Brian Kelley Adds More Fuel To The Florida Georgia Line Reunion Rumors By Posting Video Of His Hike With Tyler Hubbard

It’s really happening, isn’t it?

Call it a cruel punishment from God, call it nature balancing itself after a fantastic year of country music in 2025 that featured breakouts from the likes of Zach Top, The Red Clay Strays, Stephen Wilson Jr. and more on a large scale, call it whatever you want, it looks like we’re getting incredibly close to a full-fledged reunion from the likes of Florida Georgia Line.

It should go without saying at this point that FGL was once one of the most successful duos in the history of the genre, scoring nothing short of era-defining hits in the 2010s with the likes of the diamond-certified, “Cruise,” along with other smashes such as “This Is How We Roll,” “Stay” and the Bebe Rexha collaboration, “Meant to Be.”

Of course, Florida Georgia Line remain as the poster boys for “bro country,” the era in the 2010s which was defined by the most shallow lyrics known to man, Nickelback-lite production and ultimately a whole lot of clichés that the genre still gets flack for such as heavy emphasis on drinking, tan legs swinging off of pickup truck beds and pretty much anything you associate with the worst country music has to offer.

Keep in mind, Florida Georgia Line wasn’t the only offenders during this era, names like Luke Bryan, Jason Aldean, Chase Rice, Sam Hunt, Brantley Gilbert, Jake Owen and more also dominated and further perpetuated the “bro country” era in the 2010s with many such as Owen and Rice trying their best (and succeeding) to distance themselves from the era later in their careers. The reason FGL ultimately get the most flack, at least today, is simply because they were the biggest.

Thankfully, around the mid 2010s, and often thanks in part to Chris Stapleton’s meteoric rise at the 2015 CMA Awards, “bro country” slowly but surely died off. Though its remnants can still be felt on the radio and at large today (there’s no denying some of Morgan Wallen’s biggest hits bear resemblance to the era), it’s stranglehold on the genre is all but dead.

One reason for this, in my opinion, was Florida Georgia Line’s eventual breakup in 2022. If you recall, there was a lot of speculation that the duo split due to political differences between the two after Hubbard unfollowed Kelley on social media during the 2020 election. (Hubbard and his wife Hayley supported Joe Biden, while Kelley and his wife Brittney supported Donald Trump).

The duo denied that their split had to do with politics, but it became clear that it was a nasty breakup between the two when both began telling their side of the story.

Hubbard, the “Georgia” half of FGL, made an appearance on the Bussin’ With the Boys podcast featuring Will Compton and Taylor Lewan last year, where he confirmed that he wasn’t speak much with his former bandmate and saying that the split caught him by surprise:

“For me it was really unexpected. But BK came to me and said, ‘Man I’m really feeling like I want to do a solo thing.’”

He also revealed that he tried to talk Kelley out of it, with the duo even going to therapy together to try to work through their issues. But turns out Kelley was adamant about it, though he still wanted to keep Florida Georgia Line together. Hubbard wasn’t going to do that though, and basically gave him an ultimatum: It was either FGL or solo, but not both.

“I don’t have capacity to do two careers. And also it’s going to get super sticky. When we’re writing songs, who are we writing for? When we got two show offers, an FGL date and a solo date, what are we taking? I’m like, I don’t even logistically see how that would work, much less emotionally.”

Well it turns out that, although Hubbard said he didn’t want them to pursue solo careers apart from FGL, he had actually gone behind Kelley’s back and recorded a song with Tim McGraw amidst the social unrest of 2020 – and when he told Kelley about the song, he also informed him that they would be performing it at Biden’s inauguration.

“Tyler had solo music out before I even did. Before we even got our fifth album out, he had released a couple songs, he had played Biden’s inauguration which was a huge look to be a solo act with Tim McGraw. He released another song. I didn’t start releasing music ’til April…

He was rockin’ at radio immediately, top of January of 2021 and I didn’t get music out ’til April and then the album in June.”

And Kelley says he was blindsided by Hubbard’s decision to make the first step to go solo with “Undivided,” the duet with Tim McGraw:

“Surprised. Shocked for sure. I thought we had a deal about what the plan was. Going back to my main thing, is protecting FGL. I didn’t think that was a good look, if I’d have done it or if he did it.”

Of course, that was already quite a few years ago, and recently, there has been heavy speculation that FGL was finally planning a reunion, thanks in part to the pair posing together, both individually and with their wives, at this year’s CMA Awards back in November.

Undoubtedly, this all could have been a simple exchange/get-together on a night filled with hundreds of the biggest names in the genre over the past decades. However, Hubbard added an incredible amount of fuel to the fire regarding a potential FGL reunion last month.

Appearing on the Human School Podcast, hosted by Miles Adcox, he’d reveal that he and Kelley are actively trying to repair their relationship. However, he would note that the rebuild of their relationship does not directly correlate with a complete reunion and subsequent release of new music from Florida Georgia Line.

“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.”

Later in the podcast, he’d also note that they were planning on going on a hike in the near future to get a jumpstart on repairing their relationship.

“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”.

Well, it looks like that hike happened today.

Taking to Instagram this afternoon, Kelley uploaded a Reel of himself in the woods captioned, “After going on the hike with T-Hubb” which quickly transitioned to a video of actor, Jon Hamm, dancing in a club along with “Cruise” playing in the background at the end of the Reel.

The post’s caption also read: “Solid hike”

View this post on Instagram

Again, this could all simply be two former friends and colleagues (who at one point were at the top of their respective genre) finally putting their differences aside and rekindling their relationship. However, something tells me that we’re getting dangerously close to a full-fledged reunion from Florida Georgia Line in the near future.

Ironically, this comes at a time where there’s seemingly a vocal minority of both people online and artists such as Lauren Watkins, all of whom are seemingly missing the era of “bro country.” While it seems pretty baffling to someone like me, there’s no doubt that there will always be a market for that subgenre of country.

Only time will tell if FGL will make their glorious (or should I say inglorious) return to country music, but all signs are pointing to a reunion in the near future. While we wait, let’s thank God for the likes of Tyler Childers, Sturgill Simpson, Chris Stapleton and the laundry list of superstars who have defined the genre in their absence.The post Brian Kelley Adds More Fuel To The Florida Georgia Line Reunion Rumors By Posting Video Of His Hike With Tyler Hubbard first appeared on Whiskey Riff.