Fact Check

Is Country Duo 'Florida Georgia Line' to Marry?

Reports that Brian Kelley and Tyler Hubbard from the band Florida Georgia Line were getting married come from a hoax news web site.

Published May 11, 2017

 (Wikimedia Commons)
Image Via Wikimedia Commons
Claim:
Brian Kelley and Tyler Hubbard from the band Florida Georgia Line have announced that they are getting married.

In May 2017, articles appeared seeming to report that vocalists Brian Kelley and Tyler Hubbard of popular country band Florida Georgia Line were getting married:

Florida-Georgia Line has shaken the country music world with news that they plan to wed each other. It will be Nashville’s first married gay music artists. They revealed that their marriages to women were a sham and simply a cover up to hide the relationship.

Florida Georgia Line is an American country music duo; Brian Kelley and Tyler Hubbard, best known for their songs “Get Your Shine On”, “Cruise” and “Your Brother’s Kinda Cute.”

Brian Kelley “BK”, spoke to the Scooper about the upcoming wedding.

“For years people have called our music, ‘brokeback country’, I guess we finally made it official.”

“Tyler and I have been a couple behind the scenes for years,” BK laughed. “We are tired of keeping it hidden. Plus, paying women to pose as our wives is no way to live.”

The story seems to have originated with North Carolina Scooper, or NC Scooper, which is an entertainment web site that does not publish any factual stories. The web site, which has a history of publishing misinformation, says in its "manifesto" that its content is satirical in nature and is not intended to be mistaken for factual news:

The Scooper is a satirical website is in scope and intent. Sometimes it’s funny; often it is not. in scope and intent. It provides social criticism in a satirical, sometimes news-genre setting. We are not a “fake news” site, but rather an entertainment one. Sometimes it’s just plain-old crappy writing with a few bad jokes. Our intention is not to fool or trick anyone, but obviously it happens. We firmly believe that you can soften a person’s willingness to listen by injecting irony, and yes sometimes humor, into the conversation.

The article also dropped several hints that this article was intended to be funny, not factual. For instance, although Florida Georgia Line do have songs called "Get Your Shine On" and "Cruise," they have not released a song called "Your Brother's Kinda Cute."

Sources

Nevada County Scooper.     "Country Duo Florida-Georgia Line To Marry."   7 May 2017.

Dan Evon is a former writer for Snopes.