After 20 years, Atlanta’s Sugarland is still here to ‘enjoy the ride’

“You have 10 years to make your debut album, but you have 10 minutes to make the second one,” joked Kristian Bush on a Zoom call with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution earlier this week.

The album in question? “Enjoy the Ride,” countryfolk duo Sugarland’s 2006 sophomore release. Twenty years later, the album’s impact has certainly outlasted the “10 minutes” required to make it.

The pair — Bush and Jennifer Nettles — are celebrating the album’s 20th anniversary with a tour, stopping at Duluth’s Gas South Arena Saturday night. Sugarland’s Ride or Die Tour is their first solo headlining trek since 2018 (they co-headlined a tour with Little Big Town in 2024).

Released Nov. 7, 2006, “Enjoy the Ride” turned Sugarland into Grammy-winning chart-toppers, with hits like “Want To,” “Settlin’” and “Stay.” But not everyone, including the duo, was convinced of their success until then. After all, it was the act’s debut as a duo after originally forming as a trio in Atlanta in 2002. Original band member Kristen Hall left the group in early 2006 to focus on songwriting.

“There was definitely, you know, a pressure to prove ourselves as a duo for the first time for the fans,” Nettles told the AJC.

They proved themselves so much that Bush and Nettles have been able to pursue individual careers alongside their work as Sugarland. Bush, who lives Candler Park, has produced for stars like Megan Moroney, K. Michelle and, most recently, rising country singer Payton Sullivan, who is Sugarland’s tour opener. Bush also performs his longstanding annual Thanksgiving concert at Eddie’s Attic.

Douglas-native Nettles, who resides in New York, has made strides in the theater world. Her debut off-Broadway show “Giulia: The Poison Queen of Palermo,” which she directed and starred in, premiered this summer. She’s pushing to get a Broadway run.

“We always try to judge everything that we do in Sugarland on whether it would be fun, and if the answer is yes, then we go do it,” Bush explained.

Ahead of their Duluth show, the AJC talked to Bush and Nettles about celebrating “Enjoy the Ride,” their chemistry over the years and the possibility of new Sugarland music.

This Q&A has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Q: How has the tour been so far?

Nettles: We can tell that there’s definitely been a demand built up because the audiences have been showing up and having a good time.

Bush: Tiptoeing into your nostalgia time in your career is very interesting, and you’re not quite sure if people are still out there that really, you know, love what you made a long time ago. But it turns out Sugarland fans are there.

Q: What does “Enjoy the Ride” mean to you today?

Nettles: In many ways, like in the song “These Are the Days,” it’s a reminder to us to savor the moment and enjoy the moments that we’re in — even if things are feeling hard, or even if you feel like people don’t believe in you.

Bush: It really changed our careers because, I mean, we got a Grammy off of it. We had all these number ones. Suddenly we had the theme song for “Good Morning America.” I mean, it was wild. We weren’t living in Nashville; we were living in Atlanta. I remember people driving by the house and, like, slowing down. I was like, “Who are these people? Is something wrong?” And they’re like, “No, I think somebody just figured out this is where you live.” I’m like, “Why would you care? Oh crap! I’m in a band that’s on all the television stations.” It was wild. It was a turning point.

Q: Any plans for new Sugarland music?

Nettles: It’s not out of the question. What Kristian and I do together is so unique. We have a shorthand creative vocabulary that we can just create so much so fast. Whatever that special thing is with each other creatively, we have that. And we can get in a room and it’s just very natural and comes with ease.