Luke Combs

in May. So all in all, that's an impressive one hour in twenty one minutes of foot stomping songs about beer, good times and broken hearts, as well as slow ones about family memories and the kind of love that could make a man stop stomping his feet and settle down. I caught off with Luke on a day in September

that was special in two kinds of ways. First, he'd been up early that morning to help announce the c m A nominations on Good Morning America, and in fact, he snagged six nominations himself, including Album of the Year and Entertainer of the Year. But second, Luke was celebrating his one month anniversary. And it takes a special kind of lady to appreciate a man who writes songs, comparing their bond to the match made up in Heaven between good old Boys and beer, the way Luke does in

Better Together. But Luke Luke Homs has found her and in August he married Nicole Hawking, his girlfriend. Since although as he told me, they didn't know exactly where they were getting married until the last minute. We had to change our venue a week before the wedding, which was very interesting, and we actually didn't know we had two different venues, and we didn't decide until the morning of the wedding which and what what brought the change on,

what was the reason for the change. Well, so we ended up getting We were gonna get married in Key West, and the city imposed harsher COVID regulations the week before the wedding, and so we were gonna invite it was gonna be about a hundred and seventy people at the wedding and there they wouldn't allow any gatherings over fifty.

So we had to cut from one seventy five to fifty like the week before the wedding, find a new venue, find a new hotels, get everyone that we still needed to be there there, and then when we got there, there was a hurricane coming to the area, which up until the night before, so I guess it was Friday evening. It was like fifty fifty chance, like this, herricane's either going to come over the right exactly where we're at,

or it's gonna veer off. And and I'm trying to think what the right joke is for a guy who has a hit song called Hurricane. Actually thought about that a lot of times during during that process. But so it was we had to make that. It was either going to be get married at this outside place or get married in the conference room at a hotel, which

would have been terrible. So luckily it missed us and we didn't have to do that about that hurricane, not Hurricane is Ais, which caused significant damage when it did hit the US in August. But the Luke Comb song about a breakup, released independently on Luke's third EP in it did so well it it helped lead to his signing by Columbia Nashville, which re released the song in ten, at which point it became the first of US nine number one country singles. You know, like a lot of

rappers these days. Early on in his career, Luke tapped the power of social media to build up a significant following as an independent artist before he ever signed to a major label. And while that might be a common story in hip hop, it's a little bit more unusual in Nashville. And Luke Holmbs is thirty now, which makes him a solid citizen of gen Y, so when he was starting out in his early twenties, it was natural for him to use Vine, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter to get

his music out and connect with people. In fact, he's such a solid citizen of gen Y that when I interviewed his managers, Chris Cappy and Lynn Oliver Klein for Billboard last year, Cappy told me a story about how when he first met Luke five years ago and he had to convince Luke to use Facebook because Luke thought of Facebook as you know. Cool. Anyway, Cappy started a Facebook group for Luke's fans. It's called the Bootleggers and things. Pretty much it's bloated from there. So when What You

See Is What You Get came out last November. It debuted at number one, and it's set a record for the biggest streaming first week for a country album ever, seventy four million on demand audio streams, which is on top of the two point seven billion sorry, let me say that again, two point seven billion on demand streams that Luke had racked up since he started releasing music in Okay. So Luke Homes is a country superstar with a record setting digital approach that's a little bit futuristic

for Nashville, but his music itself is a throwback. His songs are built around solid narratives and super sharp word play. These are old school values, and his songs are packed with details. There's the guy in a song called when It Rains It Pours. It's from his first album, This One's for You, and and the guy singing goes from a fight with his girlfriend to a three week run of good luck that starts with him pulling into a shell.

On I there are those details, and winning one hundred bucks in a scratch off ticket which rhymes with bought two twelve packs and a tank of gas with it, or on what you See is what You Get. There's a song called every Little Bit Helps, which packs a lot of detail into just its first line, This futon I crashed on in college. Well it ain't our bed, but at least it don't smell like you. And right there, in twenty words, you get the breakup, the guy moving out.

