Sugarland’s Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush Reveal the Secret to Working Together as a Duo for Over 20 Years

Jack IrvinTue, August 11, 2026 at 7:56 PM UTC

0

Kristian Bush and Jennifer Nettles of SugarlandCredit: Joseph Llanes -

Sugarland announced their Ride or Die Tour celebrating the 20th anniversary of their Enjoy the Ride album

Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush spoke to Today about their lasting creative partnership

The duo formed in 2002 and achieved success with multiple chart-topping country hits

What keeps Sugarland a successful duo?

Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush appeared on the Thursday, Aug. 11 episode of the Today show to discuss their upcoming Ride or Die Tour and the secret to their decades-long creative partnership.

“I think like any relationship, you keep it fresh and you communicate,” said Nettles, 51, of working with Bush, 56. “It doesn’t matter if it’s family. It doesn’t matter if it’s intimate. It doesn’t matter if it’s creative, whatever. Keep it fresh. We do, obviously, other things.”

“We do, obviously other things,” added the “Stay” vocalist, highlighting Bush’s work with Megan Moroney. Nettles, on the other hand, recently starred as the titular character in an off-Broadway production of Giulia: The Poison Queen of Palermo.

Bush said of their working relationship, “We are a unique duo in that almost every single time we’ve sat down to do anything, maybe even in the dressing room before we walked up here, we will come up with ideas on the spot that work almost every time.”

The pair also recalled forming Sugarland back in 2002. “We were in Atlanta, and we had each had our own indie careers, and Kristian had some major label career,” said Nettles. “But we were writing at the time, we were doing our own things, and we sort of started as an Atlanta supergroup.”

Advertisement

Bush explained, “No one believed us that we were making country music... So, I went out and I got a hat on eBay to convince my friends.”

Since forming Sugarland, the pair’s notched chart-topping country hits with “Want To,” “Settlin,” “All I Want to Do,” “Already Gone” and “It Happens.”

Sugarland Ride or Die Tour

This week, Nettles and Bush announced the upcoming Ride or Die Tour to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Sugarland’s Enjoy the Ride album.

“This was a huge record for us,” said Nettles on Today. “This was a big turning point in our career. I mean, our debut album was great, but then this was really when people started to catch onto what we were doing.”

The Ride or Die Tour runs through October and November with shows throughout North America. Ticket information is available at Sugarland’s website.

on People

Original Article on Source

Source: “AOL Entertainment”