September 5, 2023 • 42 mins
Brian Kelley was first known as the Florida half of the GRAMMY-nominated group Florida Georgia Line, the ACM Breakout Artist of the Decade Award recipients who garnered 19 career #1s and became the first and only act to achieve two RIAA DIAMOND singles in Country music history. FGL surpassed 17 billion global streams, selling more than 40 million tracks and 4.8 million albums worldwide. FGL has been honored by AMA, Billboard, CMA, and CMT Music Awards, as well as having a Florida Georgia Line: Mix It Up Strong exhibit at Nashville’s Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.
Now in a new chapter of his life, Brian is working on his full-length debut album with Big Machine Records. He recently released a single “See You Next Summer” that is having great success. Brian and his wife Brittney are also entrepreneurs and take their "Tribe Kelly" business to new heights. They have partnered with Oyster Brewing Company and recently opened a new burger joint, Papa Surf, in 30A. We sit down and talk about both new music and new ventures for Brian.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The original was baby You'd like a song, and he's like,
(00:02):
I think there's something missing.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
He's like, what if it's baby.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
You a song? And we first heard were like, I
don't know, and we were like, Joey, do it again, dude,
how you hear it?
Speaker 2 (00:09):
You're right, it's baby us song. You know what is up?
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Guys? Chris Rudeger here, welcome back to the six one
five House podcast. We are so lucky to have today's guest.
He was first known as the Florida half of Grammy
nominated group Florida Georgia Line, the ACM Breakout Artist of
the Decade award recipients. I think they had nineteen career
number ones and they became the first and only act
who achieved two, not one, but two are a Diamond
(00:48):
Singles and country music histories for Cruise and Meant to
Be surpassing seventeen million global streams, seeing more than forty
million tracks and four point eight million albums worldwide, plus
playing to over four million fans. FGL got nominated by
AMA Billboards, CMA, CMT, and all of these awards have
led him now to a new chapter of his life.
(01:08):
This guest is working on a full length album with
Big Machine Records. He recently put out a single See
You Next Summer, which we're going to talk about, and
it's having great success climbing up the charts. And additionally,
this guest diverse fies. Outside of his artistry. He's collaborating
with Brittany, his wife on Tribe Kelly, as well as
partnering with Oyster Brewing Company. And I think he's got
a new project down in thirty A that we're going
(01:29):
to talk about.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
I am so pumped.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
Please welcome to the conversation the one and only mister
Brian Kelly.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Man. Thanks for having me. I am for this, dude.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
I think last time I saw you, we were we
were down on Broadway as your wife was doing doing
a work with Ariat for for a you know, thrown
a party. Throwing a party. I said, Man, the Kellys
know how to party. I'm going to shell up and
say what's up.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Man.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Sometimes we're part of playing it and sometimes we just
show up and party.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
So that was one of those. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
She It's like, hey, I got this thing kind of
throwing a party and hosting at Ariot and a lot
of great people showed up. Man. They had some good
drinks they were making, and it was cool to meet
some new people like you and meet and see some
old friends and catch up.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Yeah. Man, it's awesome. How is how's the summer band?
How you seem like you've been crazy busy?
Speaker 2 (02:17):
What do you get up to? Been writing a ton
here in Nashville.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
I been doing some radio trips, meeting with pds and
spending time with them, doing some dinners and just doing
some hanging kind of reintroducing myself and playing them, you know,
some demos and some songs that I got coming down
to shoot, getting them excited about you know what the
next twelve to twenty four months look like sonically musically
(02:42):
for me, it's just it's been really exciting, man. Done
some guitar pools, some acoustic shows, done a couple full
band shows. But kind of from here on out, for
the rest of the year, we started to get really busy,
a bunch of guitar pools, more radio visits, and man,
I just I'm so grateful to be busy. You know,
there's a couple of there obviously pandemic, you know, there's
(03:03):
not too much going on, and so man, I'm just
been chomping at the bit to be this busy and
it's it's exciting. I can feel there's been a momentum
shift in my solo career, and I think it started
obviously with recording see next Summer, but even more recently,
I think CMA Fest was extra special. I just met
(03:26):
and re met so many people that I met along
along the way and then meeting new fans, and just
felt like that week was something I'll look back on
in a couple of years, maybe it's ten, or maybe
it's next year, and say, man, that was that was
instrumental in just filling me up in a sense of
just so many good, so much good energy from these fans,
(03:47):
like kind of a kind of a trip down memory lane,
because they'll they'll show you some pictures of you know,
twenty twelve or thirteen. They're like, oh, look, we've been
fans this long, and do you remember meeting me here
at CE a week. Then you're like, I, actually, do
you know that? That's incredible? Thanks for the continued support.
But I just felt like, you know, sometimes you because
(04:07):
you've got a lot going on those weeks, and so
you're you're putting out energy, You're you're putting it out
there and so to have it your tank filled back
up by.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
The fans is it's awesome.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Man.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
So I just left that week I felt like felt.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Different to me. I don't know why, man, it was
just it was special.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
It was amazing, you know.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
I think it was a combination, like you said, like
COVID's over and people are now ready to go back
to festivals and live experiences. Of course, cmafs a massive
event in Nashville. It's kind of the one time where
I feel like, as artists, we're all in one centralized
place playing shows. You know, It's it's crazy because your
friends are always out on the road playing in Montana
and you're down in Florida, and so I feel like
(04:48):
most artists say they don't sleep a lot during cmafes,
but it's so fulfilling to get to see them and
of course interact with fans that maybe are our new
fans of Brian Kelly or perhaps you know, like you said,
following you for ten years.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
So it's amazing.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
I want to talk you know, about about your your
new music, but first I wanted to ask you. I
don't even I don't know this book. How did you
initially get into music in the first place. What was
your story growing up?
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Well, had some friends in high school play acoustic guitar
and always loved music, love country music, and I just
wanted to play guitar. That kind of started it. And
once I learned a couple of chords and started playing,
I had some buddies teach me, took a couple of lessons,
and you know, it was freshman year. This is a
(05:34):
pivotal moment. Freshman year pitching for Florida State. I found
out I was red shirting like a week before the
season started, So it's kind of a surprise. Some some
kids right when we got to school freshman year, they
knew they were red shirting right away. So I went
through like the whole fall in almost the spring, and
then then I found out. And so for me, you know,
I really dove into playing even more guitar and trying
(05:57):
to write songs. When you know, the team was out
of town, I didn't I wouldn't travel, and so I
kind of had more free time than a lot of
my teammates, and I didn't really spend it studying. I
spent it studying country music and songs and chords and
had this little program on my old Dell laptop that
that my roommate had given me, like a little recording program.
I don't remember what it was called, but just kind
(06:20):
of getting my feet wet and just just trying to
get into music, you know. And I remember driving in
my car to and from class, and it's kind of funny.
I had like a breakthrough maybe like wrote my first
song or a couple of songs, like I'm a songwriter now,
you know, Like I'm a songwriter, and then it was
like I'm a songwriter, and then like I was like, well,
(06:42):
if I'm a songwriter, then i'm a singer now too,
you know. And so I'd be just trying to sing
along to anything that came on the radio that was
like somewhat in my range, or a song I like
just to were was it mostly country or a lot
of country at that time too, listening to a lot
of Christian music, honestly. And it's funny because country is
my first love. But as I started creating music, the
(07:05):
way it came out because of what I was going through,
which was a tough time with baseball being like dang man,
like I thought I was gonna play freshman year. You know,
maybe I was slightly embarrassed that I got red shirted
and to my hometown. You know, I'm like, I'm supposed
to be pitching for the seminals this year of freshman
coming in hot whatever. Yeah, and so you know, life
threw me a little bit of a curveball, if you will,
(07:27):
and so I just dealt with it, taking it out
in the music and so like it was kind of
a faith based, you know, contemporary Christian kind of like
those are my first songs I actually released, like an
EP back in the day, nice railroad track holding a
guitar kind of thing. I think we all probably got that.
Oh that's amazing. Do you remember what it was called?
Letting Go?
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Letting Go? What are the chances letting Go gets re released?
Speaker 1 (07:50):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (07:51):
God, to talk to your label about you.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
I'm gonna need to sing, re sing and recut everything.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
If that's the kay. I think I think we all
have that first EP lying around somewhere. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
So you're going through this process of practicing baseball a
couple days a week and then learning guitar writing songs. Eventually,
did it get to a point where you started to
take it more seriously and spend more time on music
than baseball. How did that transition happen?
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Oh, not more than baseball. So I transferred to Daytona
State College after my second year of Florida State. Didn't
get much playing time then, and I was like, all right,
I'm gonna go home play a year at community college.
I know the coach. Basically, it's just about in a
sense like a military college. It's not, but it's treated
like that. I'm talking like crazy workouts, you know, morning
(08:36):
swims at five am. You're treading water with cinder blocks
over your head, just like you have a hell week
in you know, January before the season. And then it
ended up at Belmont, And so I wouldn't say I
was always curious about what I could do if I
had you know, when I was at practice and I'd
get my pitching work done and we'd be out in
(08:57):
the outfield shagging balls for a couple of hours after
we were done, I go, man, I wonder, you know,
if I spent this time writing songs that I'm shagging baseball,
is like, how much better could I be? But it
wouldn't until you know, after my senior year at Belmont,
I didn't get drafted and so I took that from,
you know, as a sign from the universe, like it's
time to time to do something else, and I was
(09:17):
looking forward to it. I would have loved to, you know,
even if it was the last pick of the draft,
like the last pick, like a can of snooze and
a bus ticket.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
I'd have done it, just to like.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Give it a year or till I got cut, or
just to say I like played pro ball, but that
didn't happen, and I didn't want to force it. I
might have could have gone and you know, played independent ball.
