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Bunnie XO just might have gotten husband Jelly Roll in a little trouble after an appearance during the “Son of a Sinner’s” performance during Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo on Wednesday (March 6).
“Ya girl messed up,” Bunnie XO said in a TikTok video Thursday (March 7), detailing what happened. “Apparently, at the Houston Rodeo, you’re not supposed to cuss. You’re not supposed to say one bad word on stage, and if you do, they’ll turn the lights off, kick you out and never let you come back again. Nobody told me this.”
She went on to detail what happened when Jelly Roll invited her on stage in front of 75,000 people at NRG Stadium. “Husband and I had a conversation: ‘Baby are you coming onstage tonight?’ I said, ‘No. I’m already weird and awkward as it is … I’m not good with a microphone or with crowds and I stick to a script that we have done for the past frickin’ decade. Unbeknownst to me, my husband walks over in the middle of one of the songs and pulls me up onstage. And what do I do when he hands me the microphone? I hope you guys enjoy this little blunder over here.”
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The video then goes to footage of the moment, as Jelly Roll brings Bunnie XO onstage and the crowd begins cheering when they notice her. The country star hands her the microphone, and asks her to greet the crowd. She then proceeds to shout into the microphone, “Houston, what the f–k is up?” further eliciting cheers from the audience. The video then zooms in on Jelly Roll’s face as he appears to turn slightly away from the camera. “The look of despair,” she captions the moment.
But the Dumb Blonde podcast host need not worry. A rep for the Houston Rodeo tells Billboard, “I can say that they are NOT banned and we would absolutely love to have both of them back. We are a family friendly show, but there isn’t a rule in place that bans anyone for cursing.”
Jelly Roll is far from the first country artist to have a cuss word fly during their set. Just days before, HARDY led the Rodeo Houston crowd in all chanting “F–K!” together during his own performance. He alluded to the assumed “no cussing” guideline by telling the crowd, “I figured if we just do a countdown and we all say it at the same time, maybe we’ll all just get in trouble together.”
The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo runs through Sunday, March 17, with Eric Church closing out the event. Upcoming performers include Major Lazer, Lainey Wilson, Zac Brown Band and more.
Watch Bunnie XO’s TikTok about her Houston Rodeo moment below:
Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood are officially the newest residents in Nashville’s Neon Neighborhood, as they celebrated the grand opening of Country Music Hall of Famer Brooks’ Friends in Low Places Bar & Honky-Tonk on Thursday (March 7). The venue takes its name from the country star’s signature 1990 hit.
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In a press conference that evening, Brooks told reporters of the two-year process that has gone into creating Friends in Low Places Bar & Honky-Tonk, “A lot of love has gone into this building. There’s a lot of people who busted their a– to make this happen,” he said, thanking the mostly local crew who built the venue.
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While there are nearly a dozen country star-themed bars and music venues either currently open or in the works in Nashville’s Lower Broadway — a testament to country music’s commercial power — Brooks’ newly opened venue is filled with unique elements that honor not only his storied career, but also offer a different vantage point for Nashville patrons.
Located at 411 Broadway, the four-story, 54,715-square-foot venue features a honky-tonk on the first two floors, including a retractible stage (the center of said stage features the “G” logo from the stage at NYC’s Central Park, where Brooks played to an estimated audience of more than 1 million people on Aug. 7, 1997). Meanwhile, the fourth-floor open-air rooftop bar area, dubbed “The Oasis” from a line in “Friends in Low Places,” features a beach vibe with indoor and outdoor seating, 10-foot palm trees and two full bars. The rooftop area also tips its hat to the location’s former venue, Paradise Park, with a refurbished neon sign above one of the doorways that read “Paradise Park Food Stand, Burgers, Fries, Chicken.”
The first two floors and the rooftop are open to everyone, while the third floor features a trio of event spaces, including the members-only Sevens Club, decked out in an old-school Hollywood vibe. A curved bar, a pool table and a piano, along with upholstered and leather chairs and couches, as well as a jukebox, a fireplace and insulated windows give the third floor a homey, relaxed and decidedly un-Lower Broadway feel.
Next to the Sevens Club, Yearwood’s vision and handiwork is distinct in a rentable space for parties and events, with a look similar to the decor that Yearwood used for her Trisha’s Southern Kitchen show, with a spacious, fully functioning kitchen and seating area that leads into a smaller seating area and an elegant conference room area. Yearwood noted that plans could include sometimes filming her cooking show in the kitchen space. The areas offer a setting for gatherings of up to 250 guests.
