Oh Great. It Appears Florida Georgia Line Is Getting Back Together
Well it can’t all be going in the right direction in country music, now can it? Despite all the gains over the last few years as twang has been on the rebound, great artists are finally getting worthy opportunities, and even women are being represented again in the mainstream, we’re getting word of one significant fly in the proverbial ointment.
You knew that Florida Georgia Line would resurface at some point. There’s just too much money to be made off of nostalgia for even the worst of music to stay gone forever. If there was one silver lining to the political acrimony swirling around the United States, it’s that it helped break up the quintessential Bro-Country band back in 2022. But now signs are pointing towards the Beavis and Butt-Head of country music getting back together.
At the ACM Awards on May 17th, Tyler Hubbard said when being interviewed by Entertainment Tonight, “We have been toying around and flirting with the idea of playing a handful of shows next year, and that gets us both excited. It’s been a really fun season of healing…We’ve been hanging out, laughing, cutting up, goofing around, it just feels like the old days. We’re just trying to soak it up, make the most of it, not rush anything.”
Well now there seems to be a dedicated buzz campaign behind the duo’s reunification. On Tuesday (6-2), the band’s previously mothballed social media assets came alive with a graphic reading “FGL LFG.” There have also been billboards displaying this same string of letters spotted around Nashville, along with the instructions, “Text 615-819-5007,” which leads to an auto-response of “Turns out, some things are just better together. Much more to come. FGL LFG.”
This week is CMA Fest in Nashville, leading to some speculation the duo might make a surprise appearance at some point. Or, they might just be trying to leverage all the attention and industry present at CMA Fest to help stir buzz. After all, Tyler Hubbard said “next year” is when they were originally planning to reunite.
But we’ll see. How successful can we expect a Florida Georgia Line reboot to be? It’s hard to say. If the dramatic backlash against Luke Bryan’s recent single “Fish Hunt Golf Drink” is any indication, the public has more than moved on from that era. Even though Tyler Hubbard has enjoyed a relatively successful solo career, it all seems to be propped up by radio play as opposed to organic appeal.
One problem Florida Georgia Line might face is the same one many performers are facing right now: a terrible economy for those not in the elite of society that is seeing major tours not selling through, including some being outright cancelled. Is there really an appetite for Florida Georgia Line, or an avenue for them to launch a successful arena tour? Sure, nostalgia for music is real. But it usually works on a 20 to 25-year cycle, while Florida Georgia Line is well ahead of that time period.
Florida Georgia Line could go on a limited run of amphitheater shows next summer to little or no real impact on the direction of country music. It would be releasing new singles and albums that could pose a real concern, but only if they peddle their original brand of Bro-Country and it was well-received, which indications are that it might not be. Unless FGL goes through some dramatic evolution, it’s hard to see them being much more than a nostalgia act moving forward.
But again, who knows? Don’t ever count bad music out. But this is not 2012. It’s 2026, and people demand more meaning in their music, even in the country mainstream.
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June 3, 2026 @ 10:19 am
FU FGL. Ok, I couldn’t resist. I suspect that these two will not get the warm welcome back that they’re expecting.
June 6, 2026 @ 12:32 am
Jealous much?? Same to all the haters lol if you hate them go do better instead of online bs . If you can’t than shut the fuck up !!
June 6, 2026 @ 1:18 pm
Try and make me.
June 3, 2026 @ 10:42 am
More “Dirt” and less Bro, please. They’re capable of making good songs. Even some of their bro country songs are harmless fun.
This is 100% worth it if it forever kills Boyfriend Country. Give me honesty over pretending to elevate some gal to the level of a deity just to get what you want. At least bro country is straightforward. Boyfriend Country is basically manipulation toward intimacy put to music.
June 3, 2026 @ 1:53 pm
Funny thing is, much of classic soul music is “boyfriend” music, too, but it’s never ridiculed the way boyfriend country is. The Temptations’ “My Girl,” the Stylistics’ “You Are Everything,” “Special Lady,” “Lady Love,” just about everything Johnny Mathis ever recorded other than Christmas songs. They all are sung by men who worship the women in their lives. As one who enjoys R&B as well as country, I sometimes wonder why soul singers (and songwriters) get a pass when they produce such songs.
June 3, 2026 @ 7:09 pm
I don’t know about Johnny Mathis worshipping any women at all.
June 3, 2026 @ 8:50 pm
He’s gay, but the love songs he’s recorded were written with straight women in mind, and his strongest appeal is to that demographic. Elton John — gay — was singing Bernie Taupin’s — straight — words in “Your Song.” and “The One,” two of his most romantic songs, but there’s nothing in the lyrics that would indicate that the target of his adoration was male. Remember, we’re talking about entertainment here. Singers, like actors, often play roles that don’t reflect their own personalities, and that’s perfectly acceptable.