But again, the curiosity of music for me, I was like, man,
I just I really want to do this. I want
to see what like a life just invested in music
would be like. And you know, not long after that,
(09:51):
really Tyler and I really kind of got connected and
started writing songs and never looked back, and so well,
just you say, I kind of a kind of an
easy It was a transition that was made for me
in a sense like not getting drafted, but I was
excited and just kind of took it in stride and
was like, you know what this is, Uh, that was
(10:11):
one part of my life and I'm gonna move home
and go make some music.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
Well, I know, in the moment, you probably wanted to
play college or pro ball, but it seems like it
ended up being a pretty good decision because you ended
up meeting Tyler Hubbard and twenty twelve rolls around and
I remember I was at the time, I was in
high school, and I remember all my buddies are like,
you guys have got a crank this new group called
(10:35):
after L And of course cruise goes and it becomes
i mean the biggest you know, record selling single of
all time. Like, talk to me about this process, man, Like,
how how did that feel?
Speaker 1 (10:47):
It was unbelievable, man, I mean still this day, just
just beyond grateful, just really really grateful.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
You know.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
We uh, we just.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Tried to write and work on music any chance that
we got, and you know, until around different schedules, I mean,
until you get like a publishing deal that can like
you can like live off of right. But man, we
were just attacking it hard. And we were living together
over in Green Hills, this old house and had a
bunch of you know, a couple of people in our
band and a couple of buddies, and we were just
(11:19):
trying to be around and go to songwriter arounds, meet people, right, Hey,
you want to write, you want to write tomorrow night,
you want to write in the mornings.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
We could do both, we could do it all whatever.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Just kind of song hustling man and just trying to
just trying to get ingrained in the city.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
And I think that's a big thing of Nashville that
some people don't understand is when you first move yea,
oftentimes it's kind of the best of the best from
from different towns across the country, across the world, and
you get here and you're you're shaking hands. You're going
out four or five nights a week and looking to play,
you know, any gig, whether it's writers Round on you know,
Demumbrium or Midtown or going to the listening room. And
(11:55):
I think that's a big part of it, is like
trying to find your group. Did you guys, did you
entyler start writing with other people? Did you just kind
of write you too? Like how did how did your
your first couple songs come about?
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (12:06):
The first couple right after college, right after I graduated.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
A little bit of both.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
I mean it was like a lot of probably decent
amount of like two ways and it was like, all right, well,
we can definitely write two like good songs just the
two of us. Like that's awesome, cool, noted like we
got a thing cool hell yeah. And then you know
then we kind of yeah, we'd write with you know,
add one person in the mix or add to do
a four way just depending.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
Really we didn't turn too much down back then because
we didn't have like a ton going on.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
So it's like, you want to write with us, cool,
we'll try you. We'll try you, we'll try you, we'll
try whoever.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
Right, But man, when cruise, When Cruise hit, it was
just it was crazy.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Man.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
I mean like we felt like it was gonna be big,
but we had no idea it was gonna be that big.
I mean, we were excited because it just there's nothing
that sounded like that when the day we wrote it.
It kind of through a transformation over a period of
it's probably a period of months from when we wrote
it to when we recorded it. And once we started
recording it, we really kind of took a microscope to it.
(13:10):
And that was led by Joey moy and he's like, hey,
we could probably tighten up some.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Things and Joe's incredible.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
He's incredible, man, He's got the one of the best ears,
I think in this town and maybe in music. And
so that was actually Joey's called from the original was
baby You like a song? And he's like, I think
there's something missing. He's like, what if it's baby baby
you a song? He kept singing it like that, he'd
have it on loop, just that, just the track going.
And we first heard, We're like, I don't know, and
(13:37):
we're like, Joey, do it again, dude, how you hear it?
And he did it. We're like, okay, you're you're right.
It's baby you a song, you know. And so just
little things like that and tightening up the verses. And
I think we added the uh we actually had. We
never we had once we released the Nelly version. We
never did that breakdown. Well maybe we did. No, it's
(13:58):
the bridge when that's something that's the one that gets
cut out because we did the remix, but we added that. No, shoot,
try to remember. No, we added the it was the
it was the pulled up UH guitars from from a
couple of chords, straight from the heart, that one. That's
what we had in the studio.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
In real time. Yeah, but it was cool, man.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
It was just like we just sat around and it
was like there was no hurry as it wasn't any
time frame or timeline to like we have to get
this done. We just kind of sat around for hours
and just chased rhymes and just try to tighten every
little thing of that song, every little corner of that song.
And that's what you hear today still. You know, it's crazy.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
Man.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
I'm so grateful for Joey and his leadership and just
pushing us because, I mean, even when you think you
got a great song, you can always double check things
and edit and just match matched little lines and rhymes
up and little just intricacies of the song that just
make it pop even more.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
Right, Well, I mean an unbelievable record that has clearly
spenned the test of time and continues to be played
and sung, you know, by by millions across the country.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
Walk me through. When you go out and.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
You start touring after this song, and of course you
guys have plenty of other hits in this mix. What's
that feeling of playing these stadiums and hearing people sing
the lyrics of your song back?
Speaker 1 (15:21):
Wild Man, I mean it's I don't know if anything
really beats that, you know, I mean in that big
of a of a venue.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
But even I.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Mean, you know, to be honest with you, as as
that song grew and we were, you know, in smaller
clubs and the venue started getting a little bit bigger,
still still like awesome because you felt like in a club,
you're like, man, we're about to literally blow this roof off.
These fans are about to sing this roof right off,
you know. So that was cool, But bigger venues are
special as well, and you just try to you try
(15:53):
to slow it down because it just goes so quick,
those those sets, even if they're an hour and a
half long or three and a half minute song, So
you really just try to take in everybody if you can,
you know, and it's like just a sea of people
just moving and partying and it's awesome, man, I mean,
it's Do you have.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
Is there any specific moment or show that you know
you remember today as sort of the you know, your
favorite moment.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
There's one.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
I've got it on my old computer somewhere, some footage,
but it was the uh, I want to say twelve
or thirteen. It might have been thirteen Faster Horses festival.
Oh yeah, amazing fasts. People show out nuts. Yeah, I
mean it was like it was like, I mean we
were only probably a couple of singles deep at that
time when we played that, but it was like, well,
(16:45):
if if all goes to hell after this festival, I'm like, well,
we definitely made it at least to that festival, you know,
like we're good.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
Like that was.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
That was an epic show. I mean, people just on
top of shoulders, waving flags. There's like smoke coming from
the whole crowd. I mean it was just a absolute rager,
and you know it's it's just it's cool, man, because
as musicians, songwriters, artists, like we are fans as well,
so we have been there. I'm sure you have, and
(17:13):
like we've been out to festivals and crowds before we
are doing what we've done. And so to know, how
I get when a song comes on that I love
and I don't know, man, just to have it turned
around where you're the guys on stage throwing the party,
singing the songs and people are reacting, it's just it's humbling,
it's special, it's inspiring. I mean, like, yeah, you get
(17:35):
those kind of you get that feedback from those shows.
It's like, all right, well, what kind of song can
we right today? Right?
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Better than what we have?
Speaker 3 (17:43):
You know, like so you just it just I feel
like that's the that's always kind of this game that
you play as an artist, right as you write a song,
and then you try to outperforming, keep outperforming, and then
there's the evolution of your artist.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
I mean, you guys put out an album and then
you know, years later you you continue.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
To find what's what's the new thing or what's this
this new hook that's going to kind of outbeat, you
know something like you know, like in anything off of
anything goes.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
But it's amazing, man, what you guys have.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
Done, you know, just pioneering kind of redefining and expanding
country music. I think everyone kind of remembers that twenty
twelve moment and all of fgl as being you know,
such a such an impactful and a long lasting band
to the genre. I want to talk about your solo career.
(18:32):
You put out an album in twenty twenty one, I believe, Yeah,
which was I think your first kind of project as
a solo app walk me.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
Through there than letting go other than other than letting go.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
Yeah, dude, I can't wait to I can't wait to
do you know, I'm going to dig through that and
try to find these old, these old Brian Talley records.
But yes, you put out this this album in twenty
twenty one, and I'm sure the experience of doing something
as a solo artist rather than as a duo is different.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
I mean, walk me through that. Were you nervous to
put something out by yourself? Were you?
Speaker 1 (19:04):
No?
Speaker 2 (19:04):
I'm really excited.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
And you know, it's like, you know, it's funny because
I kind of did the same thing, you know, when
life kind of threw everybody a curveball during the pandemic
and our normal was shut down and canceled and not
not really do anything. And so you know, Tyler and
I had turned in our fifth record May of twenty twenty,
(19:26):
and you know, I just after that, it was like
I started writing a little bit, took a little time off,
and we were down a Florida, posted up me and
Brittany and the dogs having a great time and still
kind of getting a little stir crazy because I had
got my arm in shape.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Some we'd been cooking.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
I've tried everything to keep us busy and be happy.
But I'm like, man, I just I'd love to just
you know, write a bunch and see what happens. And
at that right when I said that, you know, I
didn't know. I guess the creative songwriting guys, we're going
to give me a bunch of inspiration. But you know,
I wrote probably three or four songs and I had,
you know, a little pile, and it's like, man, I'm
(20:04):
just so inspired right now.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
I'd love to just have an extra outlet.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
It's something that we had been talking about for years,
and so it just felt like for me, you know,
maybe not for us, but maybe for me the right
timing and not much was going on at the end
of the day. Me spending my time in a weird
time where everything's shut down on music gave me life
and it gave me confidence. It gave me something to do,
(20:29):
and it's like I got to do more. The reason
why I moved to Nashville in the first place to
write songs, make music, and.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
Siller lining of it all, man, dude crazy.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
So I just once again, in life, you know, life
there was a curble dive into the music and so
I really don't consider that, you know, my debut debut,
debut solo record. It's definitely the first one, but it's
you know, definitely a passion project, something I'd want to
wanted to do for a long time. And at the time,
(21:01):
even even making it, and even after it being out
for even a year or so, however, we still had
you know, fgl dates on the book books, and you know,
I kind of was under the depression we were going
to continue everything. My holistic view was, you know, I
want to do this and that, not this or that.
