Morgan Wallen never asked Florida Georgia Line to be on his new single “Up Down.” He didn’t have to.
The country newcomer is friends with Brian Kelley and Tyler Hubbard through his record label and a summer tour, and they heard the song and approached him about a collaboration. Wallen tells Taste of Country he’d planned to cut it himself.
“They mentioned how Luke Bryan had helped them out with the same kinda thing early on in their career,” he says. “They kind of wanted to pay it forward.”
The party song didn’t change much once FGL added their vocals. They might have tweaked a word or two and added their unique vibe, but other than that, the “The Way I Talk” singer says he was going for what he ended up with. “Up Down” is very FGL-ish, but that’s a style that’s true to his artistry, and the lyrics tell his story.
“It sounds cliche, but we like to have fires and my buddy had a granddad that had a nice house and a pool and he wasn’t real strict,” Wallen says of Friday nights in East Tennessee. “As long as we didn’t leave we could pretty much do whatever we wanted.”
Look for more new music from Wallen — including cuts co-written by his Florida Georgia Line friends — in early 2018, and check him out on tour with Granger Smith this fall. That’s another friendship that blossomed organically; they were both on the Florida Georgia Line Tour, so Wallen introduced himself. It was that easy.
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