Florida Georgia Line hasn't performed together in years. Tyler Hubbard and Brian Kelley each have their reasons, but a Tim McGraw song may have been the straw that broke the camel's back.
In January 2021, Hubbard teamed up with Tim McGraw for the song "Undivided." Kelley and Hubbard were already at a disagreement on potential solo careers, and the song further fractured their partnership. According to Billboard, Kelley said, "To be honest with you, I was just a little caught off guard because I was told — and I was on board with this — that no solo music comes out before the FGL record. So I was all on board, and to get a call saying he's going to make a very visible statement and performance before the record and then go right to radio, you know, definitely a little caught off guard."
He said that he was "surprised ... shocked, for sure, just like, 'I thought we had a deal in place about what the plan was.' Going back to my main thing, is protecting FGL. I didn't think that was a good look, if I'd have done it or if he had done it. FGL was my top priority ... a lot of people think I just left and wanted to do solo stuff, because that's what he's saying."
Florida Georgia Line No More
After the Tim McGraw song, Hubbard and Kelley both went forward to release their own EPs. Kelley was under the assumption that the band was just on the break. "It went from no music for the foreseeable future, to now we're not even going to tour ... I'm just here to tell the truth, I'm not here to try to burn down anything, whatever, I'm just here to stand up for myself and my family, and Iike I said, the fans," said Kelley.
Originally, Kelley had the idea of creating a three hour concert where they both performed solo and as a group. He wanted a solo career but also to stay together as a band.
"I wanted to do it all," Kelley said. "It wasn't out of bounds. You look at Lady A — Hillary [Scott] does some solo records in the Christian space; Charles Kelley has done some solo stuff, he does some shows and I love how that operates. I think that's pretty special that you can honor yourself and you can honor what you built ... that's the mindset that I had. 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."
However, the feud continues strong.
