10 years ago This week, Tyler Hubbard popped into the Brazilian Steakhouse inside the Hard Rock Hotel in Cancun, Mexico, and did his best to look cool as he plopped himself in a chair at the dinner table.
It didn’t work.
i was there to do an interview country weekly Magazine (RIP) with Hubbard and his Florida Georgia Line bandmate Brian Kelly, but the video shoot, Hubbard says, was FGL’s most expensive video to date, “Get Your Shine On.” “was. Only then he is 25 and not ready for the interview. His handlers kicked him out of the room, fed him something to eat, and ordered him to take a walk around the grounds. Florida Georgia Line had a beachside show playing in a few hours for his VIP at the hotel and Hubbard had to deliver. Somehow he did.
“That night we quit the show. Someone gave me a roll or a loaf of bread and told me to go three laps around the resort and come back. ‘Am I really that messed up now?’ I remember thinking,” Hubbard says today. “I think at the time, I liked challenges.”
That Hubbard is very different from the one sitting across from me in Nashville this January morning. Hubbard, now 35, in fiery orange Filson he hat and camouflage pullover, speaks with clear eyes and measured thoughtfulness. He is also a solo artist, releasing his debut album titled Self this week, closing out his Georgia line in Florida, and introducing himself to his fans of country music under his own name. Did.
Last August, Hubbard and Kelly performed their final concert as the Florida Georgia Line on the ominous stage of the Minnesota State Fair. Monsters like “Cruise,” “Round Here,” and “Sun Daze.” His FGL, the sleeveless king of his hit-scoring “Bro Country” era, has spent much of the past two years putting his feet up. I spent my time denying the dissolution while dragging. Unavoidable. Rumors of strife between Hubbard and Kelly, many of which stemmed from different political and social media strife, cast a shadow over the duo. Although not in denial, he ultimately blames something that has plagued the band from time immemorial: the desire to go solo.
“It would be naive to say it had nothing to do with differences of opinion, different geographic locations, or social media, but the decision would have been the same anyway,” says Hubbard. “BK came to me and said this is what I’m doing. He started his solo career and asked for my support. I told BK to make you happy But if I’m going solo, I’m not willing to keep making FGL records and sign another FGL. No. I was incapable of both.”
As Kelly devoted herself to her solo career, her fate was decided. Florida Georgia Line will dissolve amicably. Hubbard focused on songwriting, perhaps as a featured artist, as he did with “Undivided,” an ode to unity he wrote for Tim McGraw and performed on the Biden inauguration television special. I was thinking of hopping on. However, FGL’s decision to keep FGL’s impending breakup a secret served to mislead him and feed the gossip drama that consumed the duo’s final act.
“This is the bad part,” said Hubbard, and sat down. “because it [Kelley] Who started it and he didn’t want to be too direct with fans about what was going on. [the breakup] was really happening — we chose not to overshare and didn’t really disclose anything. I felt like it wasn’t my story, so I didn’t speak and kept quiet, which is really hard for me. In the polarized culture we were in, it was easy to throw it into politics. ”
Ultimately, Hubbard says he, like his former bandmates, felt the need for a solo career and set out to reinvent himself. A little over a month after Florida Georgia Line’s last concert, he was on stage at his Bridgestone arena in Nashville as the opening of his Keith Urban’s The Speed of Now tour. Hubbard’s performance with Kelly was far from a headliner show. Instead, Hubbard and his band crammed around Urban’s draped-off gear, trying to create a connection with an audience that might have kinda recognized the man on stage. ’ or ‘Everyone needs a bar.’ To see Hubbard captivate a crowd was to witness his exercise of humility. This is something that is not often used to describe FGL at the height of its fame.
film magic
“I was humble when I went on stage,” says Hubbard. “There were people on Keith’s show who were connecting the dots during the show. there was a person It was a reminder that it could be a year or more before the lights come on for everyone. ”
But then he played “Cruise” and a revelation happened across the arena, followed soon by “5 Foot 9”, his first solo number one. Jalen Johnston.
Music Row songwriting guru and Nashville hero Cadillac Three singer/guitarist Johnston has known Hubbard since 2011, playing Florida Georgia Line during their humble van and trailer days. “The trailer said ‘Tyler Hubbard Detailing’ and had his cell phone number on it,” laughs Johnston. Since then, he has watched Hubbard grow from a reputation as a “hillbilly rock star” to a sage father and her husband. “You talked to him in 2011, and when you talk to him now, you think, ‘This must be the man’s older brother.
“I had no responsibilities and didn’t have much to lose,” Hubbard admits. “But I’ve done personal work, emotional work, mental work, spiritual work.”
When Johnston’s father died last year, Hubbard watched his own father die in a helicopter crash in his backyard when he was just 20 years old.
“Tyler left me a message saying he loved me and was thinking of me. That shit goes a long way,” Johnston says. “Most people get away from it when they know a grieving friend or acquaintance in the music industry. It’s something people don’t want to get involved with.”
Sixteen years later, while the loss of Hubbard’s father remains fresh, he chose to use the lingering grief as inspiration. increase. He pays tribute to his father in his new song “Miss My Daddy,” which paints a shocking and vulnerable portrait of a man in his mid-30s who still vividly mourns his father’s absence. . (It breaks you when you hear him sing “I miss you daddy, I miss you daddy”.) This is something Hubbard may not have written while on Florida Georgia Line. It’s a super personal song of type.
“They wrote hits like ‘Cruise’ and ‘Round Here,’ but nothing resonated as much as what he’s been writing lately,” frequent co-writer Johnston said. say. “He thinks about it more, he cares more.”
18 tracks Tyler Hubbard However, that doesn’t mean Hubbard is completely shunned from Florida Georgia Line’s past. Songs like “Out This Way” and “Small Town Me” set the mood for “Round Here”, while “Everybody’s Abor” is his frenetic party song. I mean, you can take Georgia out of Florida Georgia Line, but you can’t take her FGL out of Hubbard. “I’m still half FGL,” he says.
Back in 2013, Hubbard did well in a Cancun interview, showing up bright and early for breakfast the next morning to answer a question about the pressure Florida Georgia Line felt to follow up on the huge success of “Cruise.” is also worth pointing out. Perhaps he couldn’t have expected that ten years later he would be answering questions about the bigger implications of the band’s breakup. What happens to his FGL House, the duo’s Nashville bar?
“It’s still up and running, nothing has changed,” says Hubbard. “I think it’s part of history now. But I’m proud of it – and we still sell a lot of cheeseburgers.