June 3, 2026 @ 8:43 pm
The difference is that Boyfriend Country is poorly written. It’s every bit as formulaic and predictable as Bro Country. It’s also a shame that it complete destroyed some artists, like Brett Young, who had that dumb first single but otherwise released two very good albums to start his career. The album cuts on those records were phenomenal. Then he went Boyfriend Country. Ugh.
June 4, 2026 @ 7:27 am
I’m not defender of “Boyfriend Country” (tbh, I couldn’t name you many – or any – artists in that group), but “Bro Country” was also poorly written.
Lest we forget “My Truck, My Boots, My Girl” bullshit lyrics ad nauseum?
Bad writing is bad writing. Bad music is bad music. Trying to elevate one shitty sound over another still leads to shit. Bro Country was shit. Boyfriend Country is shit.
Trying to retroactively make even a soft argument that “well, Bro Country wasn’t THAT bad” only occurs because enough time has passed since it was at its peak so that people have forgotten the utter depths that sound went to both production wise, but especially lyrics wise.
We don’t need a return to Bro Country to do away with “Boyfriend Country”. We need a return to songwriters in Nashville that actually have talent. Sadly the collapse of the record industry combined with chasing one stupid song after another has hollowed out that talent pool IMO.
June 4, 2026 @ 5:16 pm
I need to have a listen to those early Brett Young albums. They came out during the brief period that I wasn’t listening to contemporary country at all, and by the time I started catching up on the state of mainstream country again, his sappy “She Didn’t” was getting airplay.
June 5, 2026 @ 5:14 am
There are some real gems, there. “The Ship and the Bottle” from the second album is probably the best of the bunch.
There was a melancholy to those two albums that helped him slip into the role that had been previously filled by David Nail, who should still be on a major label making killer contemporary country albums, but as usual, Nashville didn’t know what it had with that voice.
I don’t know who fits into that role in mainstream Nashville now. They need an artist in touch with the dreary day-to-day, that guy or gal who can sing songs about rainy days without mentioning rainy days.
June 3, 2026 @ 4:59 pm
The chances you will get “Dirt” – which I contend is only considered “good” by some folks because the rest of their catalogue is such pure and utter manure – is 0%.
These guys are gonna 100% just play their hits, try and cash grab some tour dates and then go back to hating each other while sitting in their mansions.
I think there is a decent percentage we never get ANY new music from them and this is just because “Brian Kelly” and “Tyler Hubbard” can’t get booked later than 2:00 PM at all the major festivals, but FGL probably still can.
I view this as the equivalent of the Ultimate Warrior in WCW. Some folks will pop for it initially, but pretty soon they will realize “holy shit, this sucks” and go about their business.
June 3, 2026 @ 11:26 pm
When I first started reading people saying Dirt was so good back then, I listened to it and thought “Meh…” But then I saw the video and realized “Ah that’s why. Sappy video.” The song was never really much better than their other crap – the imagery in the video was.
I’m pretty sure very few people who heard it before they saw it thought much of it.
June 3, 2026 @ 10:49 am
Both these men look and dress like they are Righteous Gemstones extras. “Hey kids, would you like to go to Bible Camp with us!? That will be $999.99 – we accept cash, credit, or crypto. Tell your folks!!”
Can’t imagine FGL has much of an audience at this point, but there are folks still rocking Affliction shirts in 2026 so I guess that is an audience they can tap back into.
June 3, 2026 @ 10:53 am
To quote the aforementioned Beavis, “Are you threatening me?”
Also, that comparison isn’t fair. I found Beavis and Butt-Head entertaining.
June 4, 2026 @ 12:56 pm
This is kinda music related. Do you remember when they laundered Van Dreesen’s 8 track collection?
June 3, 2026 @ 12:45 pm
I’ll take FGL over Morgan Wallen and the rest of his ilk.
June 3, 2026 @ 4:52 pm
Would you rather have a rattlesnake bite your left testicle or your right testicle?
The question above is the equivalent of Wallen vs. FGL.
June 3, 2026 @ 5:51 pm
I’d rather have them go down in flames and take Wallen with them.
June 3, 2026 @ 12:46 pm
but…through the fall, there are at least 3 local shows (2 <30 miles away, 1 < 100 miles away) near me where Hubbard is opening for Jordan Davis, Dan – Shay, and Jelly Roll, respectively. He's not giving up that already docketed and pocketed money for future expectations, yet, is he?
June 3, 2026 @ 1:13 pm
Can’t an executive order stop this?
June 3, 2026 @ 1:32 pm
For what it’s worth, the Luke Bryan song you cite appears to be more of a flanker single for his “Country and She Knows It,” which only recently entered the top 25 in airplay. Initial reaction might not mean much if that’s his label’s intention. Columbia was fine with Luke Combs’ “Sleepless in a Hotel Room” going to No. 1 before the previously released “Days Like These.” Radio depends on “call-out” to determine which songs will get the big airplay push, and the listeners called usually fall into what is currently the primary demographic for mainstream country — 20- and 30-something women. Those would be the same listeners who help create big hits for Jordan Davis and Tucker Wetmore while telling Big Radio (and Big Nashville Labels) that they don’t want to hear Zach Top.