It was like, let's just add to the mothership. And
you know, obviously things have changed and we kind of
pivoted from that. But my mindset was because we had
(21:25):
things on the books and dates and you know all that,
I was like, man, I kind of had created this
unique little coastal country sound, and it's a snapshot of
my life, a snapshot of time. It's a love letter
to Florida, Brittany, our travels and just life. And sonically
wasn't really at all trying to intrude on what we
(21:46):
had built, you know, trying to keep that super separate
and just like have my own little thing at the
end of the day, I didn't really care what happened
to it in terms of you know, we didn't go
to radio on any of those songs.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
Off the first record.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
It really was just about breasting myself, man, and just
like being true to the artist that I am and
the songwriter that I am and honoring myself and so
so kind of you know, kind of where I'm at now,
I'm working on this new music with so much having
changed in a little over two years. It's like, man,
(22:21):
I'm not really holding anything back when when it comes
to you know, my solo music and how it sounds sonically,
and just like I'm sure you as a musician can tell,
like see Next Summer sounds a lot bigger, and like
the production and the track sounds a lot bigger than
stuff on you know, Sunshine State of Mind.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
And that's intentional.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
So man, I've just been grinding, you know, just really
really just opened my world up to any and every
and new and old songwriters. Like I told my whole team,
like I don't care if they've got hits, if you
think I need to write with them and put these
groups together, like I'm such an open minded place. Yeah, man,
it's just like once, once, I you know, once you
(23:04):
stand alone by yourself on a solo career, it's like,
all right, well, if this is if this is for
real and it's serious, now I'm I'm gonna operate my
business the way I do things a lot different, and
that that that means, you know, I'm gonna cut some
outside songs. I'm gonna you know, I love supporting the
songwriting community.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Number one. Number two.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
There's so many great songs out there that I didn't
write or I won't write that It's like, man, if
they resonate with me, I got no problem recording an
outside song. Some of my idols and legends have done that,
and it's like, well, that's kind of how I want
to model my my true solo career. It's like, you know,
the Garth and Kenny great songwriters have written tons of
hits themselves, but they also cut some amazing songs and
(23:50):
they're the voice for some of these songs that are
just incredible, and so.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
Man, it's it's so refreshing to hear that because I
think I think a lot of artists and Ashville feel
like they always have to be the one, you know,
with the pen right.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
In their song.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
And I think a lot of the you know, you
look at some of the biggest artists, like you mentioned,
they are great songwriters, and there's no there's no questioning that.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
But also good music's good music.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
And if you find something that you know, other talented
writers in Nashville written that deserves a platform and you
can put your own artistry on it, you know, why
not go for it. It's nice to hear that somebody
is embracing that, and of course, you know, paying respects
to the songwriting community and those there.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
So it takes a little bit of pressure off I
think too, like having to feel like.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
Like Sunshints stay to mind.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
That was a goal of mine because it was such
an artistic expression. It's like, all right, well, here's something
I want to do on these seventeen songs. I want
to make sure I'm a co writer on everyone.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
You wrote all seventeen songs on yeah, And so for
this one, it's like, man, I don't I did that
and that was like a fun project, and it again
so much has changed.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
It's like, well it doesn't it doesn't really matter. And
maybe I'll do that down the road. Maybe that'll be
another goal of mine, or maybe it's like I write
them all by myself, but I'm just not there right now.
It doesn't it's not really about that. It's like how
many great songs can I put on a project, whether
I wrote them or not sure? And it does take
pressure off, like I don't know. I mean, like when
(25:14):
you hear a song you love, you're like, man, let
me hear like three more times.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
I kind of know it.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
Let's just cut it. I love that song, and it's
there's like this. I mean, don't get me wrong. I
love trying to wake up every single day and try
to write another cruise or a big hit, like I
love song hunting and I love I'm competitive.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
I love all that.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
But something cool about just like hearing a song you
love and being able to record.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
It absolutely well. You know.
Speaker 3 (25:41):
I want to talk to you about the music industry
today because a crazy thing happened in Quarantine, which was
the emergence of TikTok and of Instagram, and there's all
these platforms where music is so accessible and we're consuming
it in such high volume. I was reading this stat
the other day, like one hundred thousand songs uploaded to
streaming services every day, which is great because it allows,
(26:04):
you know, allows us as artists to put something out
and and be able to you know, consume music so
so rapidly. But at the same time, it's like, how
do you, I mean, how do you stand out? I mean,
I don't know what what's your process to you know,
standing out when when putting out music in such a
competitive market.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
That's a good question, you know. I think I think
something for me, I mean I guess and I guess
kind of what I have going for me. I don't
know I does this good or not? But you know,
in a sense starting over it as a solo artist,
it's like, you know, my voice, my lead voice, where
it's at now is really in. Brittany said this for years.
(26:45):
She's like, when you do do some stuff, it's gonna
like be like your voice was preserved and it's gonna
be like you're a new artist.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
People like who's that and they're like, that's BK.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
He used to be in FGL or whatever, and they're like, oh,
and so I think that's cool. I think fan even
myself love finding somebody new or hearing something like who's that?
Speaker 2 (27:04):
What's that?
Speaker 1 (27:06):
So I think there's I think I have that going
for me. Hopefully people are like, well, whose voice is that?
Speaker 2 (27:12):
That's the goal at least, but I think that and man,
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
I just as as things build, I think for me,
I'm really motivated on you know, I guess you could
call it fan experience, fan service, which you'd say like
customer service and like retail, but like man, just just
being great to your fans and creating moments and experiences
(27:43):
at shows, meet and greets, just being super present with them.
And then I think, you know, live show, and just
I don't know, man, I just I think being good
to people will obviously helps everything. But when it comes
to why they want to listen to your music more
(28:04):
than just it being an earworm, I think country fans especially,
they want to support you, not just the song. They
want to like support, they want to know about your family,
they want to know what you love, they want to
all all those things. And so I think it's important
to just be involved with your fan base. And I
still think it's I don't think that's easy because I
(28:25):
feel like my Instagram will not grow, it does not grow,
it don't show anybody of my stuff. So I try
it hard and TikTok's okay too. But man, I just
I just try to be you know, when I'm in
when I'm in person, when I'm at a show and
I'm in a meet and greet a guitar pool, just
be super in tune with the moment and the fans
and shaking hands after the show. But you know, I
(28:49):
think I think the music is first, obviously, and so
I just think with try to have a unique voice,
a voice that that pokes a little bit, and always
trying to fine tune that. But you know, song's voice,
it's all got to be it's all got to be there.
Speaker 3 (29:07):
But yeah, it's it's you know, there's the formula has
got to you got to be created. I think it's
cool to hear that, you know, you you create loyalty
through your live events and shaking hands because I think
we consume so much stuff on these things all the time,
and a lot of artists I've talked to recently have
had a viral moment where we've seen their stream spike
(29:27):
and maybe they do get the Instagram followers that you're
not getting, you know, for a couple of months, But
then if they aren't able to build and maintain that
fan base and that loyalty. Then you know, oftentimes the
career might not last test of time. And I think
you mentioned it, but you know, you kind of have this.
You know, what are some things that you do to
(29:47):
to really build loyalty with your fans.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
It's a good question.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
To build loyalty, man, I mean, I think it's just
being present and my I just like in person interactions. Man,
Like I'm always better that way too, Like I'm you know,
we got we're all so busy and it's like you
can miss a couple of text messages or a couple
posts or whatever like that. But like if I'm here
(30:12):
with you right now, I'm here right like, I'm right
here and you are here, you know, So I just
like that. I appreciate that building loyalty.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
That's a good question. There's no right answer, you know,
that's a good question. No. I just I think just
being being yourself. And I think one thing, I mean,
I did these, uh, I did these little a little
residency down in thirty A at our surf shop. Amazing,
and that was kind of a start. I'll do some
more at some point. But you know, one thing I
(30:46):
think was cool, and this is kind of what I'm
going for, is kind of a.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
Try to put my words how I want them.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
But like, you know, as I grow as a solo artist,
I do these shows like I want people.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
I want kind of the.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
Deadhead vibe of people following where I'm going because I'm
not going to probably play the same show in a row.
Like I like being a little bit random. I like,
you know, if we wrote a song that day, maybe
trying it that night and maybe screwing up, but people
like that, you know, like that's I did that at
(31:21):
a we were doing a little full band acoustic show
and I was like, guys, I'm gonna try a song
that we just wrote and I may.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
Screw this up.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
And I got through the first version chorus, crushed it,
and I get a second verse, I'm like, I can't
remember the freaking word. So I got a phone out.
I'm like, y'all, I'm getting my phone out to try
to finish whatever. And I just murdered it, man, And
they were cheering, they were jacked up. They were like,
you got this, BKA, that's so awesome. And it's like
I don't need tricks up my sleeve.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
And so I think.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
There's like a people see that and you're vulnerable.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
Vulnerability.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
I think that that is building trust and loyalty to
fans are like, man, I get that guy, like.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
We're all human, you know. I think that's cool man.
And so yeah, man, well you mentioned it, but I
did want to talk about it too.
Speaker 3 (32:04):
One of the things you do outside of your artistry,
it seems like you're pretty involved with several of adventures.
I know that you're very supportive of your wife Denny
and the Kelly Tribe work, which is how we kind
of first met. But I also know you mentioned thirty A.
