Exclusive: Brian Kelley Reveals He Wanted to Keep Florida Georgia Line Going Alongside Solo Career

As he was over in the UK ahead of his upcoming Jags Country UK performance, Brian Kelley shared some new details on how Florida Georgia Line's split came about.

After responding to a fan on social media earlier in the month underlining that Florida Georgia Line would not be reforming within the next couple of years, some fans speculated that Kelley was signalling that the duo's hiatus was effectively being made permanent.

As well as chatting about his exciting plans for new music and playing a selection of electrifying demos, we spoke to the Florida native about the future of Florida Georgia Line, and whether they do have any plans to get back together.

Brian Kelley mused, “I don't know. Definitely not in the next couple of years. It's not even on my radar, nor [Tyler Hubbard's]...I'm all in on my solo career, I really am, and that's all I'm thinking about. I'm grateful for the opportunities that Big Machine and my team around me have opened up. I'm running through every door I can”.

Brian Kelley and his Florida Georgia Line partner, Tyler Hubbard, have previously remained fairly tight-lipped on the specific reasons why they decided to take a break, with the general impetus being credited to Kelley's desire to embark on a solo career.

However, the ‘See You Next Summer’ songsmith was keen to set the record straight, “To hit you with some facts and just a little background...from day one of me initiating conversations about having and needing an extra outlet to honour my artistry, [the goal] - and the whole reason I moved to Nashville making music - was to do both”.

Brian Kelley emphasised that he was always keen to keep Florida Georgia Line going while he and Tyler Hubbard explored their solo ventures simultaneously, “You know, I really tried, it was my goal was to do both and keep both things going and to see the big holistic picture of how everything can work. Obviously, that didn't happen.”

Kelley explained that, even after the announcement had been made that Florida Georgia Line would be taking a breather, he was still seeking a solution to keep the duo together, “Until really the last show, I was trying to make both work and to have conversations of how that would look. And there was no way to come to an agreement - and that's okay”.

Despite a clean break not being Brian Kelley's ideal outcome, the ‘Boat Names’ crooner highlighted that his focus is firmly trained on his solo material, “I've pivoted from that, and you find out who you are when things don't go exactly how you think they should, or how you want them to go. I've put all that energy and anything I felt from those conversations into my work, into my music, and I've doubled down on my solo career”.

With Brian Kelley's current Country Radio single, ‘See You Next Summer’, currently climbing the Mediabase charts, the momentum continues to build ahead of the singer-songwriter's hotly anticipated Sunshine State Of Mind follow-up.

The project is set to shift slightly away from his debut album's ‘Beach Cowboy’ aesthetic and introduce more rural, down-home themes, as epitomised by his latest release, ‘Dirt Cheap’.

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