Tyler Hubbard Tells His Side Of The Florida Georgia Line Breakup

and then yeah nothing more um humbling than having to start all over again you know not from Ground Zero but pretty close to it so it's been uh last couple years for me have been um just a lesson A Life Lesson in humility and you know and taking and taking that um challenge head on you know what I'm saying I had a couple people tell me like well you can't come out of a band and then have a successful it's like never been done like nobody's had a big solo career after being a major career in a band so I heard that like two or three times and I'm like oh okay yeah let's go thenell let's go yeah yeah that is true I mean it's like the example A lot of people are aware of due to the movie but uh uh uh Queen yeah FR they broke up yeah and Freddy kind of tries to do his own thing why why go the solo route like what what happened be on the way with you and and BK that's like to where Florida Georgia Lon can't be forever yeah good question I mean for me it was it was really unexpected uh but BK came to me and said man I'm really feeling like I I want to do a solo thing and I'm like really I'm like we were just getting out of our first deal we were kind of in a sweet spot that we had worked for 10 years to get to and I'm like bro like why don't we just ride this ride this thing out for like five more years 10 more years and then we can do the solo thing or whatever but yeah uh but again like I wanted to support him he he was adamant like no now's my time I I really need to do this for myself and I'm like well hey whatever you you need to do bro like what do you want from me he's like I just want support so I'm like all right you got it bro like we've had an incredible ride this is where it's going to go like let's do it and and crush it and you never know maybe it'll bring us back together and we can have a reunion tour or whatever but uh but it was he he definitely initiated the whole thing from the beginning and it kind of when I say caught me off guard it wasn't that we had never mentioned it before it's just one of those things where I didn't think then I didn't think it was going to happen then you know what I mean deal like you said coming into a spot to where yeah just in a sweet spot just gotten out of our first deal able to kind of negotiate where we want to go from there and have a lot of freedom and we're in a great place um but yeah for him that was the right time and and for me I was like well I'll just again I kind of thought well I'll just stay in town and be a songwriter that sounds like a fun gig you know just 11 to three life and hang out with the fam at that point I had we had just had our third kid so I was pretty uh you know in the deep end on being a dad and figuring all that out so I was pretty preoccupied um but then a year or so later I was like man I really miss like making records I miss being on tour I miss the whole aspect of the artist life and so uh so yeah then I met I met my manager and felt really supported I was like man I'll dive back into this and see what I can do on and again like I said heard I heard that it couldn't be done a couple times and I was like man I'd like to try yeah so uh so yeah just sort of timing and life in general just sort of led us in that direction and uh something that now I'm really grateful for it's been a lot of fun rebuilding it's been a lot of fun like it's incredible doing something with your friend and having a partner but taking the dynamic back to the basics of just like me getting to be the leader that I'd like to be and um getting to do it on my own and getting to kind of kind of build culture around uh you know the type of culture that I want that I want to build um and you got to think about it when we started FGL we were like 23 years old bro like we like I we were just young dumb and on a mission you know what I'm saying and learning as we were going now I get to kind of take all that and kind of rebuild with that in mind and a little bit more maturity and a little bit more uh gratitude and humility and all that makes for uh makes it for a fun a fun ride when you're first like presented with hey I want to go on my own solo route like is your first reaction oh I'm going to support you or is it the natural yeah like just like hey busting we're not just thinking what what's going on it be like me going to you right now be like hey well I know it's a contract year but honestly I'm think about do year but yeah you're just like you'd be a little need support as your friend I need your support and you're just like okay I support you of [ __ ] yeah it's Gotan the human nature like anybody who essentially like if you're together for 10 years like there's a level of divorce like you guys are in a marriage essentially and then you're not the one approaching the person about leaving right there's got to be some type of like yo are you all the work I did all of this I supported you like where we've came from where we've been I put those Burgers right I put those Burgers yeah yeah you were just the toppings guy right right there was definitely uh a period of time where I was just like confused and I'm just like bro like why like why now and I even told him we had good conversations around it like even like being real vulnerable I'm like bro is it not like I I feel like I'm not enough for you like you know what I mean like honestly it felt like a divorce where you're like bro and BK had this thing where he's like no I still want to do Florida Georgia Line I just I just want to do the solo thing too you want an open relationship and I had to tell him I go bro from an emotional standpoint I said I know this is dramatic but this is what it feels like it feels like we're in a marriage and everything is great and we love the benefits but you want to go sleep with the neighbors and come home at night and may be cool with it and just like jump back in bed and everything's cool and blah blah and I said emotionally it feels like that bro like I can't I can't do both I said I'm going to give you the choice but it's either Florida Georgia line or solo career because also I don't have capacity to like do two careers and I said it's also like super it's going to get super sticky like when we're writing songs who are we writing for when when we got two show offers an FGL date and a solo date like who what are we taking here so like I'm just like I don't even logistically see how that would work much less emotionally so like unless BK opens for both of you right it gonna the point of writing like who's hey that's a banger we thinking we're going to use that like one thing I did know is like yo it takes every ounce of creativity and and energy that we got to keep this thing going and we've always poured all of our energy into this so like to think that we can only pour half of our energy into this and expect it to do anything is a little bit naive and then I also told him I'm like bro if you want to be a solo artist you don't deserve to give yourself 50% and I don't deserve 50% of you so it's either you give me 100% or you give yourself a 100% of you so you can go crush it but there's no like we're not just going to half ass both things so so for me it was that's kind of where my that was my one boundary you know I was like yo I'm all about it dude like whatever you need to do but here's my boundary and so kind of gave him the choice and he chose to go do the solo thing and at the time like you said I was kind of like man like dude like this sucks bro like we built look what we've built you know what I'm saying together like you and me you know what I'm saying and uh so yeah there was definitely some weeks of kind of like healing I would say you know what I'm saying like we had talks with therapists and life coaches and we kind of sussed it all out together or separate together that's awesome yeah it was legitimately a marriage Yeah the more you talk about it it's like yo therapy right right right I compared it to that quite a bit because other than the sexual side of things it was very similar to our marriages where you're just like you know it's a commitment it takes work it takes dedication you know it's all the things when it comes to a partnership uh especially at that capacity you know so it was it's been interesting to navigate but it's also been fun and look in hindsight now I'm like grateful for where we're at grateful for that ride grateful for the new you know ride that we're on and uh you know wouldn't have ever done it if he hadn't initiated it so at the end of the day I kind of just sort of grateful that he did you know