He's moving backwards to the futon he slept on in college, but he's trying to take a step forward, you know. So I get some sadness, some anger, some loss, some heartbreak, And when I just said it out loud, I noticed the internal rhyme of Futon and crashed on, which filled me with a new level of respect for the craft of songwriting here. But in addition to being well written, most of the songs on What You See Is What

You Get are pretty hard rocking. Has long been true that if you were one of the people sitting around wondering if rock is dead, you are not spending much time listening to country. You're going to see it live because country has been the new arena rock for more than a minute now. But but what you see is what you Get is some very big league southern rock

again old school. Before the pandemic forced him to postpone his tour, Luke was scheduled the headline arenas this year, and the dates included some stadium shows, as Luke and his co writer Jonathan Singleton and his producer Chip Matthews, It's plained to me they wrote songs like Beer Never Broke My Heart because they need some music big enough

to fill those spaces. Luke talked with me about the cabin he rents where he will spend two weeks at a time writing songs and drinking beers, and it helps that there's a TV, but there's no Xbox. And he

also talked about how he was overseas in March. He was scheduled to play the Country to Country festival, which brings country music to the u k And too Berlin, and he was out during a night of celebration having a good time when he got a call saying he had to get himself on a plane the very next morning because the United States had issued a travel alert

due to COVID nineteen. Luke talked about his early days when he's spending six months straight on the road and nothing but a van with his manager Cappy driving, and he also talked about his hopes for the future. Here's what else he had to say. Luke comps, welcome to inside the studio. Uh, you you have some guests with you? Would you would you mind introducing them? Yes? Yes, I have Chip here and Jonathan. Uh my producers here, very handsome.

Jonathan's making a white trash spit cup boys. Why don't you do you tell them a little bit about yourselves here, gentlemen, let's let's do that. Hey, I'm Jonathan Singleton and uh I've been a songwriter and uh and a guitar player and uh barbecue cooker for a long time. Was kidding about the barbecue cooker thing. And uh men friends were league for a long time. We've done a lot of songwriting together, done a lot of playing together, and I was excited to jump in here and do some do

some production stuff with Chip Matthews. I'm Chip Matthews and uh I have been around Nashville for a long long time working in the trenches, engineering, producing, and uh I met Luke a few years back through Cappy I Believe and some Sony stuff, and we got the opportunity to together a few times, and then I was lucky enough for him to invite me to work with him and Jonathan on this record. So that's where we are today. So, uh, Luke, I know you've talked a little bit on on live

streams about what quarantine has been like for you. You. You have gotten to enjoy a little bit of time off the road, play some call of duty. Yes, do a little turkey hunting at your place also, I believe you've been raising some chickens. Yes, that has been the bulk of my activity over the last six months or so. Turkey hunting only for a couple of months, obviously, But yeah, a lot of some call of duty. I appreciate you saying that, and not an ass load of call of duty,

which is probably more realistic. But no, Yeah, I mean I've just been hanging out. You know, I just got married a month ago today, which was great, and so I've just been spending time with and my wife, which is still weird saying that. It's still I'm still not used to saying that yet. But yeah, it's been really a really weirdly good, strangely great year in a lot of ways. And you know, it's kind of sucked ass

in a lot of ways too. I guess. You know you've also been doing some writing and recording during the pandemic, and uh, of course you you've We've heard six ft apart and I know the story behind that is you had a songwriting session scheduled in April, you didn't want to let it go and and tell me how did the idea of of writing about what was actually going on right then first come up? And then how was

writing and recording that song different than usual? Well, so I had a right scheduled with Brent Cobb and Rob Snyder, and I hadn't written with Brent before, and so I was really wanting to do that because a really big fan of his and and think he's really great at what he does. And so Brent lives in Georgia and so he was doing it over FaceTime or something, so we all do we did like a zoom. I texted them the night before and I was like, Hey, should we just write, you know, a song about this stuff

or whatever? And they actually sent me that title and they were like, we were actually talking about this before U Texas. So we were all kind of on this just happened to be on the same page with it, and we wrote it the next morning. It was probably like hour and a half maybe or something, and we were like done with it because it was just kind of like it just kind of fell out because it was just everything that was because the quarantine was like super new and weird at that time, and like things

were very uncertain. But now realizing that they were less uncertain, I guess than they are now even probably, But at that time that was like really weird, you know, because we and we kind of all like, oh, it'll be over in you know, May or whatever. That's kind of what we were all thinking. It'll be those happy days when we thought this would ever end. Yes, it was like, oh, this will be done in six weeks. It'll be you know, we'll be good, Summer will come in and we'll be

