Florida Georgia Line’s three recent No. 1 hits: “May We All” with Tim McGraw,” “God, Your Mama and Me” with the Backstreet Boys and “Meant to Be” with Bebe Rexha, each showed duo members Tyler Hubbard and Brian Kelley collaborating with other artists, both in and out of the country genre. For FGL, it’s a way to both share their talents, and learn from others.
“I think it’s just something that we love,” Hubbard shared with PopCulture.com at a recent media event. “We love to learn from other artists, friends of ours. We also love to bring in artists who have had a huge influence in our music and our life. Backstreet [Boys], that’s the band for us that we grew up listening to. George Strait and the Backstreet Boys. Kind of mixing it up.”
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“Obviously it’s cool to see them continue to be so relevant and so hot, so on fire,” Kelley says of the Backstreet Boys. “It’s such an honor to be able to do a song with them. Their thankfulness as well – it’s really cool. They’re so humble. They’re the best guys in the world. They’re so thankful to be a part of country music and to be able to do a song with us. And we feel the same way. So it’s a cool mutual respect.”
Florida Georgia Line takes away something from all the artists they share time in the studio with, and hope to keep learning.
“All the collaborations we’ve done, Tim and Bebe, it’s all kind of like that,” says Hubbard. “Bebe is kind of a newer artist; we’re both kind of learning from each other and it’s a real cool relationship. Same with Tim. He’s kind of a legacy act, so we came out, stepped back and said ‘You’re one of our heroes, man. We’ve learned a lot from you. We literally grew up listening to you. So we’re just going to be a sponge right now, and try to soak up anything you give us.’”
Regardless of who they are with, both Hubbard and Kelley look forward to doing more in the future, including maybe on their next album.
“With these collaborations, I think it’s fun to do,” Hubbard says. “I think it’s something that’s important not to force. So BK and I, we keep hearing a lot about these collaborations and what’s next, what’s next? We don’t really even know. When it happens, it happens. If we can get in the studio with an artist and create a song and we both love it, we’ll do it together. Or if the right song comes about and we can reach out to somebody that we’re inspired by, that we feel like would be a good fit. We’re all about having an organic relationships, you know. Making sure it’s the right time.”
“Simple” is the debut single from Florida Georgia Line‘s next studio album, and is available for download on iTunes.
Photo Credit: Instagram/floridageorgialine