June 3, 2026 @ 1:37 pm
I learned long ago, if you want to hear a good band sing about the Florida Georgia Line, go listen to JJ Grey and Mofro
June 3, 2026 @ 2:18 pm
Awesome. I like FGL. Never got to see them live before they broke up. A Morgan Wallen, FGL, and Chase Matthew show would be awesome. Wouldn’t be able to afford the ticket though.
June 3, 2026 @ 2:47 pm
You’ve just stepped into a pit of vipers here, just to let you know. Everyone’s got a right to an opinion, but yours is not going to go down well.
June 3, 2026 @ 3:51 pm
Maybe Wallen could flip a piano on FGL.
June 3, 2026 @ 4:18 pm
This is some sort of “Die Hard With A Vengeance” sandwich board thing, right? Is a Gruber brother holding your loved one hostage?
June 3, 2026 @ 4:50 pm
Chase Mathew’s Bass Player is gonna be pissed that all the FGL fangirls are now single moms popping GLP1’s for their OkCupid profiles.
June 3, 2026 @ 5:57 pm
Hey Jeff, it’s all good. I couldn’t name one FGL song…wait, there was one, I think it was called “Dirt,” I remember hearing it when it first came out and wondering why there was so much hate for these guys, then I heard a few of their other songs, the names escape me now, and understood, but if you like ’em, more power to you. There’s room for tastes.
June 3, 2026 @ 6:10 pm
That sounds like torture!
June 3, 2026 @ 2:43 pm
They’ll package them in with someone and make it a Broccasion. Russell Dickerson has supported them in the past and plays a song they’ve recorded together in his show.
I can’t wait for Tyler to row back on his criticism of Brian, but he’s got kids’ school fees to pay. Money doesn’t talk, it cruises. At least we’ll get a rant out of it.
June 3, 2026 @ 2:51 pm
Choosin texas has been number one for a while and it isnt that great so fgl cant do any worse. They were the main can being kicked around here before wallen took that spot so i guess we will see which one gets kicked the most if they do get together. Now fgl brought some of that on themselves but they had some good stuff.
June 3, 2026 @ 7:59 pm
“it isn’t that great, so fgl can’t do any worse”
Great, let’s just keep making perfect the enemy of good.
June 9, 2026 @ 8:04 pm
Well i dont consider choosin texas good but if u like it, good for you.
June 3, 2026 @ 3:29 pm
…too dumb to stay together, dumb enough trying gettin’ back together. excellent.
June 3, 2026 @ 4:07 pm
FGL back? Oh,well……..
June 3, 2026 @ 4:08 pm
Well. With the cheese ball Luke Bryan video for hunting and fishing and golfing or whatever that is – it’s no surprise to see this. I missed the whole bro era because I tuned out and went full bluegrass. I’m hoping this isn’t a Bro 2.0 invasion.
June 3, 2026 @ 5:00 pm
Things could always be worse. Say for instance, a remake of “Islands in the Stream*.
June 3, 2026 @ 5:21 pm
Or “Girl You Know It’s True.”
June 3, 2026 @ 8:57 pm
Isn’t that what Miranda Lambert and Chris Stapleton were going for with “A Song to Sing”?
June 3, 2026 @ 5:40 pm
There’s an enormous amount of equity amassed in a hitmaking performing act, and artists who think they can simply walk away from the act and continue on a stars tend to get smacked with an unpleasant surprise.”Highway 101″ was a big #1 act in the ’80s. Paulette Carlson, who was the star of the act walked away to go solo–and walked into oblvion. Ditto for “Shenandoah” and Marty Raybon, the “Kentucky Headhunters” and “Brother Phelps”; even the “Mavericks” and Raul Malo; and yes, “Brooks & Dunn” and Ronnie Dunn. In most of those cases, the stray star wound up going back to the group or act, with varying success.
Biggest exception is probably Paul Simon, who remined a major star in his own right after walking away from “Simon and Garfunkel,” but that’s because he continued to write great songs and he recorded and performed them in a very different style from the harmony act that he had with Garfunkel.
I don’t know the names of the guys in Florida-Georgia Line, but I do recall that they had a couple of enormous hits that held the #1 slot for something like half a year. I’m sure they still have a lot of fans and those fans will pay to see them perform the songs the way they did them originally–as a duo.No surprise that they’re back together.
June 4, 2026 @ 2:38 am
I never knew that they were gone to begin with.
June 8, 2026 @ 6:45 am
Richie McDonald of Lonestar failed solo. Tim Rushlow of Little Texas failed (one hit). Larry Stewart of Restless Heart failed. Interestingly all three tour as a new group now (wish they would go back to their groups).
Kenny Rogers pulled it off. Like you said, most don’t.
June 3, 2026 @ 5:44 pm
I thought Brian Kelley’s “Kiss My Boots” single signaled the end of this band.
June 3, 2026 @ 6:00 pm
“It’s been a really fun season of healing…We’ve been hanging out, laughing, cutting up, goofing around, it just feels like the old days.”
