“Let Me Get My Friend Back”: Tyler Hubbard Reveals He and Brian Kelley are Working to Repair Their Relationship

Well, this is welcome news.

During a conversation on Miles Adcox's Human School Podcast, Tyler Hubbard has reflected on the current state of his relationship with former Florida Georgia Line band-mate, Brian Kelley, underlining that they are working on repairing their friendship.

It comes a matter of weeks after the duo were spotted laughing together at the CMA Awards, offering fans a glimmer of hope we might one day get the FGL reunion we long for.

In this new interview, T-Hubb has stressed that nothing is planned at the moment in terms of FGL, rather, the focus for both him and BK is to simply mend their relationship.

After announcing their split in February 2022, a torrent of rumours and conjecture ensued, including speculation that the break-up was due to a political rift between the two. Kelley became increasingly vocal about his support for Donald Trump during the 2020 election, which led to Hubbard unfollowing him on Instagram. Then, Hubbard's performance of ‘Undivided’ with Tim McGraw at Joe Biden's inauguration a few months later seemingly added fuel to the fire.

In subsequent years, Kelley and Hubbard seemingly traded subliminal blows, with BK being open about the fact that he'd wanted FGL to continue alongside his new solo career, while T-Hubb felt this would be too much to juggle, and would muddle the brand. Kelley even dropped what was widely believed to be a diss track about Hubbard, ‘Kiss My Boots’, as part of his Tennessee Truth album in 2024.

Then, a couple of months later, there were the back-to-back interviews on Bussin’ with the Boys, where each former FGL band-member shared their side of the story.

Through it all, we - like many country fans - have been hoping the duo can get back on the same page, and reprise the creative partnership that gave us so many iconic hits.

Now, thankfully, it seems the FGL boys are working hard to repair their relationship, with Hubbard even revealing that he's going hiking with Kelley next week.

Chatting to Adcox, Hubbard emphasises that the political dimension of their supposed rift was highly overblown, “There's actually nothing that me and BK aren't aligned on, except the fact that he thinks we can do both [FGL and a solo career], and I don't”.

He expands, “I hadn't spoken to BK a lot in the last couple of years, but we're going on a hike next week, so the way I see it is, I have a desire for that friendship. I miss the guy I was partners with for 10 years. I miss my old roommate, my best man at my wedding, and if nothing else, we should have a relationship”.

The ‘Dancin’ in the Country’ hitmaker stresses that this won't necessarily mean any new music on the horizon from FGL, “It doesn't have to be what it was, and it doesn't have to equal FGL doing anything, but we need to repair...and spend some time together face to face. And just walk and talk and hang, and go fishing or get a guitar out...I'm excited for that, because yeah, it feels like, at this point, enough time has gone by. What's happened has happened. But there hasn't been any real repair at all, so what I'm hungry for, is...let me get my friend back”.

He candidly muses, “What did we fall in love [with]? What brought us to the dance in the first place?...Let's get back to that. And obviously, life has changed a lot, and the dynamics have changed a lot, and we're in way different places in life, so we may never be able to get back to what brought us to the dance. Being dead-broke right out of college and desperate for a career, you know what I mean?”

Hubbard underlines that he's feeling optimistic, “There's a new season that I think is hopeful, where it's like, dude, we had so many amazing years of blessings, and doing the craziest things that our wildest dreams couldn't have imagined, we should be doing life together in some capacity still, talking about those days, if nothing else...So I am there, as far as, like, the desire to heal and rebuild that friendship”.

Hubbard cautions once more that fans should not immediately get their hopes up about a Florida Georgia Line reunion, “Whether that ever ends up turning into anything FGL-related again, like, that's really hard to say. But I am here and I'm ready, and I've told BK that...He's reached back out and said, ‘I'm in town for this event, why don't we hang out?’...We're both trying and we're both making an effort”.

He frames the break-up as being akin to a marital divorce, such was the level of distress and emotional weight both he and BK carried during that time, “Going through a divorce isn't easy, and that's essentially what I went through...Yeah, man, it was tough”.

With this situation, it's also important to evaluate our own relationship with Tyler Hubbard and Brian Kelley, as fans. We were introduced to them as a genre-blurring duo that delivered some of the biggest hits in country music throughout the 2010's.

So now, when the possibility of them reforming and treating us to more chart-toppers is dangled in front of us, it's natural to excitedly clamour for this to become a reality.

But that fan-relationship is with a version of Florida Georgia Line that no longer exists. Even if they were to reunite, it would look completely different now, because, as Hubbard expresses, both he and Kelley have evolved and are in new phases of life.

As a result, it seems the best course of action, as avid FGL fans, is not, in fact, to repeatedly call for the band to get back together (something this writer has certainly been guilty of...). Rather, if we're genuine fans of FGL, it appears we should instead be championing the restoration of their friendship, first and foremost. And if an FGL reunion comes about as a result of this, fantastic, but Hubbard's conversation today makes it evident this isn't yet the priority - nor should it be.

Watch Tyler Hubbard's full interview with Miles Adcox's Human School Podcast below:

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