Take yourself back to August 2012, the summer of 2012 and two guys from two different southern states, one from a small town outside Monroe, Louisiana, and the other from Ormond Beach, Florida, they decide to release their debut single on Republic Nashville. Just imagine the internal meeting at the label, right. A&R meetings in Nashville are incredibly conservative by nature. So when you’ve got these two unknowns pitching a song that is basically a hip hop beat wearing a cowboy hat. Like I can promise you, people were sweating in that room.

Cruise becomes an absolute chart monster. And in its initial run, it climbs all the way to number one on the Hot Country Songs chart and stays there for 24 consecutive weeks. But that wasn’t the end. Because what happened next is kind of bonkers.

• Nobody in country music had ever seen anything quite like what Florida Georgia Line pulled off
• Their debut single went diamond, which is 10 million certified sales
• These guys basically kicked down a door that a lot of Nashville traditionalists were trying to keep bolted shut
• This is a story about two guys who literally rewired the country music industry by refusing to color inside the lines
• We are going to trace their journey from dorm rooms and dive bars all the way to stadium headliners
• Because that track ends up becoming one of the biggest songs in the history of country music