You're very involved down there. Talk to me a little
bit about what you have going on down there.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
Yeah, So we're celebrating five years anniversary at Tribe Kelly
Surf Post. If you've ever been down a great and
beach in the thirty A area, right across the Red Bar,
the world famous Red Bar, Oh yeah, is our surf post.
It's an old house where we renovated, turn it into
a surf shop, and most recently last fall turned it
turned the backyard space that we had into like a
(32:41):
little music venue.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
Love that place.
Speaker 1 (32:45):
My studios on the second floor written a bunch of
songs up there, recorded most of the first album there. Yeah,
and then you know, a couple of miles down the road,
if anybody's familiar with the area, Shunk Goalie the restaurant
were a couple spots down from there. Papa Surf Burger
Bar will be opening here in a couple of weeks.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
Papa Serf, Papa Surf Bar.
Speaker 1 (33:06):
Yeah, man, And so it's amazing coastal Southern coastal burgers.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
So what makes a what what makes a Southern coastal
burger different than a regular burger?
Speaker 1 (33:18):
Well, we've got like one burger that's like, uh, it's
got like a it's like a pimento, cheese, bacon situation,
and fancy, dude, it's like awesome. It's kind of foodie elevated,
elevated burger elevated experience.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
Papa Surf understood. That's that'sally for advertising right there.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
You're just off the cuff. And I might have stole
some of that from Papa John's, but yeah, yeah, right,
that's well, dude, I love I love that you're opening it.
Whence when's the opening of it? It's a couple of weeks.
We're kind of teetering on an exact date, you know
how like finishing a project is. Man, it's like something
that didn't come in that slows us down for a
couple of days and then we're on one thing. But
(34:01):
we can see light at the end of the tunnel. Man,
it's been It's another old house we renovated. It's an
old uh. It was called Bloom's Cafe back in the day.
It had been shut down for years when we purchased it.
But the the former chef owner of that cafe just
actually lived in that house. And so we I guess
(34:21):
we have a thing for old houses and renovations and
finding a new business, a new uh opportunity for the
community in those buildings and managed.
Speaker 2 (34:32):
It's it's a it's a blast.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
Like we love Brittany and I love real estate, architecture
design and just creating experiences for people to you know,
in cool unique spaces for.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
People to feel.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
Comfortable like they can just party and you know it's
it's gonna be awesome. And that we've done a bunch
of tastings. The burgers are fire. What better place to do.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
Well? You tell me when when the opening data is
I I will make the drive down. Man, I love
I love thirty A.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
And you got to throw a big festival down there
for open and get some music down.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
Yeah, we're gonna do.
Speaker 1 (35:08):
I don't know if it won't be like right away,
we're gonna do like a big grand opening and maybe
in a couple months like after we open, like kind
of soft open, get all the kinks out. But so
we actually partnered with so Brittany and I kind of
conceptualized it, kind of got the whole design team on board,
and had the name. I had that name for a while,
(35:29):
Papa Surf and Brittany and I we kind of did
it backwards. I told her for years, like Papa Surf
is going to be something. I go, I don't know
if it's going to be a beer or if it's
going to be a clothing line, but I said it
could be all those things. I said, it's just got
to be something like cool and we want this awesome logo,
and so I had this guy, Jpeg Fletcher out of Charleston.
(35:52):
We started with the logo and the name and the design,
and we didn't know it was gonna be the Burger
Bar till once we started getting creative on the logo.
I go, okay, cool, and then then we found the
location and I go, Britt, I think Papa Surf is
a Burger barn. She's like, I'm all in, let's go.
And so we kind of did it back where it's
off the logo, had the name, got the logo designed,
and then we kind of did it that way.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
Yeah, that's cool, which.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
Is new for us, but it is It was fun, man.
I mean to me, it's like songwriter. It's like starting
with a good title or a good hook, right and
then kind of just riding around that and kind of
forming it, molding it, you know.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
Yeah, absolutely, that's amazing.
Speaker 1 (36:28):
Man.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
Well, I can't wait to check it out.
Speaker 3 (36:31):
Papa Surf coming soon down at thirty A. Well, we
got just a few minutes left, so I want to
do something real quick now. I want to give a
shout out to one of our sponsors, Area here. They're
a leading Western clothing apparel brand, and we got a
couple T shirts and some hats right here.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
That are for you. I think you can take down.
Let's go.
Speaker 3 (36:50):
Area does this thing. We got rapid fire questions. We're
throwing sixty seconds on the clock. This is presented by area.
Are you ready to go?
Speaker 2 (36:57):
I'm so ready. I'm so ready. Here we go, baby,
three to one. What is the favorite venue that you
have played?
Speaker 1 (37:05):
Oh, Guildford, New Hampshire Amphitheater.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
There you go.
Speaker 3 (37:09):
That's near my home. Whatever that I called that place? Yeah,
the pavilion, it's great, ridiculous dude. Are you more of
a talker or a texter?
Speaker 1 (37:15):
I guess both, because sometimes sometimes you need to talk
it out and you're like, hey, I can can you
fix this thing on them?
Speaker 2 (37:20):
Whatever? But I don't mind a good text. There you go.
Speaker 3 (37:24):
Favorite Florida Georgia line song Cruise. One artist that you
could collaborate with, George Strait. Not a bad answer, right there.
Are you more of a cowboy hat or.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
Baseball hat guy? Both? Both?
Speaker 1 (37:39):
I was thought you, Saball, I can't hear one. I
can't have one without the other.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
There you go. I like that. How many days a
week are you wearing boots? If I'm if I'm in Florida,
it's not much.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
Sure it's location based, definitely, Oh, definitely seasonal location. You
gotta you gotta move around, you know so. But if
I'm if I'm in town Nashville, if I'm writing songs, uh,
every day for the most part, and then if I'm
on the road, unless it's like just a freaking heat wave,
I mean I might throw some flippies on.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
Right there you go, favorite fast food place right now,
raising kines Dude, Dude, they just open a Nashville.
Speaker 1 (38:16):
It's freaking on the Get a cup of sauce with
a straw Graves, Dude, I might.
Speaker 2 (38:21):
I might get that tonight. There you go. And last one,
what is your go to karaoke song man?
Speaker 1 (38:27):
I'd probably say pick up Man Joe Diffy Heck, yeah,
you know, just kind of kind of kind of the
one I.
Speaker 2 (38:33):
Hear you man rest in Peace show, Diffy Man legend.
Speaker 3 (38:36):
Uh. That is aria rapid Fire Questions with Brian Kelly.
That was pretty good, man, this kind of rapid fire,
kind of rapid fire, well, the ones that aren't too
rapid fire.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
Uh, dude, it's been awesome having you on here. I
appreciate you.
Speaker 3 (38:50):
I appreciate you know you're taking the time learn more
about obviously both the FGL story, but of course all
this new music that I'm so pumped about.
Speaker 2 (38:59):
What can we expect from you?
Speaker 3 (39:01):
I know you got this album coming out, But any
plans to hit the road or what's in store.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
Yeah, man, So kind of from here on out for
the rest of the youar, I got a ton of
guitar pools, so a bunch of radio station shows and
working on kind of filling in some dates around there
for more shows and trying to get I think top
of next year in the in the winter lined up
as well, some shows. Really pushing to get a bunch
(39:26):
of shows out there.
Speaker 2 (39:27):
Man.
Speaker 1 (39:27):
I really can't wait to get music out, get out
there on the road, meet meet fans, hang with fans,
and just see what see what we can make happen. Man.
See Next Summer obviously summer song. Yeah, but kind of
kind of the majority of the songs and this project
that I've got coming at after See Next Summer mostly
(39:48):
just kind of kind of just banging country songs, you know,
Like I was able to share seventeen songs of kind
of a coastal country vibe, and that picture on that
first record See Next Summer is an elevated version of that.
No doubt at radio doing its thing. But yeah, man,
I just there's so much that I want to share
(40:08):
about myself and what I love and you know, it's
not just summertime in the beach, so and I didn't
want to make obviously the same record twice. Man, we
got to push ourselves and continue to share with the
world and fans like what we're made of and all
of us artists. So for me, it's like, Man, I
just really want to I just really want to squeeze
(40:31):
as much out of out of life as I can. Man,
and just like push myself. And the more I've made
myself in a sense, you know, uncomfortable, if you will,
if that's the word of just like writing with you know,
as many people that I've never met, you know, you
write with you know, two or three people in a day,
and then another group later that night. It's like, that's
(40:53):
that's sometimes not easy, you know, just meeting people and
trying to trying to write a freaking hit or trying
to write a great song. But man, I just feel
like I'm kind of thriving in the uncomfortability of it all,
and I've just really kind of taken off the heavy
coat of feeling like I gotta try. It's just like, man,
if we show up and we filter through ideas and
(41:14):
just be patient enough to wait around for the good ideas.
We know what to do with a good idea, right,
It's just you got to get to the You got
to get to it. So it's like, how patient can
you be? It's like we write all the time. I
just tell anybody I write with, I'm like, man, I
don't mind starting something and moving on to another idea,
and just I just want everything to be great and
(41:35):
push all of ourselves to you never know what you
can land on. And so still got to hustle. Man,
I'm just really trying to. I really really enjoy this outlet.
Speaker 3 (41:45):
Man.
Speaker 1 (41:45):
I'm really grateful for everything that Tyler and I have
been able to do. It's more than a foundation in
a music career. It's incredible. I'm forever grateful for all
of our fans. Everything that we've been able to do
is amazing, man.
Speaker 2 (42:00):
And so.
Speaker 1 (42:02):
I don't I don't take that lightly. And I'm also again,
you know, like really enjoying kind of doing this by
myself and and you know, representing myself and my team
the way I want to. And I loved loved the Doo,
love loved playing on a team. You know, I come
from a baseball background, so that's great.
Speaker 2 (42:20):
But yeah, man.