Translation: “The money is running low and now might be the best time to cash in.”
Never underestimate the pull of nostalgia. It’s the reason why we have bands touring under the names Lynyrd Skynyrd, Foreigner, etc., with no original members. Nostalgia sells.
June 4, 2026 @ 2:47 am
Not to mention all the “tribute” acts getting booked into auditoriums and other small venues across the land. We’ve got a Johnny Cash tribute coming to one of those places near me this summer, and later, tributes to Neil Young and ZZ Top. I like all those guys’ music but have zero desire to pay to hear someone imitate them. But as you say, nostalgia sells.
June 5, 2026 @ 3:32 pm
I remember when I was a kid in the ’70s, there was this act who called himself “Elvis Wade” who played places all across the Southeast. And “Little Royal” was a Little Richard tribute act. So, yeah, it’s not new, but I’m with you, it doesn’t take imagination to be an imitator.
June 5, 2026 @ 8:12 pm
The Johnny Cash act is a singer and a three-piece combo billed as the Johnny Folsom Four!
June 3, 2026 @ 6:08 pm
No big deal, I don’t listen to them. The only time I ever heard them was at the CMHOF. Those 10 seconds was more than enough for me.
June 3, 2026 @ 8:01 pm
Awesome! Love seeing the pearl clutching from y’all!
June 4, 2026 @ 8:02 pm
Different tastes/opinion = pearl clutching to pin skulls like you. 😂
June 3, 2026 @ 9:32 pm
So is this a music duo getting back together or getting back with my ex? Sounds like the latter… because what are we not rushing? Either way, please don’t.
June 4, 2026 @ 5:08 am
Don’t insult Beavis and Butthead. They thought the Texas Tornadoes were cool. In fact, they were mostly good at critiquing music. They would have destroyed FGL, Morgan Wallen, and any of those other butt monkeys.
June 5, 2026 @ 10:10 am
“College music” was the worst in the eyes of Beavis and Butt-head. They also hated British acts, saying England was “where everybody talks like wusses.”
June 4, 2026 @ 5:54 am
Smiling,
Your sniveling over Florida Georgia Line, says more about you, than them.
Perhaps it is one of the reasons that The Hook, doesn’t succeed as you had hoped.
June 4, 2026 @ 9:06 am
If you’re rooting for Florida Georgia Line and rooting for the demise of The Hook, then why the fuck are you here? You’re not ready for Saving Country Music, and you’ve never been, Di Harris. You are mentally unwell, and should seek professional help. This is not your personal LiveJournal where you can post whatever you want. Seek somewhere else on the internet to frequent because you don’t even understand what’s going on here.
And don’t respond with a comment for me to “calm down.” Everyone’s opinion here is welcome. But I don’t appreciate people who actively root for my undermining.
June 4, 2026 @ 2:33 pm
It’s funny how you can’t seem to understand that’s exactly what you are doing. You have no interest in the uber successful country artists who have millions of follows yet you explicitly say in this article you are rooting for fgl to fail. You explicitly label it bad music. If you’re labeling Morgan or Aaron or fgl or Oliver anthony bad music why would you want it to succeed? Why would you want it to make the artists even richer? The answer is simple: you don’t. A world where fgl is successful in making a comeback is a slap in the face to your worldview: that bad music is trash and that’s that. Well I love fgl and Morgan and that’s that too! Yet you are shocked someone might wish YOU to fail? While you literally wrote an article about how fgl might be back and…. You don’t want them to be back or be a hit? Seriously, dude?
It’s also going to be funny to see how you handle Ella going forward. You seemed to unite around her in a way you never did with Zach or Morgan. Where as their success and climb to the top you seemed to have a distant view of, as in you are looking at it from behind a mirror in a room with a mirror. Ella’s rise you seem to champion, love, promote and cheer on. But she’s not some small artist anymore. She’s not bucking broadway or Nashville industry trends, she is the trend. She’s making music that everyone coming to Nashville wants to make. So she’s everything you loathe now. So how will you handle that? She’s the 2ns biggest artist in our genre right now. To pretend she’s some neo traditional artist who might play the bluebird and have a dozen fans show up is a a really silly view of her right now. And while you write glowing reviews of her, you neglect the smaller artists who you claim to want to promote and hype up. So you’ve got yourself in a bit of a bind. So you want fgl to fail because it’s cookie cutter trash that millions of fans love, yet want Ella to succeed because …she’s making the most successful and popular country music in 2026 and every female and male artist wants to sound exactly like her and write the next Choosin Texas?
Something ain’t right there, my boy. The math ain’t mathing.
June 4, 2026 @ 3:14 pm
I have no idea what you’re talking about here, but it appears that you’re suffering from a mental health crisis.
“f you’re labeling Morgan or Aaron or fgl or Oliver anthony bad music why would you want it to succeed?”
