Tyler Hubbard: Why He Got Emotional At A Taylor Swift Show

Earlier this month (8/8), Tyler Hubbard and his wife Hayley took their five-year-old daughter Olivia (who they call Liv) to see Taylor Swift during her sold-out run in Los Angeles.

Hubbard posted a couple of video clips of his wife, daughter, and even himself dancing to Taylor's song at the concert on Instagram. He captioned the post, "We took Liv to see Taylor last night, and it was so special. We sang our hearts out as we soaked up all three and a half hours of her incredible show. I've never seen anything like it, and I'm truly inspired on so many levels. It's official… I'm a Swiftie dad."

We interviewed Tyler yesterday (8/22), and he told us just how special the night was. Tyler gushed, "It was a special moment in itself just to be able to experience the excitement of our daughter. She's five, and it was the best night of her life. It literally made me emotional just being there and watching her experience music like that for the first time."

Hubbard even told us that he was learning from watching Swift on stage, "Yeah, there were many, many layers as to why that night was so special, but I was still taking notes and still learning from Taylor just like I was when we were out on tour with her."

He continued, "I wasn't listening to Taylor Swift songs but watching her show, the intentionality and the rehearsal and the production and everything single aspect of it is just next level. As an artist and a creative, I am a fan of her work, but I also get the honor of sitting back there and taking notes."

Several months into his solo career, which has included a tour with Keith Urban and a couple of number-one songs, Tyler told us that taking in a concert now and then is helping him mold his own show. He said, "I've always said, 'There's always something you can learn from every show.' I love going to shows probably more now than ever because I'm getting to reinvent myself and my show. I don't want to do it like I've always done it. I want to be reinspired, I want to do things differently, I want to continue to make it better."

Tyler Hubbard's solo self-titled debut album is out today. The album features his debut solo single "5 Foot 9." As he told us, he wants the album to be a vessel for telling his story and to represent his diverse musical influences. He said, "It means everything to get to have the opportunity to release a solo project, a debut album, to connect with the fans on a deeper, more personal level, to get to share my story. And so, this is a very important project for me. It's my heart. It's my soul. It's what I've poured myself into the last couple of years, so I'm super excited for the fans to hear it and for them to get to know me on a deeper level."

Hubbard said that even the sequence of the songs was important to him in the new work, "I really just wanted the fans to go on a journey from track one to track 18. I didn't want there to be any songs that you wanted to skip over. I wanted each song to bring out a specific emotion. I wanted it to be a journey. I want it to be fun, first and foremost. I wanted the fans to get to know me on a personal level. I wanted them to feel something, to feel anything. Whether it's making you laugh, making you cry, making you nostalgic, or thinking about the past or whatever the case may be."

He concluded, "I just want my music to make you feel, and I hope that's what this album does, and I hope you guys love it from track one to track 18."

As we celebrate his solo release in country music, we look at some of his ventures already on his own and his final show with FGL partner Brian Kelley.