Speaker 1 (42:20):
Different different seasons and chapters of life and different different
curve balls require a different bat I hear you. Man.
Speaker 3 (42:27):
Well it's awesome, dude. Well, thanks for just being so
down to earth and being willing to come on here
chat man. See you next summer. Brian Kelly new record
out now, whole album coming out very soon, so y'all
stay tuned. This is the six to one to five
hours podcast. Thanks again, brother, I really appreciate you time.
Speaker 2 (42:43):
Lovely
The original was baby You'd like a song, and he's like,
(00:02):
I think there's something missing.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
He's like, what if it's baby.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
You a song? And we first heard were like, I
don't know, and we were like, Joey, do it again, dude,
how you hear it?
Speaker 2 (00:09):
You're right, it's baby us song. You know what is up?
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Guys? Chris Rudeger here, welcome back to the six one
five House podcast. We are so lucky to have today's guest.
He was first known as the Florida half of Grammy
nominated group Florida Georgia Line, the ACM Breakout Artist of
the Decade award recipients. I think they had nineteen career
number ones and they became the first and only act
who achieved two, not one, but two are a Diamond
(00:48):
Singles and country music histories for Cruise and Meant to
Be surpassing seventeen million global streams, seeing more than forty
million tracks and four point eight million albums worldwide, plus
playing to over four million fans. FGL got nominated by
AMA Billboards, CMA, CMT, and all of these awards have
led him now to a new chapter of his life.
(01:08):
This guest is working on a full length album with
Big Machine Records. He recently put out a single See
You Next Summer, which we're going to talk about, and
it's having great success climbing up the charts. And additionally,
this guest diverse fies. Outside of his artistry. He's collaborating
with Brittany, his wife on Tribe Kelly, as well as
partnering with Oyster Brewing Company. And I think he's got
a new project down in thirty A that we're going
(01:29):
to talk about.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
I am so pumped.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
Please welcome to the conversation the one and only mister
Brian Kelly.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Man. Thanks for having me. I am for this, dude.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
I think last time I saw you, we were we
were down on Broadway as your wife was doing doing
a work with Ariat for for a you know, thrown
a party. Throwing a party. I said, Man, the Kellys
know how to party. I'm going to shell up and
say what's up.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Man.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Sometimes we're part of playing it and sometimes we just
show up and party.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
So that was one of those. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
She It's like, hey, I got this thing kind of
throwing a party and hosting at Ariot and a lot
of great people showed up. Man. They had some good
drinks they were making, and it was cool to meet
some new people like you and meet and see some
old friends and catch up.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Yeah. Man, it's awesome. How is how's the summer band?
How you seem like you've been crazy busy?
Speaker 2 (02:17):
What do you get up to? Been writing a ton
here in Nashville.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
I been doing some radio trips, meeting with pds and
spending time with them, doing some dinners and just doing
some hanging kind of reintroducing myself and playing them, you know,
some demos and some songs that I got coming down
to shoot, getting them excited about you know what the
next twelve to twenty four months look like sonically musically
(02:42):
for me, it's just it's been really exciting, man. Done
some guitar pools, some acoustic shows, done a couple full
band shows. But kind of from here on out, for
the rest of the year, we started to get really busy,
a bunch of guitar pools, more radio visits, and man,
I just I'm so grateful to be busy. You know,
there's a couple of there obviously pandemic, you know, there's
(03:03):
not too much going on, and so man, I'm just
been chomping at the bit to be this busy and
it's it's exciting. I can feel there's been a momentum
shift in my solo career, and I think it started
obviously with recording see next Summer, but even more recently,
I think CMA Fest was extra special. I just met
(03:26):
and re met so many people that I met along
along the way and then meeting new fans, and just
felt like that week was something I'll look back on
in a couple of years, maybe it's ten, or maybe
it's next year, and say, man, that was that was
instrumental in just filling me up in a sense of
just so many good, so much good energy from these fans,
(03:47):
like kind of a kind of a trip down memory lane,
because they'll they'll show you some pictures of you know,
twenty twelve or thirteen. They're like, oh, look, we've been
fans this long, and do you remember meeting me here
at CE a week. Then you're like, I, actually, do
you know that? That's incredible? Thanks for the continued support.
But I just felt like, you know, sometimes you because
(04:07):
you've got a lot going on those weeks, and so
you're you're putting out energy, You're you're putting it out
there and so to have it your tank filled back
up by.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
The fans is it's awesome.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Man.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
So I just left that week I felt like felt.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Different to me. I don't know why, man, it was
just it was special.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
It was amazing, you know.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
I think it was a combination, like you said, like
COVID's over and people are now ready to go back
to festivals and live experiences. Of course, cmafs a massive
event in Nashville. It's kind of the one time where
I feel like, as artists, we're all in one centralized
place playing shows. You know, It's it's crazy because your
friends are always out on the road playing in Montana
and you're down in Florida, and so I feel like
(04:48):
most artists say they don't sleep a lot during cmafes,
but it's so fulfilling to get to see them and
of course interact with fans that maybe are our new
fans of Brian Kelly or perhaps you know, like you said,
following you for ten years.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
So it's amazing.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
I want to talk you know, about about your your
new music, but first I wanted to ask you. I
don't even I don't know this book. How did you
initially get into music in the first place. What was
your story growing up?
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Well, had some friends in high school play acoustic guitar
and always loved music, love country music, and I just
wanted to play guitar. That kind of started it. And
once I learned a couple of chords and started playing,
I had some buddies teach me, took a couple of lessons,
and you know, it was freshman year. This is a
(05:34):
pivotal moment. Freshman year pitching for Florida State. I found
out I was red shirting like a week before the
season started, So it's kind of a surprise. Some some
kids right when we got to school freshman year, they
knew they were red shirting right away. So I went
through like the whole fall in almost the spring, and
then then I found out. And so for me, you know,
I really dove into playing even more guitar and trying
(05:57):
to write songs. When you know, the team was out
of town, I didn't I wouldn't travel, and so I
kind of had more free time than a lot of
my teammates, and I didn't really spend it studying. I
spent it studying country music and songs and chords and
had this little program on my old Dell laptop that
that my roommate had given me, like a little recording program.
I don't remember what it was called, but just kind
(06:20):
of getting my feet wet and just just trying to
get into music, you know. And I remember driving in
my car to and from class, and it's kind of funny.
I had like a breakthrough maybe like wrote my first
song or a couple of songs, like I'm a songwriter now,
you know, Like I'm a songwriter, and then it was
like I'm a songwriter, and then like I was like, well,
(06:42):
if I'm a songwriter, then i'm a singer now too,
you know. And so I'd be just trying to sing
along to anything that came on the radio that was
like somewhat in my range, or a song I like
just to were was it mostly country or a lot
of country at that time too, listening to a lot
of Christian music, honestly. And it's funny because country is
my first love. But as I started creating music, the
(07:05):
way it came out because of what I was going through,
which was a tough time with baseball being like dang man,
like I thought I was gonna play freshman year. You know,
maybe I was slightly embarrassed that I got red shirted
and to my hometown. You know, I'm like, I'm supposed
to be pitching for the seminals this year of freshman
coming in hot whatever. Yeah, and so you know, life
threw me a little bit of a curveball, if you will,
(07:27):
and so I just dealt with it, taking it out
in the music and so like it was kind of
a faith based, you know, contemporary Christian kind of like
those are my first songs I actually released, like an
EP back in the day, nice railroad track holding a
guitar kind of thing. I think we all probably got that.
Oh that's amazing. Do you remember what it was called?
Letting Go?
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Letting Go? What are the chances letting Go gets re released?
Speaker 1 (07:50):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (07:51):
God, to talk to your label about you.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
I'm gonna need to sing, re sing and recut everything.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
If that's the kay. I think I think we all
have that first EP lying around somewhere. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
So you're going through this process of practicing baseball a
couple days a week and then learning guitar writing songs. Eventually,
did it get to a point where you started to
take it more seriously and spend more time on music
than baseball. How did that transition happen?
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Oh, not more than baseball. So I transferred to Daytona
State College after my second year of Florida State. Didn't
get much playing time then, and I was like, all right,
I'm gonna go home play a year at community college.
I know the coach. Basically, it's just about in a
sense like a military college. It's not, but it's treated
like that. I'm talking like crazy workouts, you know, morning
(08:36):
swims at five am. You're treading water with cinder blocks
over your head, just like you have a hell week
in you know, January before the season. And then it
ended up at Belmont, And so I wouldn't say I
was always curious about what I could do if I
had you know, when I was at practice and I'd
get my pitching work done and we'd be out in
(08:57):
the outfield shagging balls for a couple of hours after
we were done, I go, man, I wonder, you know,
if I spent this time writing songs that I'm shagging baseball,
is like, how much better could I be? But it
wouldn't until you know, after my senior year at Belmont,
I didn't get drafted and so I took that from,
you know, as a sign from the universe, like it's
time to time to do something else, and I was
(09:17):
looking forward to it. I would have loved to, you know,
even if it was the last pick of the draft,
like the last pick, like a can of snooze and
a bus ticket.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
I'd have done it, just to like.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Give it a year or till I got cut, or
just to say I like played pro ball, but that
didn't happen, and I didn't want to force it. I
might have could have gone and you know, played independent ball.
But again, the curiosity of music for me, I was like, man,
I just I really want to do this. I want
to see what like a life just invested in music
would be like. And you know, not long after that,
(09:51):
really Tyler and I really kind of got connected and
started writing songs and never looked back, and so well,
just you say, I kind of a kind of an
easy It was a transition that was made for me
in a sense like not getting drafted, but I was
excited and just kind of took it in stride and
was like, you know what this is, Uh, that was
(10:11):
one part of my life and I'm gonna move home
and go make some music.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
Well, I know, in the moment, you probably wanted to
play college or pro ball, but it seems like it
ended up being a pretty good decision because you ended
up meeting Tyler Hubbard and twenty twelve rolls around and
I remember I was at the time, I was in
high school, and I remember all my buddies are like,
you guys have got a crank this new group called
(10:35):
after L And of course cruise goes and it becomes
i mean the biggest you know, record selling single of
all time. Like, talk to me about this process, man, Like,
how how did that feel?