Why did you just lump all of these artists together? I’ll tell you why. It’s because of politics. Now, I never said Aaron Lewis or Oliver Anthony were “bad music.” I’ve written many positive things about them here. It also has absolutely nothing to do with Florida Georgia Line, or Morgan Wallen, and most definitely not Ella Langley. The only way you draw all this stuff together is in some sort of brain fog that results in being so full of rage chemicals, you don’t know what else to do but seethe.
If you think that disliking the music of Florida Georgia Line is some sort of fringe opinion, you don’t have a proper grip on reality. If you think I only attack music because it’s popular—while at the same time attacking me for supporting Ella Langley (btw, not following your train of thought on her at all)—we can’t even have a discussion because you’re not making any logical sense.
You’ve said your peace in this comments section. Go take a walk and touch some grass.
June 4, 2026 @ 3:29 pm
I’m not required to cosign your articles or viewpoints, trigger. And I don’t.
June 4, 2026 @ 5:49 pm
Is Megs man Scott Borchetta?
June 4, 2026 @ 8:03 pm
“Perhaps it is one of the reasons that The Hook, doesn’t succeed as you had hoped.”
The Hook is doing fine. You on the other hand…
June 5, 2026 @ 11:02 am
I’m doing very fine, but, thank you Jimmy.
June 4, 2026 @ 6:11 am
Not being snarky, good chance this bombs. I can see them getting some headliner slots at festivals, but really not sure who would go see them otherwise. The music world has changed and don’t see how they fit in.
June 4, 2026 @ 6:31 am
To be fair, the people into fgl aren’t into country music anyway….
June 4, 2026 @ 12:16 pm
I’m all for it. Trigger can throw a conniption all he wants and ask for his binky, but fgl are one of the most successful groups in our genre in the last 20 years and had some massive hits that made the ground fertile for Morgan to take the genre to its summit a few years later. Fgl got pop fans who couldn’t have told you previously what the opry or cmt even stood for let alone name another country artist and got them into and onboarded to the genre. Some obviously stopped there but I’d bet quite a few people got into the genre as a result of fgl. In fact I remember grady doing a video about how his followers got into the genre. I’d say at least half of them were pop country acts and songs and not some hidden underground artist with 5,000 tik tok follows. Pop country is hugely important and it’s a blind spot in triggers operation here. It’s fine to demand the industry shine a spotlight on some up and coming artist who is neotraditional and whose only exposure at this point is being 15th tier small letters on the weekly country central albums list. But lets be honest people and bands like fgl and Morgan are important because they bring more people to the genre than anything else combined. Morgan is responsible for the fact country is a too genre right now that makes hundreds of millions in revenue. Obviously he’s not the sole person responsible, and as I said fgl deserve credit for creating a fanbase that that would later be receptive to Morgan. But Morgan is unique in modern country in that he has millions of fans but I’d wager a huge amount of them aren’t lifelong cradle country fans. They got into it because of Morgan. Oftentimes there’s a very elitist and snobbish snooty attitude by SCM and others of that ilk have towards these artists that are gargantuan. All due respect to artists like sierra or Rissi Palmer but if t they were the top names in our genre and not Morgan, Luke, Ella, and Zach, our genre wouldn’t be big or capture a wide audience.
I’m not interested in gatekeeping our genre or having only one or two artists be big. I want the top 10 to be all country. I want Morgan to make 3 more albums that outsell the previous 3. I want Ella to continue to get bigger. This idea we have to limit our dreams like “let’s envision a utopia where npr loves us, and ny times says we all are woke affirmative action advocates, and our top sellers are sierra and drayton”, nah dawg. I’m not down with that at all. I want country to dream big and if you think sierra is Taylor and Morgan and Ella caliber you are mentally ill. And if you think charley can one day outsell Morgan you are fit to be tied.
Just because you have resentment against the artists who are killing it, doesn’t mean I have to. No thanks!
June 4, 2026 @ 1:22 pm
Just because you enjoy country music’s equivalent of fast food doesn’t mean the rest of us have to. McDonald’s sells more burgers than anyone else but I pass them up in favor of local joints like my all-time favorite Astro Burger and my new discovery Smash Burger on Sunset. If you think you are somehow going to convert the people that Trigger allows to post here to the cult of corporate country, you’re sadly mistaken and wasting your time. There will always be some of us who bypass the latest fads and prefer a steaming bowl of delicious homemade gumbo to a piece of gray meat on a stale bun.
June 4, 2026 @ 1:36 pm
Im not trying to convert anyone, that’s what trigger seems to be wanting to do though. The explicit MO of the site is to slag off the super successful country in order to highlight and promote artists with 2000 followers on instagram. Thats fine to do, but when it comes with a steaming side of of stuck-up-ness and holier than thou elitism, as in all you peons listen to the most successful artist of his generation, its slop and garbage, but let me tell you about the REAL country, you know because the millions of Morgan fans are losers and robots who if they listen to him have garbage taste in music. That’s how you sound, my dude!
