Morgan Wallen released his first single in 2016, but it wasn't until he dropped "Up Down," with a little help from his friends Florida Georgia Line, that he really made his big entrance onto the country music scene. Wallen hit the road with FGL for their Smooth tour in 2017 and said that he sees FGL's Tyler Hubbard and Brian Kelley not only as his friends, but also his mentors.

"They just treated me like family pretty much from the beginning, you know." Wallen told PopCulture.com in an interview. "And we've written songs together and done a lot of things together..." including Wallen's hit single, "Up Down." The up-and-coming artist says he has been learning from the legendary duo as he works with them.

"I'm just trying to watch them and how they've handled their career and just to see how focused [they are] and how they treat their craft...At this point, they could easily just relax, and they don't," Wallen explains. "They stay focused and they work hard and they've figured out other adventures, like Old Camp Whiskey, and Tribe Kelley, whatever it is. They're always looking for ways to develop their brand, and I think it's pretty inspiring."

In addition to FGL's highly effective branding strategy, their live performances offer Wallen inspiration as well.

"I love how high energy they keep the whole set," he says, "And I wasn't always that way, because I have an artistic side to me as well, I like watching shows in like theaters and stuff like that. I think it kind of showed me that it's more fun to keep it high energy and up-tempo the whole time during my shows. So I've been kind of modeling my show after that. And it's been working really well."

Wallen's debut album titled If I Know Me, dropped in April and includes the chart-climber "Up Down."

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