“I feel like Frank Sinatra could walk up to that bar and order a Jack and Smoke [a specialty drink offered in the venue] and feel very comfortable,” Yearwood tells Billboard of the Sevens Club. “It feels right. There’s these two floors of honky-tonks and when you step off that elevator on that floor, it’s like you’re in a residence. There’s crown molding, it’s rich, luxe furnishings and you go into that Sevens Club and it’s like, ‘Wow, are we on Lower Broadway?’ And even in the kitchen, there are wood ceilings, and that checkerboard floor. I fought for that checkerboard floor. Garth was like, ‘That seems like a lot,’ and I was like, ‘No, it’s a statement.’ And it’s beautiful.”
Personal touches are scattered throughout the venue, including the front entrance, where patrons can see the bronze statue of Brooks, taken from Bakersfield, California’s Crystal Palace, where Brooks proposed to Yearwood in 2005. The back wall of the venue is a mural of photos from Brooks’ career. Notably, Brooks’ touring team, including Moo TV and Bandit Lites, oversaw the lighting, production and massive LED screen for the venue. The building also includes a police substation that the team created in partnership with the Metro Nashville Police Department.
The menu reflects Yearwood’s work as a bestselling cookbook author and star of her Food Network cooking show, Trisha’s Southern Kitchen. The offerings include fare from her cookbooks as well as bar food. Patrons can also taste a reproduction of the sour cream pound wedding cake recipe that Yearwood’s mother made for Brooks and Yearwood on their wedding day in 2005.
“I remember going to a restaurant in Memphis and being told that Elvis ate there a lot,” Yearwood says of bringing personal touches to the venue’s menu. “I wanted to order what Elvis ate, so I ordered the banana and peanut butter sandwich. So, I felt like if you are a fan and this is the actual recipe, this is the cake, and my mom made wedding cakes on the side when we were little kids to make extra money, so this was her thing.”
“The goal here was to keep it simple,” Yearwood also told reporters of the menu. “Most of my recipes are things that my mom made, my mom and my dad, they were home cooks. That’s what we’re going for here. … It’s been a process of going through and saying, ‘This will work on a big scale.’ The menu is just where we’re starting. We’ll see what works and change it up as we go, because we have a lot of recipes to choose from.”
As well, a new six-episode docuseries on Amazon Prime Video gives a behind-the-scenes look at the design and construction that went into creating the new honky-tonk. Brooks and Yearwood worked with Max and Benjamin Goldberg and their team from Strategic Hospitality, which has also worked on local Nashville restaurants including The Patterson House. The docuseries is produced by Amazon MGM Studios and Casey Patterson Entertainment, with Brooks, Casey Patterson and Carol Donovan serving as executive producers. The docuseries features Brooks and Yearwood working with the Goldbergs as well as Jenny Deathridge Bratt and Camille Tambunting to create the space.
Brooks tells Billboard: “My favorite moments [in the documentary] is when you see the character of these people under fire –you’re against timelines, you’re up against budgets.”
In The Pines – June 1, 2024, Bristol, TN/VA – This year’s festival features Dwight Yoakam, Wyatt Flores, Elle King, Paul Cauthen and more.
Railbird Music Festival – June 1-2, 2024, Lexington, KY – Noah Kahan, Turnpike Troubadours, Chris Stapleton, Hozier, Wynonna Judd, Counting Crows, Marcus King, Dwight Yoakam, Elle King and more are included on this year’s lineup.
CMA Fest – June 6-9, 2024, Nashville, TN – Though the lineup for this year’s CMA Fest has not yet been revealed, the yearly festival features not only many of country music’s hottest artists performing during the nightly shows at Nissan Stadium, but also on various stages across Nashville’s Lower Broadway and the downtown riverfront, as well as artist events and autograph signings held at Music City Center.
Tailgate N’ Tallboys Clinton – June 6-8, Clinton, Iowa – Jelly Roll, Bailey Zimmerman and Shinedown lead this year’s festival in Clinton, with the lineup also including Alexandra Kay, Josh Ross, Austin Snell and Nate Smith.
Carolina Country Music Festival – June 6-9, 2024, Myrtle Beach, S.C. – Morgan Wallen, Carrie Underwood, Parker McCollum, Old Dominion, Oliver Anthony Music, Megan Moroney, Lee Brice, Parmalee, Kameron Marlowe and Diamond Rio are all on this year’s bill.
