Tyler Hubbard on Writing the Hits and Singing Them

When you think of Tyler Hubbard, your mind probably goes straight to the massive hits or the Florida Georgia Line anthems. But this week on Backstage Country, Hubbard joined Elaina Smith as co-host and reminded us that before the awards, the arena tours, and the chart-toppers, he was (and still is) one heck of a songwriter.

Hubbard recalled the time he, David Garcia, Jessie Do Dillon, and Geoff Warburton co-wrote “Back Then Right Now.” He said, “It was a really fun day. Once we landed on that idea and we kind of had the vibe going, it was pretty fun, like, ‘Let’s just do what we want to say here.’ It was definitely a nostalgic session and with incredible friends.”

He added, “It was just one of those days that as a songwriter you kind of live for. It feels like we had a really cool song that made us feel something that kind of took us back. It's been fun to see where the songs have gone from there to the radio, to the live show, and just seeing the fans connect with it. I think that's just one of the most incredible parts of the craft of songwriting is getting to be a part of watching the song get born in a room with a few songwriters, or you know, fall out of the sky if you will, and then see where it can go from there.”

Smith asked Hubbard if there was a nostalgic story that started with them writing the song. The singer-songwriter admitted, “I don't remember exactly how. I think we had the general idea of ‘I could use some back then, right now.’ And then we were just like, ‘Yeah. Let's just get nostalgic with it, and probably started with the times before cell phones, you know, the age before the cell phone, where you could write. It was just you call and text at the most, that was it.”

Hubbard chuckled, “Then we just went down rabbit holes of fun, simpler times, kind of went back to our childhood, our teenage years, and yeah, it was a fun day.”