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<\/h1>\n<\/h1>\nBrian Kelley and Tyler Hubbard\u2014the party-starting dudes behind the country juggernaut Florida Georgia Line\u2014are taking a breather to look back on the monster year they\u2019ve had. Their new album Anything Goes <\/i>topped the charts\u2014and their latest No.1 hit \u201cSun Daze\u201d caps a series of chart-scorching hits. What\u2019s more, their new tour landed a Top 3 spot on Billboard\u2019s Hot Tours.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s proof that \u201cbro-country\u201d\u2014their Jack-and-Coke combo of poppy hard rock and Nashville twang\u2014is no passing fad. The two first met at Nashville\u2019s Belmont University in 2008, but they didn\u2019t release their first EP Anything Like Me<\/i> until 2010. In the next couple of years they landed a publishing deal and a recording contract, then released another EP, followed by their debut record, Here\u2019s to the Good Times<\/i>.<\/p>\n
From the beginning, Kelley and Hubbard presented themselves as gracious and easygoing\u2014regular guys making feel-good music for folks just like them. Although some critics scoff at their lyrics about beer, Bacardi and pickups, the duo makes no apologies. As their massive popularity attests, the formula ain\u2019t broke, so while recording Anything Goes<\/i>, they didn\u2019t necessarily try to fix anything.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe thing for us, most importantly, was putting out music that\u2019s exactly who we are, where we are and where we want to be,\u201d says Kelley. \u201cWe spent the last couple of years writing and living out the songs that were on our last record, and we met a lot of amazing people and amazing fans. We heard a lot of their stories. We got to live out on the road and experience things not many people experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
That perspective found its way onto the new album, about half of which Florida native Kelley and Georgia native Hubbard co-wrote. Citing tunes like \u201cConfession\u201d and the heart-tugging hit \u201cDirt,\u201d Kelley insists the band has matured. \u201cAlmost half the record is a little different for us,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s sonically in that groove of Florida Georgia Line, but lyrically it\u2019s deeper, and the storytelling is a little better.\u201d<\/p>\n
One notable difference is the absence of special guests. The deluxe edition of Here\u2019s to the Good Times<\/i> featured a remix of the single \u201cCruise\u201d that, thanks to a guest verse from rapper Nelly, reached the Top 5 on the Billboard Hot 100. As easy as it would have been to grab another hip-hop artist and edge even closer to the mainstream, FGL won\u2019t be following Taylor Swift into the straight-up pop realm.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re right in the middle of country,\u201d says Kelley. \u201cThat\u2019s who we are. The thing for us is to make great music\u2014music that\u2019s real to us, real to other people.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014Kenneth Partridge<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE Bro-country\u2019s premier duo finds their musical sweet spot naturally Brian Kelley and Tyler Hubbard\u2014the party-starting dudes behind the country juggernaut Florida Georgia Line\u2014are taking a breather to look back on the monster year they\u2019ve had. Their new album Anything Goes topped the charts\u2014and their latest No.1 hit \u201cSun Daze\u201d caps a series […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[4940,7623],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14752"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14752"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14752\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14754,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14752\/revisions\/14754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}