Rock the Country – June 7-8, 2024, Ocala, FL – Kid Rock, Jason Aldean and Lynyrd Skynyrd lead the Florida iteration of this festival series, with the bill also including Travis Tritt and Warren Zeiders.
The Country Fest – June 12-15, 2024, North Lawrence, Ohio – Chris Janson, Lainey Wilson, Cody Johnson and Thomas Rhett lead this four-day festival.
Tailgate N’ Tallboys Bloomington – June 13-16, 2024, Bloomington, IL – Eric Church, Cody Johnson, Bailey Zimmerman and Riley Green lead this year’s lineup.
Black Deer Festival – June 14-16, 2024, Eridge Park, Kent – Sheryl Crow, The Shires, Dylan Gossett, Lizzie No, Twinnie and more are on this year’s bill.
Hwy 30 Music Fest – June 19-22, 2024, Filer, ID – This year’s lineup includes Shane Smith and the Saints, Muscadine Bloodline, Treaty Oak Revival, Charles Wesley Godwin and more.
Barefoot Country Music Festival – June 20-23, 2024, Wildwood, NJ – Luke Bryan, Keith Urban, Kane Brown, Old Dominion and Bailey Zimmerman are on this year’s lineup.
Telluride Bluegrass Festival – June 20-23, 2024, Telluride, CO – Charley Crockett, The Infamous Stringdusters, Sam Bush Band and Sierra Ferrell highlight this year’s lineup.
Country Jam Colorado – June 20-22, 2024, Grand Junction, CO – Thomas Rhett, Parker McCollum and Jelly Roll will headline this year’s festival, with Koe Wetzel, Sawyer Brown, Craig Morgan and Lee Brice also on the lineup.
Rock the Country, June 21-22, 2024, Mobile, AL – Kid Rock and Jason Aldean lead the Alabama iteration of this festival, with the bill also including Brantley Gilbert and Randy Houser.
Buckeye Country Superfest – June 22-23, 2024, Columbus, OH – Zach Bryan, Billy Strings, Turnpike Troubadours, Charley Crockett, Charles Wesley Godwin and 49 Winchester are all featured on the lineup for this two-day festival.
Cotton Fest – June 27-29, 2024, Lubbock, TX – This Texas fest will feature performances from Pat Green, Treaty Oak Revival, Red Clay Strays, Carter Faith, The Panhandlers and more.
Country Thunder Bristol – June 28-29, Bristol, TN – Cody Johnson, HARDY, Trace Adkins and Bailey Zimmerman lead this two-day festival.
Dauphin’s Country Fest – June 28-30, 2024, Dauphin, Manitoba, Canada – A string of ’80s and ’90s country artists, including Alabama, Clint Black, Jo Dee Messina, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and Mark Chesnutt lead this year’s lineup.
Country Stampede – June 27-29, 2024, Bonner Springs, KS – Chris Janson, Riley Green and Jon Pardi led this year’s lineup, which also features Jackson Dean and Neon Union, among others.
Rock the Country – June 28-29, 2024, Poplar Bluff, MO – Kid Rock, Jason Aldean and Hank Williams, Jr. lead this Missouri iteration of this festival series.
Coca-Cola’s Sips and Sounds Summer Festival – June 29-30, 2024, Austin, TX – This year’s lineup features Kelsea Ballerini, Jon Pardi, Maren Morris, Drayton Farley, Sammy Arriaga and more.
Over the past few years, Morgan Wallen has steadily taken his tours to superstar heights, thanks to a slate of sold-out stadium and arena shows, both domestically and internationally.
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Now, the 11-time Billboard Music Awards winner is expanding on his December 2023 concert at London’s O2 Arena (where he sold out the 20,000-capacity arena), by returning to London for a one-night-only show at the city’s 350-acre Hyde Park on July 4, 2024.
Hyde Park, which has an official capacity of 65,000 but has hosted concerts attended by thousands more than that, has been home to concerts by Queen, Pink Floyd, Bruce Springsteen, The Rolling Stones and more.
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“Last fall was my first time in the U.K. and man, I loved it,” Wallen said in a statement. “I saw so much while I was there, and the people were incredible.” He added of his upcoming Hyde Park show, “To play where legendary artists like Pink Floyd and The Rolling Stones have played is a huge honor for me and my band, and we can’t wait to be back.”
