”
How did you get involved with Outnumber Hunger?
We got involved last year. We set a goal a long time ago and said we wanted to be bigger than the music and do things to help people out. We’ve got too much good going on in our lives not to give back. We both learned a lot from our dads—lessons taught, lessons learned—on when people need help and when you’ve been given a lot, or even some, it’s always good to give back. That’s how we were raised and that’s where our hearts are at, so for us it’s just a no brainer. Going through it last year and realizing how many people struggle, it’s pretty incredible and pretty outrageous.