It’s also funny given how trigger clutches his pearls and gets his thong in a twist anytime a woke outlet suggests we all are racist inbreds. Morgan has never had the approval of npr, SNL or nytimes. And never will. And he became unfathomably successful in spite of it. I don’t think vying for the coveted approval of wine drunk Kamala voters who have “in this house we believe” signs and trans flags flying really has as much power to make or break an artist!
June 4, 2026 @ 2:05 pm
You have Ideological Derangement Syndrome. We all know all major media outlets have biases.
Most readers here care less about politics of the artist and more about the quality.
June 4, 2026 @ 3:39 pm
In all 3 posts, you have easily written over a thousand words on your feelings about a journalist’s view on Florida Georgia Line and Morgan Wallen. I honestly cannot fathom how this issue is that important to you. Wow.
June 4, 2026 @ 1:22 pm
Take the genre to it’s summit. LMAO Morgan isn’t even the best selling artist in country music history. His albums haven’t sold more that artists from the past. I’m assuming when you say summit you mean commercial peak you’re refering to biggest popularity and albums sold as opposed to being an artistic peak (Which is comical if you think he’s great) and if that’s you metric
Morgan’s biggest album has been certified 9 X platinum.
Garth has like 10 albums that are certified diamond (10 million units sold).
In no way is Morgan the commercial peak of country music. Like it or hate it that’s the 90’s.
June 5, 2026 @ 10:19 am
Album sales aren’t the true gauge of popularity that they were in Garth Brooks’ heyday. More music fans today download songs rather than albums. Others rarely download or pay for anything; they listen to songs by their favorites on YouTube or Spotify, for nothing, putting up with advertisers so they can do so. That doesn’t lessen their fandom. The 20-something who’s obsessing over the latest Jordan Davis or George Birge single by playing it constantly on Spotify is just as big a fan of those artists as the 60-something who has everything Garth or Alan Jackson ever recorded in his possession (on vinyl, cassette and CD) is of them.
June 5, 2026 @ 10:41 am
Howard- I get that in today’s market yes streaming is king. No doubt but those streaming numbers are factored into album sales. So many streams count as a sale. I’m not sure how many counts but it does.
So with that being said Morgan has two albums 9X platinum.
Garth has 10 albums that are over 10 X Diamond. So the point stands. That said morgan would not be the most popular artist commercially ever in the genre which is how it was insinuated by Meg as the peak of the genre.
Unless she was referring to artistically in country music and if that’s the case that is the worst take in the history of country music takes.
BTW not coming at you or anything just illustrating that streaming numbers are factored in with album sales to come up with a number.
On the other end of this Idk why i’m even typing this because I haven’t listened to a country music radio station on purpose in probably 15 years.
June 6, 2026 @ 12:22 pm
Somewhere along the line the actual music became a loss leader for the artist’s real revenue streams – tickets and merch. Corporate sponsors, commercials and product endorsements also sweeten the pot. The Napster era spawned a generation of consumers who expect music to be free but are willing to pay for tickets and merch.
June 4, 2026 @ 8:15 pm
Trigger having an opinion different than you Megs Man (who calls themselves someone’s man? 😂), does not equal a conniption. Your obsessive posts in arguing for shitty music are comical and delusional. There’s room for all tastes, of course, even bad taste. There’s nothing wrong with liking mainstream pablum, if that’s your thing, but don’t come unhinged and rant here, go to one of the many mainstream sites and fangirl there with the rest of your brethren.
June 5, 2026 @ 9:56 am
“who calls themselves someone’s man? 😂“
You must not get out much, my dude. Literally every third post on country central is a reference to “Ella’s fellas”. A few days ago they had one where it said “dream come true in reference to Ella doing something”, and then the caption was something along the lines of “that’s why I’m sliding into Ella’s DMs”.
So yeah, it is maybe weird to claim to be someone’s man, but millions of dudes openly are avowed “Ella’s fellas” and admit it publicly. Take a look see on whiskey riff and country centrals posts when Ella announced her perfume.
Just because you haven’t heard of this doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.
June 5, 2026 @ 6:16 pm
I find it interesting that you ignored my comment regarding how important Kyle’s opinion on Florida Georgia Line reuniting is to you. You have been posting on other threads, but avoided my comment. Why?
June 5, 2026 @ 7:03 pm
You aren’t owed an explanation, full stop.
June 5, 2026 @ 8:05 pm
Obviously I am not owed an explanation. I didn’t think I was. It is quite interesting that you would take the the time to tell me that I am not owed an explanation, but had no direct reply to my post. Could it be because you know that you went way overboard in your reaction to the article about FGL?
June 4, 2026 @ 1:26 pm
OK, Claude. This is you trying out your “man of the people” mode, right? No human would actually suggest the summit of any genre was fucking Mogan Wallen. Although I did like how you snuck that “our genre” in there. And by that I’m assuming the genre of which you speak is the worst music imaginable. Not my tempo, but if that’s your bag, rock on.
If you want us to believe you are sentient, Claude, you are going to have to do better than this.
