Florida Georgia Line’s Band Name Was Almost Orange Peach

Florida Georgia Line rocketed to the top of the country charts in 2012 with their debut single, “Cruise,” but fans could have been calling them something a whole lot different in the years since if members Tyler Hubbard and Brian Kelley decided to go with their other idea for a name. The duo settled on Florida Georgia Line due to the fact that Hubbard hails from Georgia and Kelley from Florida, but they also had another option — Orange Peach.

“We lived together for two years in Nashville and were hanging out in the hall and decided to take this music thing seriously and wanted to represent where we came from,” Kelley previously told Taste of Country. “Orange Peach was an early suggestion, then it got moved to Florida Georgia Line.” He added to Parade that he and Hubbard were trying to come up with a way to honor their home states of Florida and Georgia, one of which is known for oranges and the other for peaches.

“Something peach and then an orange, we were thinking states and, you know it was probably 2:30 or 3 in the morning,” he recalled. “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.”

Florida Georgia Line, or as we will now call them, the band that was almost known as Orange Peach, is currently preparing to release its fifth studio album, Life Rolls On, on Feb. 12. “I think this personally is just a big, celebratory chapter,” Hubbard previously said in a statement announcing the album. “We’ve come a long way since 2012 when we dropped our first album, it’s wild to think about the journey we’ve been on – the things we’ve got to do, the places music has taken us. We’re celebrating life and the good times, the ups and the downs, and the journey it took us to get where we’re at.” “It’s just evident within the music how good of a time we’re having,” Kelley added, “and how good of a place in life we are for sure.”