The concert reveal follows the release of Wallen’s Abbey Road Sessions, which honors the one-year anniversary of his record-setting One Thing at a Time album. His Abbey Road Sessions, recorded at London’s iconic Studio Two at Abbey Road Studios on Dec. 5, 2023, offers five live recordings from One Thing at a Time, as well as the fan-favorite “Lies Lies Lies” and a cover of British rock band Nothing But Thieves’ “Graveyard Whistling.” Tickets go on sale Wednesday, March 13, at 10 a.m. GMT at bst-hydepark.com. Supporting talent will be announced at a later date.
Wallen isn’t the only country superstar on Hyde Park’s BST summer lineup: Shania Twain will headline on July 7. Other artists on the Hyde Park lineup this summer include SZA, Kings of Leon, Stevie Nicks and Stray Kids.
Maren Morris delivered an inspiring — and very fitting — rendition of her 2019 No. 1 Country Airplay hit “Girl” before accepting the Visionary Award at the Billboard Women in Music celebration Wednesday night (March 6) at YouTube Theater in Inglewood, Calif. Accompanying herself on guitar, and backed only by a guitarist and keyboardist (“Girl” […]
Lainey Wilson got to relax a bit at Wednesday night’s (March 6) Billboard Women in Music 2024 event. After performing and taking home the Rulebreaker award in 2023, the “Heart Like a Truck” singer was happy to present and talk about where she sees the future of country music going. “That’s an easy one for […]
The Country Music Association has revealed the recipients of the 14th annual CMA Triple Play Awards, which celebrate songwriters who write three No. 1 songs within a 12-month period, based on Billboard‘s Country Airplay and Hot Country Songs charts, as well as the Country Aircheck chart.
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This year features seven honorees: Ashley Gorley (a three-time recipient this year, for contributing to nine No. 1 hits over the 12-month period), Charlie Handsome, Jelly Roll, Chase McGill, Hunter Phelps, Jordan Schmidt and Thomas Rhett. Celebrating their first CMA Triple Play Award wins this year are Jelly Roll and Schmidt. Gorley remains the most decorated recipient, receiving his 21st, 22nd and 23rd CMA Triple Play Awards.
Chairman/CEO of Universal Music Publishing Group Nashville, and CMA Board member Troy Tomlinson will be feted with the CMA songwriter advocate award, which honors an individual who has made significant contributions and dedicated their life to supporting and advancing the careers of songwriters and the art of songwriting. Among the artists Tomlinson has championed are Kelsea Ballerini, Casey Beathard, Luke Bryan, Kenny Chesney, Eric Church, Dean Dillon, Tom Douglas, Miranda Lambert, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, Blake Shelton, Taylor Swift, Thomas Rhett, Hank Williams and others. Tomlinson has also served organizations including Nashville Songwriters Association International, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum Board of Officers and Trustees, and Belmont University.
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“Since I was about six years old, songs have painted pictures that helped me both escape and embrace life,” Tomlinson said in a statement. “To have spent the past four decades supporting and advocating for the world’s greatest songwriters has been nothing less than an honor and a privilege. Being honored by CMA at this point in my life is extraordinarily rewarding and humbling.”
The CMA Triple Play Awards will be held Monday, April 15, in Nashville, and hosted by songwriter and CMA Board member Jim Beavers.
See this year’s CMA Triple Play Award honorees, as well as the songs they are being celebrated for, below:
Jelly Roll “Son of a Sinner,” recorded by Jelly Roll “Need a Favor,” recorded by Jelly Roll “Save Me,” recorded by Jelly Roll featuring Lainey Wilson
Ashley Gorley “She Had Me at Heads Carolina,” recorded by Cole Swindell “You Proof,” recorded by Morgan Wallen “Last Night,” recorded by Morgan Wallen “What He Didn’t Do,” recorded by Carly Pearce “Gold,” recorded by Dierks Bentley “Girl in Mine,” recorded by Parmalee “Thinkin’ Bout Me,” recorded by Morgan Wallen “God Gave Me a Girl,” recorded by Russell Dickerson “World on Fire,” recorded by Nate Smith
Charlie Handsome “Wasted on You,” recorded by Morgan Wallen “You Proof,” recorded by Morgan Wallen “Last Night,” recorded by Morgan Wallen
Chase McGill “With a Woman You Love,” recorded by Justin Moore “5 Foot 9,” recorded by Tyler Hubbard “Next Thing You Know,” recorded by Jordan Davis
Hunter Phelps “Best Thing Since Backroads,” recorded by Jake Owen “New Truck,” recorded by Dylan Scott “Wait in the Truck,” recorded by HARDY featuring Lainey Wilson
Jordan Schmidt “Wait in the Truck,” recorded by HARDY featuring Lainey Wilson “Bury Me in Georgia,” recorded by Kane Brown “Watermelon Moonshine,” recorded by Lainey Wilson
Thomas Rhett “Half of Me,” recorded by Thomas Rhett featuring Riley Green “Angels (Don’t Always Have Wings),” recorded by Thomas Rhett “Stars Like Confetti,” recorded by Dustin Lynch
While a country smash from Beyoncé came as a surprise, for Grammy Award-winning producer Hit-Boy, the success of “Texas Hold ’Em” is a testament to the singularity of Beyoncé’s ear and vision. “She would be the only person that would think to bring Hit-Boy in on some country music,” he says. Although Beyoncé released the […]
Bolstered by acts like Morgan Wallen, Zach Bryan and Luke Combs, country music in 2023 experienced its biggest growth spurt in more than 30 years — way back when Garth Brooks soared to superstardom. Already, this year seems on track to continue that explosion, as country stars and pop icons alike are capitalizing on the genre’s recent boom.
