Jason Aldean and Florida Georgia Line's Tyler Hubbard and Brian Kelley are fast friends now, but the first time they met, Aldean had no idea who the pair were or where they had come from. At a recent media event, the three country stars recalled the first time they met, backstage at a show, when the booking agent they shared brought Hubbard and Kelley into Aldean's dressing room.

"I saw them in the dressing room at the show, and I don't know who these guys are," Aldean recalls. "So my first question was, 'Who are you and why are you in my room?'"

However, once he gave them a listen, Aldean discovered that he, Hubbard and Kelley had quite a bit in common: "Once I started listening to their music, it reminded me of a lot of my stuff," he explains. "Some of the early stuff, where it was country but also had this hard rock edge to it ... I think, for me, it was this respect for what they were doing and what they were bringing to the country music genre."

The rest is history: Aldean and FGL became close friends and collaborators, touring, performing and writing songs together. "I got to be friends with them, hit the road and experience that," Aldean adds. "And now, to occasionally be able to do vacations together with our families and stuff, it's just turned into a cool friendship."

Along with many other songs, Aldean owes his recent No. 1 hit, "You Make it Easy," to Hubbard and Kelley, along with fellow artist-songwriter Morgan Wallen and songwriter Jordan Schmidt. Aldean knew the song was special as soon as he heard it for the first time, and he says the fact that they were willing to part with it proves FGL's prowess as a songwriting duo.

"For these guys to be able to give it up and be like, 'You go cut that, we'll write another one next week' ... It speaks volumes to the type of songwriters they are," Aldean explains. "They write a big song, and they wanna write a bigger one next week."

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