June 4, 2026 @ 3:45 pm
“Unless FGL goes through some dramatic evolution, it’s hard to see them being much more than a nostalgia act moving forward.
But again, who knows? Don’t ever count bad music out. But this is not 2012. It’s 2026, and people demand more meaning in their music, even in the country mainstream.“
This is ignorant because it presumes your own ideology runs the industry (it doesn’t), Nashville isn’t interested in sierra because she doesn’t bring butts to seats or streaming to ears as the metaphor goes. And further it presumes popular country is devoid of meaning. It’s as if you think unless a song is written and recorded by an indie artist on a tiny label and it has steel and fiddle throughout that this is the only way deep country songs are created and crafted.
I’d argue the exact opposite, the deepest country songs are oftentimes the most popular. Don’t Take the Girl, Deeper than the Holler, Time Marches On, 3 Wooden Crosses, all are presumably singles, all are songs streamed in the millions, all are some of the most profound in our genre. This idea that just because fgl is commercial that their music doesn’t have meaning is such an asinine and insidious take.
My feeling is, a lot of fgl fans have deep memories regarding “cruise”. It’s not a song you ponder the universe to, and it’s not a tearjerker like Don’t take the girl, but how many parties do you think cruise has been played at? Millions? Billions? Summer love, summer heartbreak. Riding with friends windows rolled down.
You yourself once wrote country is what people get married to and get buried to. I think it’s pretty ignorant to write that and not you know, pay homage to the music that soundtracks those weddings or parties. Fgl or similar are absolutely on that playlist, and to hand wave it away because they are corporate seems kind of gross and paternalistic. I’m not wanting to listen to broken window serenade while getting married. Listening to it at a funeral or when the marriage crumbles, sure. But not at a party.
June 5, 2026 @ 4:26 am
And so it came to pass.
June 5, 2026 @ 6:59 am
Fist, this is the funniest shit I’ve heard lately: “…the Beavis and Butt-Head of country music…” HA HA HA HA! Love it, Trig!
I just have to say, when I recently ranted about Luke Bryan, I forgot about these two douchebags. I don’t hate them as much as ol’ Lukey Boy, but I still can’t stand them.
In an era where Ella Langley, who I feel like is about as country as country gets, can top the Hot 100 for this long, and bring country music to the front in a positive way, there is no room for these douchenozzles.
I want more “Choosin’ Texas” and “South Of Sanity” (despite my dislike of Top’s comments about Kenny Rogers). I would actually, unlike most people here, be happy if we had some good pop country that is new that sounds like Kenny Rogers, Ronnie Milsap, Sylvia, and Alabama.
I do NOT wish to ever hear these clowns ever again. Stay gone, my guys.
June 5, 2026 @ 7:23 am
That’s what Motown always did,North Woods Country.The boys sang about pleading to some broad who wouldn’t give the time of day but would gladly take their money.(See:”Ain’t Too Proud To Beg,” Temptations.)
June 5, 2026 @ 10:21 am
“Bernadette, you mean more to me than any woman could ever be!”
June 5, 2026 @ 9:48 am
I’ve never relalg understood the elitist snooty and snobbish action if wanting to undermine corporate commercial country. Most of the nation won’t hear charley and drayton. Memories, lifelong memories are made to the biggest singles on million plus unit selling Kenny chesney, Tim McGraw, fgl albums and to not understand that seems kind of mentally ill. You can try and steer fans who get onboard via These commercial artists and songs to more underground or authentic waters but there’s a difference between the paternalistic attitude of wanting fgl and commercial country to fail because you think sierra deserves shine, and on the other hand realizing commercial country is big for a reason : cruise means a lot to people and sometimes music you dislike is big and that’s ok.
It’s ok to push for some spotlight on lesser known, up and coming talent. That’s admirable. But I’d say it’s a sin and deeply disturbing behavior to root for corporate artists to fail, to cheer on their music not charting, to hype up a moment where they are not charting. That to me is gross and actively says more about the person doing it than the artist anyways. I’d love to hang out with fgl, kick it and party, they seem like fun and funny dudes. Whereas sticks in the mud who complain about successful artists, who root on music failing, and who hate anything commercial are just objectively evil scumbags with zero redeeming qualities.
I think we all went through a phase of gatekeeping music, hating music just because others liked it, or feeling like our lives were ruined because that and that meant everything to us just signed a deal with a major label. The difference though is the majority of us grew out of that by the end of high school and realized we were total morons. Evidently and sadly not everyone else did.
June 5, 2026 @ 8:40 pm
328 more words. Do you have family, friends, rational interests? Trust me. Life has much joy to offer regardless of whatever hardships you are facing. There are resources you can utilize to help you cope. My best to you.
June 5, 2026 @ 10:34 am
I can tell you exactly how this came to be. Hubbard called Kelley:
Hubbard: “Hey, man, you OK, what’s new? We good?”
Kelley: “Sure, man, we’re good. Not doing much.”
Hubbard: “Well, I checked the bank account today. Things are looking a little thin.”