In February, Beyoncé became the first Black woman to top Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart with her galloping hit, “Texas Hold ’Em,” from her upcoming Act II, expected to be a full-on country album, out March 29. Post Malone has teased a duet with Combs on social media and written with other genre stars including Wallen and HARDY for his upcoming country album. And Lana Del Rey — who declared that her fall album, Lasso, will be a country set — recently posted a snippet of a song that she worked on with noted Nashville songwriter-producer Luke Laird.
CMT senior vp of music strategy and talent Leslie Fram views the influx as a sign of “overwhelming respect for the storytelling and the songwriting in Nashville,” but predicts that noncountry artists taking up slots at terrestrial country radio “is going to be a major topic of conversation … If [a core country artist] has spent 30 to 50 weeks trying to climb up a chart and, all of a sudden, they’re replaced by someone who is not in the genre, I do believe there will be concerns.”
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However, Simon Tikhman, co-founder of The Core Entertainment, which manages Nickelback and country upstarts Bailey Zimmerman and Nate Smith, sees the possible radio displacement as a good sign overall. “We were on a call with Nate’s Sony team talking about adds at radio, and No. 1 was Beyoncé and No. 2 was Nate,” he says, adding that The Core Entertainment co-founder Kevin “Chief” Zaruk “and I were like, ‘This is amazing that she sees what’s going on over here.’ She’s as brilliant as a performer gets, and she wants to be part of this. It just goes to show how powerful the genre is right now.”
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As Alan Jackson famously sang in his 1994 hit, “Gone Country,” for decades, any artist who released such music but who hadn’t moved to Nashville or put in the time building a country audience and courting country radio was considered a carpetbagger. But now, many insiders see it as a sign that borders between genres have fallen and that country’s recent surge in popularity has made it extremely appealing to artists who have fallen in love with the music, too.
And unlike in the past, when artists might explore country only as their pop career dwindled, today’s infiltration and interest are coming from names at the peak of their pop prowess. “It isn’t like the heritage artists before that wanted to do a country record. These are artists at the top of their game,” Fram says. Olivia Rodrigo attended Megan Moroney’s Los Angeles show last year and posted photos backstage together. And in November, Post Malone made his debut performance at the Country Music Association Awards.
Plus, fandom aside, it’s smart business. “The pop labels are seeing the success of a Morgan Wallen,” Sony Nashville chairman/CEO Randy Goodman says of the country superstar, whose smash “Last Night” and album One Thing at a Time logged the most weeks of any song or album on the Billboard Hot 100 and Billboard 200 last year, respectively. He adds: “The biggest female artist in the world is Taylor [Swift], who started in country. I don’t think that’s lost on any of the labels.”
Range Media Partners co-founder Matt Graham, whose company manages Jack Harlow, Midland and Saweetie, believes the pop transplants could help expand country’s global audience. “It’s good for making the genre international,” he says, noting that acts like Wallen and Combs have already helped country grow worldwide. “This has the potential to blow that wide open.” He predicts streaming numbers for country artists, which were already up nearly 24% year over year in 2023 domestically, according to Luminate, will “drastically” increase this year and beyond.
And the genre-flipping isn’t just flowing one way: Country artists are finding success in other formats, too. Combs had a massive crossover hit with his cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car,” and Wallen topped Billboard’s year-end Streaming Songs Artists chart, the first time a country act had achieved the feat. Meanwhile, Jelly Roll and HARDY — both of whom are considered primarily country artists — reached No. 1 on the Mainstream Rock and Hard Rock charts, respectively.
