How country’s humble struck a chord with Am
IT HAS been just 10 short years since Luke Combs first played a guitar in public, and already he’s a bona fide country music superstar with more than seven million album sales under his rodeo belt. Yet the job Luke originally set his mind on was far more arresting. “I wanted to be a homicide detective,” Luke tells me in a voice as worn as Columbo’s raincoat.
“I think it was the challenge of solving a puzzle that appealed to me. It’s a bit like writing a song, except that puzzle has no pieces – you make the pieces and put them together.
“I was majoring in criminal justice at Appalachian State University, but I was a pretty bad student.”
Luke, 31, dropped out of college with just 21 grade hours to do before he graduated.
He’d been doing two jobs to support himself, working as a bouncer at the Town Tavern – the bar in Boone, North Carolina, that he lived above – and folding shirts at an Izod clothes store.
“I played my first show at the bar across the street, charging $1 a ticket and made $200 – more money than I made from both my jobs in a week,” he recalls. So he quit college to pursue his dream.
Moving to Nashville was a gamble. “My parents weren’t able to support me, so if I’d failed, I’d have been back in my childhood bedroom,” he smiles.
“It was tough but I played anywhere that’d let me play and it turned into my job pretty quickly.”
Strong, original songs and his deep, rasping voice rapidly attracted fans.
“It was a journey, but it was a lot faster than a lot of people’s,” admits Luke, who remains as down-to-earth as a moonshine still.
“There were a bunch of guys better than me, and a bunch of guys as good as me who haven’t had their chance.
“I put a lot of work into it and the stars aligned. I’m the lucky dude who got to be there.
“But I wasn’t a stereotypical artist – somebody had to take a chance on me.”
He released two indie EPS in 2014, followed by his first single, Hurricane. Sony signed him, Hurricane was re-released by Columbia Nashville and topped the country airplay charts in May 2017, reaching 31 in the pop chart.
His debut album This One’s For You went triple platinum. The follow-up, 2019’s What You See Is What You Get, topped the US charts.
Multiple awards, Grammy nominations and around three billion streams ensued. In August, he won Entertainer Of The Year at the prestigious CMA Awards.
Luke’s rise has been meteoric. He has sold out arenas in every state in the US and been inducted into the Grand Ole Opry, the historic televised weekly concert in Nashville that has long been a country institution.
He even has his own customised camouflage crocs, with a beer bottle opener attached, and red elements to reflect his bushy russet-brown beard and hair.
But ever humble, he tells me: “I just got lucky – right place, right time, right songs. The success was beyond my wildest dreams. I put a lot of work in and a lot of great people worked on it. It was a group effort.”
North Carolina-born Luke, who hadn’t been on an aeroplane until he was 25, has now completed three tours in Europe and two in Australia.
Just be nice to people. That goes a really long way
HE WAS due to headline the UK’S C2C festival, but the pandemic hit in 2020. He will finally top the bill at the Glasgow Hydro on
March 11, Dublin’s 3 Arena (12th) and London’s 02 (13th). “I can’t wait,” he says. “UK crowds are amazing. I hope you keep listening.”
In lockdown he live-streamed from his home in rural Tennessee, showcasing new songs and performing some covers, including Tracy Chapman’s Fast Car.
“Live streaming is good, and it’s better than nothing, but it’s not like playing in front of a real crowd. I couldn’t wait to get back to live shows and live audiences.”
Luke used his unexpected lay-off to marry his Florida-born fiancée, country singer Nicole Hocking, 28. “We met through mutual friends. I’m so glad we did. Getting married was awesome.
“That was the upside of not working – we got to spend so much time together, doing normal things. I cooked every day. We’ve got chickens, we planted a garden, we worked on different projects around the house. I went turkey hunting, played Call Of Duty…” He pauses and laughs: “I was living the redneck dream.” Luke also found time to
“close to 40” new songs. He admits their marital problem is his disconcerting habit of
ing with his mouth open, which drives e to distraction: “I’m working on it, ng progress…” ke says he’s been singing since he could talk,
ondly recalls “singing on the porch with my nts and uncles, then at high school I sang in
of strangers at Carnegie Hall…singing was ething I always did. I had to get used to
ng guitar in public, but after a year or so it fine. I enjoyed the energy”. s mother Rhonda worked at a bank and his
r Chester was a maintenance man. ke remembers singing Vince Gill songs with
um when he was seven. In his teens, though, tened to “lots of Nirvana, The Clash, Biggie ls…listening to everything really helped me
different perspective.” ke reconnected with country in his late s. He rates Brooks & Dunn, aspires to have h Brooks and Eric Church’s “energy and
nce on stage” and praises John Anderson’s t album, Years. y buddy Drew Parker just signed his deal,”
ams. “He’ll do some really great things. Ray her, who I work with, just got a deal, their is coming.”
Luke’s live shows pack in 30-plus songs and last up to two hours.
At 5ft 8in and over 15st, Combs has wrestled with his weight and is open about the OCD that has dogged him since his teens, causing him to repeat thoughts over and over.
“It could be something about my health,” he says. “Am I about to have a stroke, or whatever?
“It becomes obsessive and you can never have an answer, but I’ve taught lf to be comfortable with that and it’s a lot r than it was. It was tough but it gets better.” hough praised for co-writing modern try classics like Beer Never Broke My Heart She Got The Best Of Me, Luke admits some
early songs were “terrible, but I still put out”. The writing process is his way of ng stuff of my chest”.
tries to be “no different now than I was n I got here. I have the same friends, work the same people… Being a good person
lates into having a successful career. eith Urban and Carrie Underwood are great too. I want people to be able to say, ‘I met
Combs five years ago and I met him now he’s still the same guy’.” s guiding principle is simple: “Just be nice to
le,” he says. “That goes a really long way. e’s no reason not to be nice to people, unless
give you a reason to not be nice to them.” ke’s latest single Doin’ This sums him up. s about playing country music with my ies in the band for a crowd, whether that’s
ople or 70,000 people. really doesn’t matter how many people we’re ng for because it isn’t about the fame, the
ne, the name, or the glory. It’s about getting ake and play country music.”
ke Combs headlines C2C Festival, March 3, Glasgow (The OVO Hydro), Dublin (3 Arena)
London (The O2). Doin’ This is out now