Florida Georgia Line: No cruising in the fast lane

Florida Georgia Line’s Brian Kelley and Tyler Hubbard were in a car on the way to speak to the media at the 48th annual Academy of Country Music Awards, when one of them asked, “What’s a press room?”

It was April 7, 2013, and the men had just performed their new hit “Cruise” as part of the ACM Awards. In the minutes following, they were stunned to hear Florida Georgia Line announced as the fan-voted ACM New Artist of the Year.

Four years later, Kelley and Hubbard are seasoned veterans who well know their way around a press room. Florida Georgia Line picked up five nominations from the 52nd ACM Awards, which will air live from Las Vegas 7 p.m. Sunday on CBS. This year, the men are up for Entertainer of the Year, Album of the Year for “Dig Your Roots,” Vocal Duo of the Year, Single Record of the Year for “H.O.L.Y.” and Vocal Event of the Year for “May We All” with Tim McGraw.

“The first ACM win really put us on the map,” said Kelley, explaining that following the win, the duo went on to tour Canada and the West Coast. “There was no looking back.”

The pair met as students on campus at Belmont University and wrote their first song together in 2009. They were roommates for two years and spent Wednesday nights leading music for a youth group at a church just outside of Nashville. Kelley and Hubbard signed a publishing deal with famed songwriter Craig Wiseman’s publishing company Big Loud Shirt in December of 2011 and recorded “Cruise” the same day. The song was on iTunes by April of 2012, was released to country radio in August, spent 24 weeks at the top of the country music charts and remains the genre’s only diamond-selling single, meaning more than 10 million copies of the song were sold. The song’s fifth anniversary is April 10.

“The first time I heard ‘Cruise,’ my first reaction was, ‘That’s a No. 1 record,’” said Tim Roberts, vice president of programming for CBS Radio and program director of WYCD in Detroit. “It didn’t sound like anything else. They’ve created some magic that works for radio in that … they’ve brought a new, fresh, interesting sound to the format that massively caught on.”

From there, Florida Georgia Line went on to collect four No. 1 songs from its debut album including “Round Here,” “Get Your Shine On” and “Stay.” Next they spun their sound 180 degrees toward traditional country and refocused on lyrics and storytelling with “Dirt,” the debut single from their second album “Anything Goes.”  Florida Georgia Line's sound evolved further with 2016’s “Dig Your Roots.” The accompanying tour had 51 sellouts including the duo’s first headlining gig at Bridgestone Arena. In March, an exhibit featuring the duo was unveiled at The Country Music Hall of Fame and they sold two out of three stadium shows on their summer tour within hours of them going on sale.

Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum CEO Kyle Young described Florida Georgia Line as “disrupters,” saying there's plenty of room under “country music’s big tent” for both them and classicists.

Live Nation’s president of country touring Brian O’Connell called selling out the stadium shows — including events at Chicago’s Wrigley Field and Boston’s Fenway Park — significant.

“It’s very difficult to make that hop successfully,” O’Connell said of adding stadiums into the duo’s touring schedule. “You have to go all the way back to how the ship was built. They systematically took everything in stride. ‘Cruise’ was a life-altering thing, but they kept grinding … and they were patient. This has been five years in the making.”

Kelley and Hubbard push themselves to be transparent with fans and constantly grow as artists.

“B.K. says it best, ‘If you’re writing what’s on the radio, you’re probably a couple years behind,” Hubbard said. “We make it a goal to not make the same record we made before. It’s easy for us because as quickly as our lives have evolved and we’ve evolved … it leads our music to evolve rapidly as well. It pushes us, every record, to write better songs and let our fans deeper into our lives.”

Their quest for honesty and innovation paved the way to the duo’s third album “Dig Your Roots.” Released in August, the album is home to 18-week No. 1 “H.O.L.Y.,” “May We All,” and their current single “God, Your Mama, and Me,” (featuring The Backstreet Boys) which Florida Georgia Line will perform at the ACM Awards on Sunday evening.

“You would say that ‘H.O.L.Y.’ was a career song, except how many career songs can one duo have?” said Charlie Cook, vice president of Country Cumulus Media and program director for Nashville’s WKDF and WSM-FM. “‘Cruise’ set the bar so high, but also brought immediate attention to the guys.”

Kelley said he and Hubbard visualized this point in their career, having the time of their lives, playing for stadiums of screaming fans and sharing their lives though songs.

“We’re taking people to church one minute and partying the next,” he said. “I’m thankful for those early days because if you can lead somebody to worship, you can lead somebody to party. It’s all about connecting.”

Reach Cindy Watts at 615-664-2227, ciwatts@tennessean.com or on Twitter @CindyNWatts.

Florida Georgia Line by the numbers:

3.5 million albums sold

11 No. 1 songs at country radio

1.3 million concert tickets sold in 2016

5 nominations at the 52nd ACM Awards

3 stadiums

3 albums

TUNE IN

The 52nd Academy of Country Music Awards will air live from Las Vegas' T-Mobile Arena 7 p.m. Sunday on CBS. Luke Bryan and Dierks Bentley will return to co-host the show, and performances include Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Florida Georgia Line with The Backstreet Boys, Cole Swindell and Bentley, Keith Urban, Carrie Underwood, Miranda Lambert, Little Big Town, Kelsea Ballerini, Thomas Rhett, Reba McEntire, Chris Stapleton and more.