Like 21-year-old Rodrigo, younger music listeners don’t “put music in a box,” Zaruk says, noting Zimmerman’s November duet with the Jonas Brothers. “For years, country fans didn’t really listen to hip-hop and rap and rap fans were not listening to country,” he continues. “We’re genreless now.”
This story will appear in the March 9, 2024, issue of Billboard.
Brian Kelley and Tyler Hubbard, both previously part of Florida Georgia Line, are each prepping new solo projects, with Hubbard’s Strong to release April 12, and Kelley’s Tennessee Truth to release May 10.
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Kelley just released one new song off the album, titled “Kiss My Boots,” along with a new music video for the song, and some music fans seem to think the track is a dig at his former FGL bandmate Hubbard.
The song includes lyrics aimed at someone who has wronged him, even in the opening lines, “You’ve been throwin’ dirt on my name ’round this town like it ain’t small/ Like your friends ain’t my friends, and I wouldn’t end up hearin’ it all.” The chorus goes on to muse, “I don’t know how you act sweet after how you did me/ Here’s a middle finger to you through a song.”
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In teasing the song a week ago, Kelley said on Instagram, “My mental health coach told me a couple years ago as I was navigating through an extremely difficult, hurtful, and confusing time, ‘the person with the highest emotional intelligence has the highest responsibility.’ So as hard as it was in those moments to take the high road, I took her advice and I sat back and ‘ate my popcorn’. Everyone processes differently. I went inward. And it all came out in a song. Now it’s time for y’all to get your popcorn 🍿”Kiss My Boots” available next Wednesday, March 6th.”
The video for the song centers around Kelley hunting down a snake in the woods, while some fans began speculating about the video’s final scene, which shows Kelley, wearing a belt buckle emblazoned with the word “Florida,” slicing up a peach (the official state fruit of Hubbard’s homestate of Georgia) with a knife.
Hubbard previously addressed Kelley’s new song in an interview with Holler, saying, “Just like I’ve always said, I’m happy for BK. This is what he wanted and this is what he initiated, and I hope he’s happy and that he’s doing his thing and I’m doing my thing.” Hubbard further added, “I wish him the best, and yeah, as far as that’s concerned that’s about all I have to say about it.”
Meanwhile, Kelley said of the inspiration behind the song, “You know, this is a really personal song, it was born from a deep wound and a relationship. It’s a song about betrayal, and I just took a deep dive and put it all out there in a song, just like so many other artists have done over the years.” He went on to add, “I really hope that people can find their own ‘Tennessee Truth’ in this song. What I love about [‘Kiss My Boots’] is I know what it means to me, and I think it has a universal message that people can relate to. A lot of people have been betrayed, and so I hope that this song helps them as much as it has helped me.”
Billboard reached out to reps for both Hubbard and Kelley for comment.
Ormond Beach, Florida native Kelley and Monroe, Georgia native Hubbard met while both were students at Nashville’s Belmont University. In 2012, they released their debut album, and FGL’s career skyrocketed thanks to their breakthrough song “Cruise,” which would ultimately become certified “Diamond” by the RIAA. They earned two Billboard Hot 100 top 10 hits (“Cruise” peaked at No. 4 while their Bebe Rexha collaboration “Meant to Be” peaked at No. 2). FGL has collected 16 Country Airplay No. 1 hits, among them “Stay” and “‘Round Here.”
In 2021, they posted a video on Instagram, stating that they would each begin working on solo music, even as they geared up for the release of their album Life Rolls On, which dropped on Feb. 12, 2021. That same year, Hubbard said during an interview on The Bobby Bones Show, “We’re not breaking up, we’re just taking a break.”
A year later, in July 2022, Hubbard said during an appearance on Bones’ podcast that Kelley initiated each of them releasing solo projects, and noted that though there was “no bad blood between the two of them,” he did point out that any reunions would likely be years in the making, saying they “might revisit getting the duo together 10 or 15 years down the line.” Hubbard and Kelley last played a show together back in 2022.
Meanwhile, Hubbard released his debut, self-titled solo project via EMI Nashville and Hubbard House Records in 2023, including the hit songs “5 Foot 9” and “Dancin’ in the Country.” Kelley released the EP BK’s Wave Pack in 2021, followed that same year by Sunshine State of Mind, out on Nashville South/Warner Music Nashville. Kelley’s upcoming album, Tennessee Truth, will release via Big Machine Records, spearheaded by the top 30 Country Airplay single “See You Next Summer.”
Listen to Kelley’s “Kiss My Boots” below:
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