Is Florida Georgia Line finished as a duo? What we know

In the way that some classic rock fans still bemoan the break-up of the Beatles, country music fans can’t seem to process the news that the members of hitmaking duo Florida Georgia Line have apparently gone their separate ways.

News that Florida Georgia Line’s Tyler Hubbard and Brian Kelley, the latter a Volusia County native and son of former Volusia County Council Chair Ed Kelley, had decided to pursue solo careers burned up the internet about a year ago, following the duo’s final official performance together on Aug. 31, 2022.

Now, as fall beckons a year later, searches about the duo’s split are still red-hot on Google trends, indicating that fans are still curious about what happened and the current state of the bro-country union.

Here’s what we know:

How successful was Florida Georgia Line?

Formed in 2012, Florida Georgia Line emerged as a genre-blending country duo that dominated the charts for a decade. The duo has logged 19 No. 1 singles, more than 17 billion global streams and 4.8 million albums sold.

Florida Georgia Line is the only country act to achieve two RIAA Diamond-certified singles — the 14-times platinum No. 1 songs “Cruise” and “Meant to Be” with Bebe Rexha.

What are Brian Kelley’s Volusia roots?

Born and raised in Ormond Beach, the future country music star was a 2004 graduate of Seabreeze High School. There, he played high-school baseball on local diamonds and nurtured musical aspirations fueled by frequent visits to the Daytona Beach Bandshell.

“The Bandshell means so much to me,” Kelley told The News-Journal in an interview earlier this summer. “It’s a huge part of manifesting a lot of the things that happened in my life.”

Kelley showed off his roots in a well-received music video for the single, “Florida Boy Forever.”

In case you missed it:With 'Florida Boy Forever,' Ormond Beach native Brian Kelley celebrates his roots

“I grew up in Ormond Beach,” Kelley sings as the video shows him paddling a canoe along the Tomoka River, hanging out in front of the Daytona Beach Bandshell, at the Salty Dog Surf Shop in Daytona Beach with co-owner Bruce Miller and on a road trip to longtime beachfront eatery High Tides At Snack Jack in Flagler Beach.

In the final scene, Kelley returns to the baseball diamond at the Ormond Beach Sports Complex, where then-current members of the Seabreeze High School baseball team turn double plays and help him sing the song’s final chorus along with some of the singer’s longtime friends.

Is Florida Georgia Line finished as a duo?

Rumblings about a split have been a topic of speculation since late 2020.

Hubbard and Kelley posted a video in early 2021 saying they planned to pursue solo projects, while continuing to work on FGL music. That announcement preceded the February 2021 release of their fifth album, "Life Rolls On."

From 2016: Brian Kelley's Volusia roots'DREAM COME TRUE'

A year later, Brian Kelley discussed the partnership again with People magazine.

"We're not going our separate ways," he said at the time. "We're taking a break from recording our music. We're being artists. We love creating. And so a couple years back, we started writing without each other and trying different writers, and now we're both doing that with our music."

Along the way, Kelley released his 2021 debut solo album, “Sunshine State of Mind.” In January, Hubbard released a self-titled solo debut album.

Interest about the state of the partnership intensified in the wake of a Rolling Stone interview with Hubbard to mark the January release of his self-titled debut album.

In that interview, Hubbard confirmed that the hit duo is in the past tense, at least for now. It’s a split that he attributed to a combination of factors that included differing politics, social media squabbles and solo aspirations.

In the interview, Hubbard states that Kelley “initiated the solo thing and asked for my support. I told BK I want you to do what you need to do to make you happy, and I’ll figure out what I’m doing after that,” Hubbard said. “But I wasn’t willing to continue making FGL records and go sign another FGL deal if we were going to do solo stuff. I didn’t have the capacity for both.”

In May, Kelley returned to Volusia County for a solo homecoming concert at the Daytona Beach Bandshell, a show that included the debut of the singer’s new single, “See You Next Summer.”

In an interview with The News-Journal, he said that his focus now is on his solo career but that he remained open to the potential of a FGL reunion.

“I am sitting on go and have been. I love what we created, and I think people still want to see it. We’ll just have to see. That answer is not held with me. Right now, we’re on a break and really focusing on solo careers. I’m just excited to be focused on building my career.”