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He’s known and loved as one half of the multi- platinum duo Florida Georgia Line, but with the release of his eponymous debut solo album, Tyler Hubbard is stepping out and sharing his own story.
On the deeply personal Tyler Hubbard the artist finds his voice with 18 autobiographical tracks that let longtime fans in like never before. And they’re loving it. His first single, “5 Foot 9” has already reached No. 1 on radio, making Hubbard the first male country artist formerly in a country duo to hit No.1 as a solo artist. For Hubbard, this new chapter is breathing new life into a decade-long country music career.
“It’s been re-energizing and refueling and fulfilling,” he says. “After the pandemic and after everything we’ve gone through and all the ups and downs, I have a new gratitude and a new perspective that I’m so thankful for. Getting to make music for a job is just still the biggest blessing in the world. And to be able to get back out and play shows and connect with the fans, it’s got a new beauty to me.”
It’s an exciting time for Hubbard but going solo wasn’t necessarily part of his plan.
“It’s been a journey for me. In September of 2020 BK [Brian Kelley, the other half of Florida Georgia Line] came to me and said he wanted to do a solo thing. It took me a minute to process that,” says Hubbard. “I was excited for him, and I thought I’d be a songwriter and a stay-at-home dad for a while and have that 11 to 4 schedule some of my buddies in town have that I’ve always been envious of.”
After six months of that schedule, Hubbard got antsy. He found himself missing the next steps in the creative process: making an album and performing it for the fans.
“Part of my passion for songwriting is seeing the songs come to life,” he says. “So with the encouragement of my wife and some of my friends and a new management team I felt emboldened to take that next step. And I started to more fully understand what BK was feeling, too. It’s important to let our fans see us as individuals and let them into our personal lives and see us as people as opposed to a band.”
To that end, Hubbard set about creating his most intimate work yet. The result was Tyler Hubbard, an 18-track LP that digs deep into the man behind the music. The profoundly personal album is brimming with loving tributes to his wife, Hayley, their three children, and his late father. It’s a look inside the country music superstar and the people and places that made him the man he is today. Each song strips away the bravado and bluster of Hubbard’s FGL persona, instead showcasing his grateful heart and true down-home spirit.
That is especially evident on “Small Town Me,” an introspective ode to Hubbard’s roots that sees the singer finding his truest self when he returns to his hometown.
“With this album I really wanted people to get to know me a lot more, so there was a need for songs that were very much autobiographical and self-descriptive. I almost called the album Small Town Me because I do feel like it’s a big part of who I am and where I came from,” he says. “We shot the video [for that song] in a small town very much like the one where I grew up and it got very nostalgic for me. I don’t get home a lot, so it felt good and natural to be back in a place like that.”
Love songs play a key role in the album, allowing Hubbard to showcase his softer side and give fans a look into his 10-year relationship. Whilethehitsingle“5Foot9”paintsaliteral picture of Hayley (though Hubbard hysterically wrote the entire song before learning that his wife is actually 5 foot 10), the classically country ballad “Paradise” is one that will have fans slow dancing in their headlights with lyrics like “It’s like heaven asfarasIcansee/ain’tnoplaceI’dratherbe/ cause here with her my whole world looks just like paradise.”
The song was co-written with hitmakers Zach Kale and Rodney Clawson. “That one came together so fluidly. Rodney’s a good friend of mine—an old songwriting buddy—and he’s a legend, somebody I look up to. I told him, ‘I need you to bring some the special Clawson sauce’ and he really prepared so he had a lot already written. Me and Zach were just taking notes and watching him do his thing,” Hubbard says. “I just loved the song and, and the emotion and the heart behind it just felt very much me and where I’m at right now.” Elsewhere on the album the tear-jerking “Miss My Daddy” finds Hubbard reminiscing on his time spent with his father who passed away in 2007. “I’d tell him ’bout how all the dreams we used to dream are really coming true / and how his grandkids talk about the man they never knew / I’d ask him about heaven / what it’s like up there with you / I pray you’d let him stay a day or two / ’cause I just miss my daddy,” he sings on the track’s chorus.
“That was a tough one to write. It was emotional and therapeutic,” says Hubbard. “I was in an odd place—it was the middle of the pandemic, I had Covid and that was one of the songs I wrote sitting on the bus [in isolation] for 10 days. It was just me and my guitar and my thoughts. I had a friend who lost her dad earlier that week and my heart was hurting for her and it was bringing back the emotion of losing my dad. I just poured my heart out into this song and never in a million years thought I would record it, but when I was getting ready to put the album out it just kept coming up. It’s a song that tells my story and it’s an important part of my story that I haven’t really talked about. I hope that song is therapeutic for people who have gone through loss. I hope it’s healing for the fans.”
Hubbard, who spent the better part of 2022 opening for Keith Urban’s The Speed of Now World Tour tour, will bring his story to the fans in an even bigger way this year. He’s playing numerous festivals and is booking headlining dates throughout 2023. After years of rigorous touring as part of the well-oiled FGL machine, he’s excited to be in the driver’s seat and make his own way in the industry.
“I’m excited to be a free agent, if you will, and open up for friends, play headlining shows, play fairs and festivals. I just want to get this music out and play as many shows as I can,” he says. “I’m really looking forward to hearing the fans sing these songs back to me. When people really start to know the songs and live the songs and love the songs you can tell it when they’re singing them back to you. There’s nothing better than that.”