Speaker 1 (10:47):
It was unbelievable, man, I mean still this day, just
just beyond grateful, just really really grateful.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
You know.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
We uh, we just.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Tried to write and work on music any chance that
we got, and you know, until around different schedules, I mean,
until you get like a publishing deal that can like
you can like live off of right. But man, we
were just attacking it hard. And we were living together
over in Green Hills, this old house and had a
bunch of you know, a couple of people in our
band and a couple of buddies, and we were just
(11:19):
trying to be around and go to songwriter arounds, meet people, right, Hey,
you want to write, you want to write tomorrow night,
you want to write in the mornings.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
We could do both, we could do it all whatever.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Just kind of song hustling man and just trying to
just trying to get ingrained in the city.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
And I think that's a big thing of Nashville that
some people don't understand is when you first move yea,
oftentimes it's kind of the best of the best from
from different towns across the country, across the world, and
you get here and you're you're shaking hands. You're going
out four or five nights a week and looking to play,
you know, any gig, whether it's writers Round on you know,
Demumbrium or Midtown or going to the listening room. And
(11:55):
I think that's a big part of it, is like
trying to find your group. Did you guys, did you
entyler start writing with other people? Did you just kind
of write you too? Like how did how did your
your first couple songs come about?
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (12:06):
The first couple right after college, right after I graduated.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
A little bit of both.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
I mean it was like a lot of probably decent
amount of like two ways and it was like, all right, well,
we can definitely write two like good songs just the
two of us. Like that's awesome, cool, noted like we
got a thing cool hell yeah. And then you know
then we kind of yeah, we'd write with you know,
add one person in the mix or add to do
a four way just depending.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
Really we didn't turn too much down back then because
we didn't have like a ton going on.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
So it's like, you want to write with us, cool,
we'll try you. We'll try you, we'll try you, we'll
try whoever.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
Right, But man, when cruise, When Cruise hit, it was
just it was crazy.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Man.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
I mean like we felt like it was gonna be big,
but we had no idea it was gonna be that big.
I mean, we were excited because it just there's nothing
that sounded like that when the day we wrote it.
It kind of through a transformation over a period of
it's probably a period of months from when we wrote
it to when we recorded it. And once we started
recording it, we really kind of took a microscope to it.
(13:10):
And that was led by Joey moy and he's like, hey,
we could probably tighten up some.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Things and Joe's incredible.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
He's incredible, man, He's got the one of the best ears,
I think in this town and maybe in music. And
so that was actually Joey's called from the original was
baby You like a song? And he's like, I think
there's something missing. He's like, what if it's baby baby
you a song? He kept singing it like that, he'd
have it on loop, just that, just the track going.
And we first heard, We're like, I don't know, and
(13:37):
we're like, Joey, do it again, dude, how you hear it?
And he did it. We're like, okay, you're you're right.
It's baby you a song, you know. And so just
little things like that and tightening up the verses. And
I think we added the uh we actually had. We
never we had once we released the Nelly version. We
never did that breakdown. Well maybe we did. No, it's
(13:58):
the bridge when that's something that's the one that gets
cut out because we did the remix, but we added that. No, shoot,
try to remember. No, we added the it was the
it was the pulled up UH guitars from from a
couple of chords, straight from the heart, that one. That's
what we had in the studio.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
In real time. Yeah, but it was cool, man.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
It was just like we just sat around and it
was like there was no hurry as it wasn't any
time frame or timeline to like we have to get
this done. We just kind of sat around for hours
and just chased rhymes and just try to tighten every
little thing of that song, every little corner of that song.
And that's what you hear today still. You know, it's crazy.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
Man.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
I'm so grateful for Joey and his leadership and just
pushing us because, I mean, even when you think you
got a great song, you can always double check things
and edit and just match matched little lines and rhymes
up and little just intricacies of the song that just
make it pop even more.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
Right, Well, I mean an unbelievable record that has clearly
spenned the test of time and continues to be played
and sung, you know, by by millions across the country.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
Walk me through. When you go out and.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
You start touring after this song, and of course you
guys have plenty of other hits in this mix. What's
that feeling of playing these stadiums and hearing people sing
the lyrics of your song back?
Speaker 1 (15:21):
Wild Man, I mean it's I don't know if anything
really beats that, you know, I mean in that big
of a of a venue.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
But even I.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Mean, you know, to be honest with you, as as
that song grew and we were, you know, in smaller
clubs and the venue started getting a little bit bigger,
still still like awesome because you felt like in a club,
you're like, man, we're about to literally blow this roof off.
These fans are about to sing this roof right off,
you know. So that was cool, But bigger venues are
special as well, and you just try to you try
(15:53):
to slow it down because it just goes so quick,
those those sets, even if they're an hour and a
half long or three and a half minute song, So
you really just try to take in everybody if you can,
you know, and it's like just a sea of people
just moving and partying and it's awesome, man, I mean,
it's Do you have.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
Is there any specific moment or show that you know
you remember today as sort of the you know, your
favorite moment.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
There's one.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
I've got it on my old computer somewhere, some footage,
but it was the uh, I want to say twelve
or thirteen. It might have been thirteen Faster Horses festival.
Oh yeah, amazing fasts. People show out nuts. Yeah, I
mean it was like it was like, I mean we
were only probably a couple of singles deep at that
time when we played that, but it was like, well,
(16:45):
if if all goes to hell after this festival, I'm like, well,
we definitely made it at least to that festival, you know,
like we're good.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
Like that was.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
That was an epic show. I mean, people just on
top of shoulders, waving flags. There's like smoke coming from
the whole crowd. I mean it was just a absolute rager,
and you know it's it's just it's cool, man, because
as musicians, songwriters, artists, like we are fans as well,
so we have been there. I'm sure you have, and
(17:13):
like we've been out to festivals and crowds before we
are doing what we've done. And so to know, how
I get when a song comes on that I love
and I don't know, man, just to have it turned
around where you're the guys on stage throwing the party,
singing the songs and people are reacting, it's just it's humbling,
it's special, it's inspiring. I mean, like, yeah, you get
(17:35):
those kind of you get that feedback from those shows.
It's like, all right, well, what kind of song can
we right today? Right?
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Better than what we have?
Speaker 3 (17:43):
You know, like so you just it just I feel
like that's the that's always kind of this game that
you play as an artist, right as you write a song,
and then you try to outperforming, keep outperforming, and then
there's the evolution of your artist.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
I mean, you guys put out an album and then
you know, years later you you continue.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
To find what's what's the new thing or what's this
this new hook that's going to kind of outbeat, you
know something like you know, like in anything off of
anything goes.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
But it's amazing, man, what you guys have.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
Done, you know, just pioneering kind of redefining and expanding
country music. I think everyone kind of remembers that twenty
twelve moment and all of fgl as being you know,
such a such an impactful and a long lasting band
to the genre. I want to talk about your solo career.
(18:32):
You put out an album in twenty twenty one, I believe, Yeah,
which was I think your first kind of project as
a solo app walk me.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
Through there than letting go other than other than letting go.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
Yeah, dude, I can't wait to I can't wait to
do you know, I'm going to dig through that and
try to find these old, these old Brian Talley records.
But yes, you put out this this album in twenty
twenty one, and I'm sure the experience of doing something
as a solo artist rather than as a duo is different.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
I mean, walk me through that. Were you nervous to
put something out by yourself? Were you?
Speaker 1 (19:04):
No?
Speaker 2 (19:04):
I'm really excited.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
And you know, it's like, you know, it's funny because
I kind of did the same thing, you know, when
life kind of threw everybody a curveball during the pandemic
and our normal was shut down and canceled and not
not really do anything. And so you know, Tyler and
I had turned in our fifth record May of twenty twenty,
(19:26):
and you know, I just after that, it was like
I started writing a little bit, took a little time off,
and we were down a Florida, posted up me and
Brittany and the dogs having a great time and still
kind of getting a little stir crazy because I had
got my arm in shape.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Some we'd been cooking.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
I've tried everything to keep us busy and be happy.
But I'm like, man, I just I'd love to just
you know, write a bunch and see what happens. And
at that right when I said that, you know, I
didn't know. I guess the creative songwriting guys, we're going
to give me a bunch of inspiration. But you know,
I wrote probably three or four songs and I had,
you know, a little pile, and it's like, man, I'm
(20:04):
just so inspired right now.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
I'd love to just have an extra outlet.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
It's something that we had been talking about for years,
and so it just felt like for me, you know,
maybe not for us, but maybe for me the right
timing and not much was going on at the end
of the day. Me spending my time in a weird
time where everything's shut down on music gave me life
and it gave me confidence. It gave me something to do,
(20:29):
and it's like I got to do more. The reason
why I moved to Nashville in the first place to
write songs, make music, and.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
Siller lining of it all, man, dude crazy.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
So I just once again, in life, you know, life
there was a curble dive into the music and so
I really don't consider that, you know, my debut debut,
debut solo record. It's definitely the first one, but it's
you know, definitely a passion project, something I'd want to
wanted to do for a long time. And at the time,
(21:01):
even even making it, and even after it being out
for even a year or so, however, we still had
you know, fgl dates on the book books, and you know,
I kind of was under the depression we were going
to continue everything. My holistic view was, you know, I
want to do this and that, not this or that.
