Florida Georgia Line 'Mix It Up Strong' for new Hall of Fame exhibit

Sunday, February 6 marked the opening of "Florida Georgia Line: Mix It Up Strong," a new Country Music Hall of Fame exhibition featuring personal artifacts honoring 10 years of pop-crossover country excellence for Georgia-born Tyler Hubbard and Florida-born Bryan Kelley, better known as multi-platinum selling country duo Florida Georgia Line.

The event was marked by a private exhibition viewing held in the top-floor exhibition hall, as well a public event in the venue's CMA Theater: a 90-minute long interview session with the venue's Museum Editor, Michael Gray. Those in attendance were treated to an intimate three-song performance featuring their 2017-released and record-setting 50-week Billboard Hot Country Songs No. 1 single "Meant To Be," plus their decade-old breakout hit, "Cruise" (neither song's respective collaborators, Bebe Rexha or Nelly, were present).

"When we did the remix of 'Cruise' with Nelly, that was a really big moment for us," Bryan Kelley told The Tennessean. "The remix opened up many doors for us and expanded our minds as to what was possible in our careers. It's inspired so much from touring with the Backstreet Boys to working with artists and songwriters in Los Angeles."

While in conversation with Gray in a packed CMA Theater, Hubbard and Kelley's shared inspirations revealed the alchemy behind their most beloved tracks.

Hubbard and Kelley pointed to an unexpected trio of groups as key influences: New Orleans-based turn of the 21st-century rap favorite Juvenile, bluesy Florida-borne quintessential Southern rockers Lynyrd Skynyrd, and iconic country trio Alabama.

"We're out-of-the-box thinkers," added Hubbard. Jokingly, he added another significant element to their success is that, as both also being artists with strong Christian values who have been prayer and worship leaders for many years, "if you can lead a crowd to worship, you can lead a crowd to party."

Famously, the tandem met at Nashville's Belmont University, where Kelley arrived as a twice-transferred baseball pitcher and Hubbard as a student eager to be educated in the behind-the-scenes machinations of the music business. Years later, the twosome scoured through three-plus decades of personal effects stored away in storage units, boxes and suitcases. Everything from Brian Kelley's high school ball cap for the Seabreeze Fighting Sandcrabs to Tyler Hubbard's Selmer Bundy II saxophone he played as a child before picking up the guitar are present.

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Also among the items on display: a Takamine GB-7C Garth Brooks Signature Acoustic-Electric Guitar that Brian Kelley played while redshirting his freshman year as a baseball pitcher at Florida State University.

These, and numerous other items, will be on display until the end of the year.

Florida Georgia Line's unique sound

The duo's performance showed that their success stems from more than than simply being in the right place at the right time and replicating a formula in country music. Perhaps, Florida Georgia Line are Generation Xers, who consumed country, rap, worship music and rock in equal amounts. In turn, they deliver their own music without genre borders, creating a uniquely connecting pop sound.

Ask Hubbard and Kelley about that sound, and their thoughts immediately turn to its producer/architect -- and their in-studio collaborator for work on four albums between 2012-2019, Joey Moi.

"Working with Joey in the studio is basically 'Joey Moi Boot Camp,'" said Hubbard about working with the Canadian producer, audio engineer, mixer, songwriter and musician. Moi blended hook-driven tropes from hair metal's golden age with Southern-style rap drum breaks and classic country guitar melodies to cultivate Florida Georgia Line's hit-making style.

"It was brutal," Hubbard said. "We'd spend hours behind the microphone singing our hearts out, and all Joey would tell us at the end of the session was to 'come back tomorrow, and do it better.' I'm thankful for [Joey] doing that. It was good for us, and when what we do matched what he did, it created a magical wave of popularity."

Currently, in the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, an 8-year-old cut-and-paste scrapbook of five years of Florida Georgia Line articles compiled by Tyler Hubbard's grandmother sits 25 feet away from Hank Williams' Martin D-28 guitar. Anyone questioning country music's ability to accept the depth, breadth, and scope of the genre's broad musical reach must realize that -- "bro-country" is in comfortable harmony with and shouting distance of "Your Cheating Heart."

In regards to their near two-decade-long legacy leading them to the Hall of Fame, Kelley -- upon being told of the proximity of his Takamine GB-7C to Hank's Martin D-28 -- smiled, then told The Tennessean, "you know, when I get [my] guitar back in a year, it's going to sound even better because it will have sat and marinated with Hank's!"

More seriously, Hubbard continued, "This honor is surreal. We moved here to pursue being songwriters, and then we became artists. When we started our career as artists, BK and I fantasized about having our memorabilia here."

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Florida Georgia Line featured in new Country Music Hall of Fame exhibit