Kelley: “That’s not good, bro. Mine, too. What can we do?”
Hubbard: ” Well, there’s a lot of people out there who *don’t* hate us. I figure they can fill about 10 to 15 arenas. That should fatten us back up.”
Kelley: “Yeah, people have short memories, right?”
Hubbard: “Cha-Ching! I’ll call my PR people.”
June 5, 2026 @ 2:22 pm
This is one of the most interesting comment sections in a while..
June 5, 2026 @ 9:03 pm
I saw nothing but nostalgia and fans happy that fgl reunited last night. Certainly they have a ways to go, they probably haven’t recorded any songs together yet or recorded a new album, but I didn’t hear boos. I didn’t hear heckles. My ears didn’t pick up a group of fans storming off in disgust to them taking the stage. I saw a bunch of fans who despite the pretentious and arrogance of trigger would suggest, fans and attendees were enjoying it. Presumably as fgl sold millions and has insane streaming numbers tells us is that fans enjoy the songs and albums. I mean what else would that tell us other than that. They have in cruise one of the biggest songs all genre of the last 10-15 years. Why is it so popular? Probably because it means something and has meaning to the fans of the group. And there is two ways to deal with that if you aren’t a fan of the band. One is to hope they fail. That they release a dud of a comeback album. That the album charts at 59 and never rises, that none of the singles does anything. That their tour collapses amidst low ticket sales. That fans enact a mass boycott and burning’s of the new album that’s presumably on the way. So that’s one way. The other is to recognize they are a hugely important and influential group, that their music resonates in ways most artists don’t and specifically with cruise, resonates in ways artists that trigger hero worships could only fantasize about. Fgl resonates in ways that are profound, and numbers back that up. They played huge gigs, to huge crowds, made millions while selling millions and streaming millions. Anyone downplaying the profound impact fgl had is delusional in ways that beggar belief.
Ultimately though fans will decide. And I for one hope fgl have a successful tour, that they record the best songs of their career, that their songs are successful and that fans sing out their hearts at their concerts. Wishing anything else makes clear the person making the claim is haughty and stuck up. I want fgl to be successful because they play country music and I want country artists to be successful. Those wishing downfall strikes saw way more about themselves than the artist anyways. Most of these people are resentful, and deeply unkind on a fundamental level, so I’m not shocked they’d blame others for their own inner ugliness.
June 7, 2026 @ 2:18 am
All boring.
More importantly Randy Travis (through the mouth of Mary) announced this past week that a new album of his pre-stroke recordings will be released later this year. Can SCM focus on that instead?
June 7, 2026 @ 7:01 am
SCM has been focusing on that for years. I wrote the first article about this three years ago.
https://savingcountrymusic.com/100-chance-randy-travis-has-an-album-of-unheard-music/
I’ve written on it about a half a dozen times since, including again last November.
https://savingcountrymusic.com/randy-travis-has-a-new-song-and-no-its-not-ai/
I saw the quote come through Whiskey Riff, and I might write about that as well. But I’ve already written so much about this topic, I’d rather wait until we have a title, track list, debut single, and pre-order link so I can put some actual action and support behind the release as opposed to just continuing to sow rumors. Maybe I’m in touch with Randy’s publicist and already know when all of this will reveal itself, and am just waiting for the OK. I didn’t NOT write about Randy Travis so I could write about Florida Georgia Line. Their return is newsworthy to the cause of Saving Country Music too.
June 7, 2026 @ 7:01 pm
Brittany Kelley, wife of BK, posted a recap of the last week and I encourage everyone to check it out, her caption is just about a paragraph or more. Essentially she says this to her feels like a blessed time in her and her husbands life. A week of laughing and hanging out and having fun, of music and crowds and fans. But most of all she argued, this is God bringing 4 friends (Tyler and BK and their wives) back together, in essence a family coming back together and reuniting.
I argued when trigger posted this article that it ignored the wider world of millions of fans who are legit fgl fans, fans whose lives have been enhanced having fgl songs. And I argued that wanting the band to fail as trigger does is harmful because you never know how fgl songs have impacted fans. I’m sure there are fans who have been talked off the ledge by having fgl songs to listen to and comfort them.
What I even failed to articulate is how much wider it goes. Fgl means something not only to their fans but also to the band themself-bk and Tyler. The story of fgl involves friends breaking up and patting ways. And in ways that weren’t amicable. A friendship was torn apart and that also impacted the bands wives.
What then reforming and reuniting represents is good friends becoming friends again after a band breakup. To root against that isn’t just harmful, it’s actually straight up evil, because friendships were ruined when they broke up. I’ll stand by bk and Tyler any day of the week over two bit hacks masquerading as journalists. When in reality the journalists are human debris.
I wish fgl all the luck in the world. I’ll be cheering for their success. I hope they have another cruise in them!
June 10, 2026 @ 4:46 pm
As someone who benefited from Beavis’s and Butt-head’s wisdom in my formative years, I resent those two geniuses being brought into any kind of association with these two clowns.