It was like, let's just add to the mothership. And
you know, obviously things have changed and we kind of
pivoted from that. But my mindset was because we had
(21:25):
things on the books and dates and you know all that,
I was like, man, I kind of had created this
unique little coastal country sound, and it's a snapshot of
my life, a snapshot of time. It's a love letter
to Florida, Brittany, our travels and just life. And sonically
wasn't really at all trying to intrude on what we
(21:46):
had built, you know, trying to keep that super separate
and just like have my own little thing at the
end of the day, I didn't really care what happened
to it in terms of you know, we didn't go
to radio on any of those songs.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
Off the first record.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
It really was just about breasting myself, man, and just
like being true to the artist that I am and
the songwriter that I am and honoring myself and so
so kind of you know, kind of where I'm at now,
I'm working on this new music with so much having
changed in a little over two years. It's like, man,
(22:21):
I'm not really holding anything back when when it comes
to you know, my solo music and how it sounds sonically,
and just like I'm sure you as a musician can tell,
like see Next Summer sounds a lot bigger, and like
the production and the track sounds a lot bigger than
stuff on you know, Sunshine State of Mind.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
And that's intentional.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
So man, I've just been grinding, you know, just really
really just opened my world up to any and every
and new and old songwriters. Like I told my whole team,
like I don't care if they've got hits, if you
think I need to write with them and put these
groups together, like I'm such an open minded place. Yeah, man,
it's just like once, once, I you know, once you
(23:04):
stand alone by yourself on a solo career, it's like,
all right, well, if this is if this is for
real and it's serious, now I'm I'm gonna operate my
business the way I do things a lot different, and
that that that means, you know, I'm gonna cut some
outside songs. I'm gonna you know, I love supporting the
songwriting community.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Number one. Number two.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
There's so many great songs out there that I didn't
write or I won't write that It's like, man, if
they resonate with me, I got no problem recording an
outside song. Some of my idols and legends have done that,
and it's like, well, that's kind of how I want
to model my my true solo career. It's like, you know,
the Garth and Kenny great songwriters have written tons of
hits themselves, but they also cut some amazing songs and
(23:50):
they're the voice for some of these songs that are
just incredible, and so.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
Man, it's it's so refreshing to hear that because I
think I think a lot of artists and Ashville feel
like they always have to be the one, you know,
with the pen right.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
In their song.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
And I think a lot of the you know, you
look at some of the biggest artists, like you mentioned,
they are great songwriters, and there's no there's no questioning that.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
But also good music's good music.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
And if you find something that you know, other talented
writers in Nashville written that deserves a platform and you
can put your own artistry on it, you know, why
not go for it. It's nice to hear that somebody
is embracing that, and of course, you know, paying respects
to the songwriting community and those there.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
So it takes a little bit of pressure off I
think too, like having to feel like.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
Like Sunshints stay to mind.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
That was a goal of mine because it was such
an artistic expression. It's like, all right, well, here's something
I want to do on these seventeen songs. I want
to make sure I'm a co writer on everyone.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
You wrote all seventeen songs on yeah, And so for
this one, it's like, man, I don't I did that
and that was like a fun project, and it again
so much has changed.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
It's like, well it doesn't it doesn't really matter. And
maybe I'll do that down the road. Maybe that'll be
another goal of mine, or maybe it's like I write
them all by myself, but I'm just not there right now.
It doesn't it's not really about that. It's like how
many great songs can I put on a project, whether
I wrote them or not sure? And it does take
pressure off, like I don't know. I mean, like when
(25:14):
you hear a song you love, you're like, man, let
me hear like three more times.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
I kind of know it.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
Let's just cut it. I love that song, and it's
there's like this. I mean, don't get me wrong. I
love trying to wake up every single day and try
to write another cruise or a big hit, like I
love song hunting and I love I'm competitive.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
I love all that.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
But something cool about just like hearing a song you
love and being able to record.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
It absolutely well. You know.
Speaker 3 (25:41):
I want to talk to you about the music industry
today because a crazy thing happened in Quarantine, which was
the emergence of TikTok and of Instagram, and there's all
these platforms where music is so accessible and we're consuming
it in such high volume. I was reading this stat
the other day, like one hundred thousand songs uploaded to
streaming services every day, which is great because it allows,
(26:04):
you know, allows us as artists to put something out
and and be able to you know, consume music so
so rapidly. But at the same time, it's like, how
do you, I mean, how do you stand out? I mean,
I don't know what what's your process to you know,
standing out when when putting out music in such a
competitive market.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
That's a good question, you know. I think I think
something for me, I mean I guess and I guess
kind of what I have going for me. I don't
know I does this good or not? But you know,
in a sense starting over it as a solo artist,
it's like, you know, my voice, my lead voice, where
it's at now is really in. Brittany said this for years.
(26:45):
She's like, when you do do some stuff, it's gonna
like be like your voice was preserved and it's gonna
be like you're a new artist.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
People like who's that and they're like, that's BK.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
He used to be in FGL or whatever, and they're like, oh,
and so I think that's cool. I think fan even
myself love finding somebody new or hearing something like who's that?
Speaker 2 (27:04):
What's that?
Speaker 1 (27:06):
So I think there's I think I have that going
for me. Hopefully people are like, well, whose voice is that?
Speaker 2 (27:12):
That's the goal at least, but I think that and man,
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
I just as as things build, I think for me,
I'm really motivated on you know, I guess you could
call it fan experience, fan service, which you'd say like
customer service and like retail, but like man, just just
being great to your fans and creating moments and experiences
(27:43):
at shows, meet and greets, just being super present with them.
And then I think, you know, live show, and just
I don't know, man, I just I think being good
to people will obviously helps everything. But when it comes
to why they want to listen to your music more
(28:04):
than just it being an earworm, I think country fans especially,
they want to support you, not just the song. They
want to like support, they want to know about your family,
they want to know what you love, they want to
all all those things. And so I think it's important
to just be involved with your fan base. And I
still think it's I don't think that's easy because I
(28:25):
feel like my Instagram will not grow, it does not grow,
it don't show anybody of my stuff. So I try
it hard and TikTok's okay too. But man, I just
I just try to be you know, when I'm in
when I'm in person, when I'm at a show and
I'm in a meet and greet a guitar pool, just
be super in tune with the moment and the fans
and shaking hands after the show. But you know, I
(28:49):
think I think the music is first, obviously, and so
I just think with try to have a unique voice,
a voice that that pokes a little bit, and always
trying to fine tune that. But you know, song's voice,
it's all got to be it's all got to be there.
Speaker 3 (29:07):
But yeah, it's it's you know, there's the formula has
got to you got to be created. I think it's
cool to hear that, you know, you you create loyalty
through your live events and shaking hands because I think
we consume so much stuff on these things all the time,
and a lot of artists I've talked to recently have
had a viral moment where we've seen their stream spike
(29:27):
and maybe they do get the Instagram followers that you're
not getting, you know, for a couple of months, But
then if they aren't able to build and maintain that
fan base and that loyalty. Then you know, oftentimes the
career might not last test of time. And I think
you mentioned it, but you know, you kind of have this.
You know, what are some things that you do to
(29:47):
to really build loyalty with your fans.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
It's a good question.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
To build loyalty, man, I mean, I think it's just
being present and my I just like in person interactions. Man,
Like I'm always better that way too, Like I'm you know,
we got we're all so busy and it's like you
can miss a couple of text messages or a couple
posts or whatever like that. But like if I'm here
(30:12):
with you right now, I'm here right like, I'm right
here and you are here, you know, So I just
like that. I appreciate that building loyalty.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
That's a good question. There's no right answer, you know,
that's a good question. No. I just I think just
being being yourself. And I think one thing, I mean,
I did these, uh, I did these little a little
residency down in thirty A at our surf shop. Amazing,
and that was kind of a start. I'll do some
more at some point. But you know, one thing I
(30:46):
think was cool, and this is kind of what I'm
going for, is kind of a.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
Try to put my words how I want them.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
But like, you know, as I grow as a solo artist,
I do these shows like I want people.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
I want kind of the.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
Deadhead vibe of people following where I'm going because I'm
not going to probably play the same show in a row.
Like I like being a little bit random. I like,
you know, if we wrote a song that day, maybe
trying it that night and maybe screwing up, but people
like that, you know, like that's I did that at
(31:21):
a we were doing a little full band acoustic show
and I was like, guys, I'm gonna try a song
that we just wrote and I may.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
Screw this up.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
And I got through the first version chorus, crushed it,
and I get a second verse, I'm like, I can't
remember the freaking word. So I got a phone out.
I'm like, y'all, I'm getting my phone out to try
to finish whatever. And I just murdered it, man, And
they were cheering, they were jacked up. They were like,
you got this, BKA, that's so awesome. And it's like
I don't need tricks up my sleeve.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
And so I think.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
There's like a people see that and you're vulnerable.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
Vulnerability.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
I think that that is building trust and loyalty to
fans are like, man, I get that guy, like.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
We're all human, you know. I think that's cool man.
And so yeah, man, well you mentioned it, but I
did want to talk about it too.
Speaker 3 (32:04):
One of the things you do outside of your artistry,
it seems like you're pretty involved with several of adventures.
I know that you're very supportive of your wife Denny
and the Kelly Tribe work, which is how we kind
of first met. But I also know you mentioned thirty A.
You're very involved down there. Talk to me a little
bit about what you have going on down there.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
Yeah, So we're celebrating five years anniversary at Tribe Kelly
Surf Post. If you've ever been down a great and
beach in the thirty A area, right across the Red Bar,
the world famous Red Bar, Oh yeah, is our surf post.
It's an old house where we renovated, turn it into
a surf shop, and most recently last fall turned it
turned the backyard space that we had into like a
(32:41):
little music venue.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
Love that place.
