Blending a love of classic country and Southern-fried soul — a fusion inspired equally by fellow modern mavericks Eric Church and Chris Stapleton — Luke Combs updates these traditional sounds with a hint of modern R&B. This combination, which flourished on ballads, made Combs stand apart from both slick country-pop crooners and bro-country revelers, a distinction that helped him become a hit right out of the gate. His first single, 2016’s “Hurricane,” launched a series of five number one Billboard Country Airplay hits in a row, including “When It Rains It Pours,” “One Number Away,” “She Got the Best of Me,” and “Beautiful Crazy.” All were pulled from his 2017 debut album, This One’s for You (or its expanded reissue), a period that saw Combs become one of the biggest stars in Nashville. That status was cemented when he won the Country Music Association’s Best New Artist award in 2018 and by the subsequent success of his sophomore album, 2019’s What You See Is What You Get. Combs’ third album, 2022’s Growin’ Up, was another chart-topper, and the first edition of a companion set he completed with 2023’s Gettin’ Old. It included his chart-topping cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car,” which won him a Country Music Award. He followed this with 2024’s Fathers & Sons, a warm and understated concept album about fatherhood.
Luke Combs is from North Carolina, born in Charlotte and raised in Asheville, where he moved when he was eight years old. As a teenager, he played football and sang in vocal groups. While attending college at Appalachian State — the same school Eric Church went to years earlier — Combs decided to put his studies on the back burner so he could concentrate on country music. Learning how to play guitar, he amassed a catalog of original songs as he played shows on a regular basis. When he was just shy of earning his degree, he dropped out of college. After gigging regularly in North Carolina, he headed to Nashville in 2014 to pursue a musical career.
In February 2014, Combs self-released The Way She Rides EP, which was followed in July by Can I Get an Outlaw. The single “Hurricane” arrived in 2015 and generated enough buzz to secure the singer a contract with River House/Columbia Nashville. The label released the This One’s for You EP in November 2015, then reworked “Hurricane” to country radio in 2016, accompanying it with a new EP, also titled This One’s for You. In November 2016, “Hurricane” entered the Country Airplay charts, reaching number one in early 2017. Its success set the stage for Combs’ full-length debut, This One’s for You, which debuted at number one on Billboard’s Country Albums chart upon its June release.