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Q&A: Get to know Florida Georgia Line

After gaining success as opening acts for country artists Luke Bryan and Taylor Swift, Florida Georgia Line is hitting the road on its first headlining tour. One of its first stops is John R. Emens Auditorium on Friday night with opening acts Colt Ford and Dallas Smith.

TWO GOOD FRIENDS

While studying music business at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn., Tyler Hubbard learned a lot about the music industry and networked with people who have a similar passion. One of the people he met was Brian Kelley.

Shortly after meeting, Hubbard and Kelley started writing songs together and building a partnership that would cement the name Florida Georgia Line. In December 2012, the duo released its first album, “Here’s to the Good Times,” which features hit songs “Cruise,” “Get Your Shine On” and “Round Here.” The album and each of the three singles have seen chart-topping success.

WINNING BIG

Since the release of their album, Kelley and Hubbard have been honored with multiple awards. They were named the Academy of Country Music’s New Artist of the Year and New Vocal Duo or Group of the Year for 2013. They won two 2013 CMT Music Awards and received multiple Teen Choice Award nominations.

Fans of Florida Georgia Line have set venue and ticket records for the duo’s first headlining tour. Tickets for the group’s performance at the Sears Centre Arena in Chicago sold out in less than five minutes. Within two hours, event tickets for the Ball State performance sold out.

THE Q&A

Hubbard, the Georgia-native of the duo, spoke about the tour and duo’s accomplishments.

Q: How did you get your start in music?
A: I got my start by learning how to play guitar and being on stage at church growing up. Later on, I moved to Nashville because I liked the city and loved writing songs and wanted to see if this was something that [I] was going to want to do after school. I went to school in Nashville and [music] just became my passion. It’s something I love doing and luckily, I’ve been blessed enough to do it for a living.

Q: Where do you think you would be right now if you and Kelley never met?
A: I think I would be in Nashville writing songs and maybe doing the solo artist thing, but it definitely wouldn’t be the same. It worked out great, to meet [Kelley] and write songs with him and just doing what we’re doing.

Q: You’re going on your first headlining tour. How is this live show going to be different from your shows as a supporting act?
A: Well, we’re going to get to do whatever we want and play as long as we want, which is nice. We’ll have a lot more production, a lot more smoke and lights and a lot more energy. We’re really excited. We’ve been planning and working a long time for this, so it’s going to be a great time.

Q: Colt Ford and Dallas Smith are joining you at this event. Why were they selected as your openers?
A: Colt Ford has been a good friend of ours for a long time. It’s funny… He use to let us open for him back in the day and we were getting on our feet, he helped us out. It’s cool to have him back out with us, and we really love him a lot. Dallas Smith is also a good buddy of ours. We felt like it was just a good fit.

Q: When people hear Florida Georgia Line, they think of hit songs like “Cruise,” “Round Here” and “Get Your Shine On.” Which of those songs is your favorite to perform?
A: Probably “Cruise.” It’s such a huge song. With the crowd, you can just tell the energy is building up to that moment and they just go crazy. It’s always a good time. That song has made history and it’s just cool to see how passionate our fans are about it, especially live.

Q: While preparing for this interview, I was looking over the lengthy list of awards that Florida Georgia Line has received. I’m a fan of you guys, and I never realized that you have accomplished so much.
A: Yeah, it’s been kind of crazy. The last year and a half has been a whirlwind in general. It’s a testament to our fans and how loyal and awesome they are. Country radio has been awesome to us as well. So hopefully, we can do this thing for a while.

Q: With all this success, do you feel like you have a lot to live up to with future music endeavors?
A: We don’t usually put too much pressure on ourselves. We just kind of do what we love and try to make the best music we can by writing the best songs possible and continue to improve our live show. We just do our thing and try not to think about it too hard or take ourselves too serious.

Q: When this tour is over, what’s next for Florida Georgia Line?
A: We’re going to be out on another tour next year and putting out new music. We’re also working on new music at the end of this year, and I believe we are releasing it on Nov. 25. We’re just repackaging our album with a few new songs and stuff like that. We are excited about it. We just keep working hard next year and hopefully harder than we did this year.

Q: What advice do you have for young musicians who want to follow in your footsteps?
A: The most important thing is to be yourself and find your own sound. Make the music you love and fingers crossed that everyone else will as well. Be persistent with it and keep trying because it’s not something that comes easy right away. It’s a long process.

Q: Some of the questions I have asked you came from Daily News readers on social media. Along with these questions were marriage proposals and request for a wedding band performance. I’m sure this is something you deal with regularly. How do you react to it?
A: I just kind of ignore it to be honest with you. It’s just part of it. It’s not annoying, but like I said it’s just part of it. It’s still cool to see the passion from our fans, even if it’s someone proposing to us. It’s pretty wild to see all of this. We don’t mind it. We just shrug it off and laugh about it.

Q: Any outrageous fan stories?
A: Well, one appropriate story is we had a fan leave us a dong on our tour bus, a little puppy. That definitely got our attention. Our fans are pretty awesome. They’ll do just about anything. They’ll sit in front of the gates in front of the venues the night before and spend the night in the parking lot to be the first ones at the doors. It’s pretty crazy to see what our fans have done.

Florida Georgia Line, Colt Ford and Dallas Smith will bring the “Here’s To The Good Times” tour to Emens Auditorium Friday night. Tickets for the event are sold out. For more event information, contact the Emens box office at (765) 285-1539.

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