Speaker 1 (32:45):
My studios on the second floor written a bunch of
songs up there, recorded most of the first album there. Yeah,
and then you know, a couple of miles down the road,
if anybody's familiar with the area, Shunk Goalie the restaurant
were a couple spots down from there. Papa Surf Burger
Bar will be opening here in a couple of weeks.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
Papa Serf, Papa Surf Bar.
Speaker 1 (33:06):
Yeah, man, And so it's amazing coastal Southern coastal burgers.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
So what makes a what what makes a Southern coastal
burger different than a regular burger?
Speaker 1 (33:18):
Well, we've got like one burger that's like, uh, it's
got like a it's like a pimento, cheese, bacon situation,
and fancy, dude, it's like awesome. It's kind of foodie elevated,
elevated burger elevated experience.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
Papa Surf understood. That's that'sally for advertising right there.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
You're just off the cuff. And I might have stole
some of that from Papa John's, but yeah, yeah, right,
that's well, dude, I love I love that you're opening it.
Whence when's the opening of it? It's a couple of weeks.
We're kind of teetering on an exact date, you know
how like finishing a project is. Man, it's like something
that didn't come in that slows us down for a
couple of days and then we're on one thing. But
(34:01):
we can see light at the end of the tunnel. Man,
it's been It's another old house we renovated. It's an
old uh. It was called Bloom's Cafe back in the day.
It had been shut down for years when we purchased it.
But the the former chef owner of that cafe just
actually lived in that house. And so we I guess
(34:21):
we have a thing for old houses and renovations and
finding a new business, a new uh opportunity for the
community in those buildings and managed.
Speaker 2 (34:32):
It's it's a it's a blast.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
Like we love Brittany and I love real estate, architecture
design and just creating experiences for people to you know,
in cool unique spaces for.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
People to feel.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
Comfortable like they can just party and you know it's
it's gonna be awesome. And that we've done a bunch
of tastings. The burgers are fire. What better place to do.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
Well? You tell me when when the opening data is
I I will make the drive down. Man, I love
I love thirty A.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
And you got to throw a big festival down there
for open and get some music down.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
Yeah, we're gonna do.
Speaker 1 (35:08):
I don't know if it won't be like right away,
we're gonna do like a big grand opening and maybe
in a couple months like after we open, like kind
of soft open, get all the kinks out. But so
we actually partnered with so Brittany and I kind of
conceptualized it, kind of got the whole design team on board,
and had the name. I had that name for a while,
(35:29):
Papa Surf and Brittany and I we kind of did
it backwards. I told her for years, like Papa Surf
is going to be something. I go, I don't know
if it's going to be a beer or if it's
going to be a clothing line, but I said it
could be all those things. I said, it's just got
to be something like cool and we want this awesome logo,
and so I had this guy, Jpeg Fletcher out of Charleston.
(35:52):
We started with the logo and the name and the design,
and we didn't know it was gonna be the Burger
Bar till once we started getting creative on the logo.
I go, okay, cool, and then then we found the
location and I go, Britt, I think Papa Surf is
a Burger barn. She's like, I'm all in, let's go.
And so we kind of did it back where it's
off the logo, had the name, got the logo designed,
and then we kind of did it that way.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
Yeah, that's cool, which.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
Is new for us, but it is It was fun, man.
I mean to me, it's like songwriter. It's like starting
with a good title or a good hook, right and
then kind of just riding around that and kind of
forming it, molding it, you know.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
Yeah, absolutely, that's amazing.
Speaker 1 (36:28):
Man.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
Well, I can't wait to check it out.
Speaker 3 (36:31):
Papa Surf coming soon down at thirty A. Well, we
got just a few minutes left, so I want to
do something real quick now. I want to give a
shout out to one of our sponsors, Area here. They're
a leading Western clothing apparel brand, and we got a
couple T shirts and some hats right here.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
That are for you. I think you can take down.
Let's go.
Speaker 3 (36:50):
Area does this thing. We got rapid fire questions. We're
throwing sixty seconds on the clock. This is presented by area.
Are you ready to go?
Speaker 2 (36:57):
I'm so ready. I'm so ready. Here we go, baby,
three to one. What is the favorite venue that you
have played?
Speaker 1 (37:05):
Oh, Guildford, New Hampshire Amphitheater.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
There you go.
Speaker 3 (37:09):
That's near my home. Whatever that I called that place? Yeah,
the pavilion, it's great, ridiculous dude. Are you more of
a talker or a texter?
Speaker 1 (37:15):
I guess both, because sometimes sometimes you need to talk
it out and you're like, hey, I can can you
fix this thing on them?
Speaker 2 (37:20):
Whatever? But I don't mind a good text. There you go.
Speaker 3 (37:24):
Favorite Florida Georgia line song Cruise. One artist that you
could collaborate with, George Strait. Not a bad answer, right there.
Are you more of a cowboy hat or.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
Baseball hat guy? Both? Both?
Speaker 1 (37:39):
I was thought you, Saball, I can't hear one. I
can't have one without the other.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
There you go. I like that. How many days a
week are you wearing boots? If I'm if I'm in Florida,
it's not much.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
Sure it's location based, definitely, Oh, definitely seasonal location. You
gotta you gotta move around, you know so. But if
I'm if I'm in town Nashville, if I'm writing songs, uh,
every day for the most part, and then if I'm
on the road, unless it's like just a freaking heat wave,
I mean I might throw some flippies on.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
Right there you go, favorite fast food place right now,
raising kines Dude, Dude, they just open a Nashville.
Speaker 1 (38:16):
It's freaking on the Get a cup of sauce with
a straw Graves, Dude, I might.
Speaker 2 (38:21):
I might get that tonight. There you go. And last one,
what is your go to karaoke song man?
Speaker 1 (38:27):
I'd probably say pick up Man Joe Diffy Heck, yeah,
you know, just kind of kind of kind of the
one I.
Speaker 2 (38:33):
Hear you man rest in Peace show, Diffy Man legend.
Speaker 3 (38:36):
Uh. That is aria rapid Fire Questions with Brian Kelly.
That was pretty good, man, this kind of rapid fire,
kind of rapid fire, well, the ones that aren't too
rapid fire.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
Uh, dude, it's been awesome having you on here. I
appreciate you.
Speaker 3 (38:50):
I appreciate you know you're taking the time learn more
about obviously both the FGL story, but of course all
this new music that I'm so pumped about.
Speaker 2 (38:59):
What can we expect from you?
Speaker 3 (39:01):
I know you got this album coming out, But any
plans to hit the road or what's in store.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
Yeah, man, So kind of from here on out for
the rest of the youar, I got a ton of
guitar pools, so a bunch of radio station shows and
working on kind of filling in some dates around there
for more shows and trying to get I think top
of next year in the in the winter lined up
as well, some shows. Really pushing to get a bunch
(39:26):
of shows out there.
Speaker 2 (39:27):
Man.
Speaker 1 (39:27):
I really can't wait to get music out, get out
there on the road, meet meet fans, hang with fans,
and just see what see what we can make happen. Man.
See Next Summer obviously summer song. Yeah, but kind of
kind of the majority of the songs and this project
that I've got coming at after See Next Summer mostly
(39:48):
just kind of kind of just banging country songs, you know,
Like I was able to share seventeen songs of kind
of a coastal country vibe, and that picture on that
first record See Next Summer is an elevated version of that.
No doubt at radio doing its thing. But yeah, man,
I just there's so much that I want to share
(40:08):
about myself and what I love and you know, it's
not just summertime in the beach, so and I didn't
want to make obviously the same record twice. Man, we
got to push ourselves and continue to share with the
world and fans like what we're made of and all
of us artists. So for me, it's like, Man, I
just really want to I just really want to squeeze
(40:31):
as much out of out of life as I can. Man,
and just like push myself. And the more I've made
myself in a sense, you know, uncomfortable, if you will,
if that's the word of just like writing with you know,
as many people that I've never met, you know, you
write with you know, two or three people in a day,
and then another group later that night. It's like, that's
(40:53):
that's sometimes not easy, you know, just meeting people and
trying to trying to write a freaking hit or trying
to write a great song. But man, I just feel
like I'm kind of thriving in the uncomfortability of it all,
and I've just really kind of taken off the heavy
coat of feeling like I gotta try. It's just like, man,
if we show up and we filter through ideas and
(41:14):
just be patient enough to wait around for the good ideas.
We know what to do with a good idea, right,
It's just you got to get to the You got
to get to it. So it's like, how patient can
you be? It's like we write all the time. I
just tell anybody I write with, I'm like, man, I
don't mind starting something and moving on to another idea,
and just I just want everything to be great and
(41:35):
push all of ourselves to you never know what you
can land on. And so still got to hustle. Man,
I'm just really trying to. I really really enjoy this outlet.
Speaker 3 (41:45):
Man.
Speaker 1 (41:45):
I'm really grateful for everything that Tyler and I have
been able to do. It's more than a foundation in
a music career. It's incredible. I'm forever grateful for all
of our fans. Everything that we've been able to do
is amazing, man.
Speaker 2 (42:00):
And so.
Speaker 1 (42:02):
I don't I don't take that lightly. And I'm also again,
you know, like really enjoying kind of doing this by
myself and and you know, representing myself and my team
the way I want to. And I loved loved the Doo,
love loved playing on a team. You know, I come
from a baseball background, so that's great.
Speaker 2 (42:20):
But yeah, man.
Speaker 1 (42:20):
Different different seasons and chapters of life and different different
curve balls require a different bat I hear you. Man.
Speaker 3 (42:27):
Well it's awesome, dude. Well, thanks for just being so
down to earth and being willing to come on here
chat man. See you next summer. Brian Kelly new record
out now, whole album coming out very soon, so y'all
stay tuned. This is the six to one to five
hours podcast. Thanks again, brother, I really appreciate you time.
Speaker 2 (42:43):
Lovely
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