good and everything. And and so then I, you know, I hit up Chip here and I was like, man, like, let's just go. And because I put the song, I played the song I think the next night on Instagram or something something like that, and and got a really solid response out of it. And so I was like, man, we should just record this thing, and you know, nothing

else going on. Yeah, because there was a recording moratorium from sony UM, we weren't supposed to be doing anything, and so I had to kind of go through and express to A and R what you wanted to do. And then I had to find a studio that was willing to let us in which was that was like really strict at that time. Yeah, it was very insanely strict. And um, I think it was really honestly that I had been working with those guys and been with him in person, and I was like, can I get in

to do this thing? And when we first started talking about it, it it was small and they were like sure. And then when we showed up that day, the owner came down and he's like, this is a lot more than I thought you were bringing in. How many how many folks were you bringing in? Well, you know, we still cut lean. We we cut with UM. I think we cut four piece UM light and then I only had it was me you you were there, Massey was there, Yeah,

second engineer. We had a fery lean crew, and we were never in the same room with the with the musicians. We never even entered the same room as them either. No, we had we had a set, we we we got a separate space for Luke that was not even part of the main studio. And then um, we had to submit protocols to the label into the studio and then really kind of had to go on the download because I think people were still kind of coming to terms

with that that we shouldn't be doing that. And yeah, you know, all it took was somebody getting infected in that window for sure, so it was really getting in fast. And then we got the song and overdubbed it and one gut by one guy's just peeled off and left and never even came in the control room. They just came into their booth recorded and then left kind of

waved on the way out. So that was really weird. Um, but you know, we tried to keep it simple so that we could get what we needed and move on. And then um, and then I guess you sang right. Then, yeah, we got the final we we kind of just put a mic in that room right there, yeah, where all the musician guys were, and just cut like three passes and that was it and we were out of there. And then it was like what three hours, four hours about four hours probably, and then and it was mastered

two days later, two days later. Yeah, I mean, the results are great and and it it is such a a moving song, especially you know from from my perspective because I care so much about music that that the whole part about. You know, it's a mystery how long this thing goes. But there'll be crowds and they'll be shows, which is something we're all looking forward to. And we're still in that mystery moment. So there are six new tracks on this deluxe version of the record, and uh,

six ft apart newly written, newly recorded. I know some of these other songs have been around for a little while. Um or were any of them, uh, newly written written under these quarantine times? These were some that we've been holding onto for a while. Uh, some of them were probably around. I know two of them were around when I recorded this album that's out now, and so one of them was the other guy that's been around for

long down three years, probably to three years. I know I've seen I've seen a version of it floating around with your co writer on YouTube. I think, uh yeah, Joe, yeah, Rob maybe me and Rob Brandon, Kenny Rose road on that with me, Brandy Kenny. Yeah, you're right, Brandy Kenny and and Wilford. Yeah. I had some a buddy of mine that was gonna cut it, so you may have seen him do it. He ended up so yeah, yeah, yeah.

So that one and Cold as You were both breakup songs. Uh. And the other guy is uh we're saying a couple of years old. How about Cold as You? When when was that written and recorded? January was the name? Was it January? Yeah? It was right before. Yeah, so right after kind of I did a two week kind of like writing retreat deal down and down in Florida, and I wrote that with Jonathan, Randy and Shane Minor. You

and Shane started that right Yeah. Shane had the Shane had the idea, I think, yeah, and so we kind of worked used on it a little bit, and then we had Randy on that riding trip, so we were like, hey, let's just this thing. And it seemed pretty to fall out, pretty pretty easy. Yeah, that was a quick one. I remember we wrote a bunch of those couple of days because Nicole was somewhere else. I know, she was down there for the trip, but when y'all were there, she

like went and visited her parents. So we just kind of wrote. We wrote the whole time, just the whole time, and and so it sounds like songwriting is just a continual process for you guys. I mean, in that case, you were you were on a retreat of some sort. But I know Jonathan you worked with with with Luke on your Never Broke My Heart and I think that was was that written while you were you were on tour? Yeah?

That was one of Luke's early tours. What tour that was a club tour that was that was the Don't Tap Me with a Good Time tour, I think, and I think we were in Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, I think is where we were on the bus because we started that thing. I had that idea, we started working on it, and then I'm talking like I came in from like we started it, maybe got a verse idea going line of the chorus. I come back to the bus and these guys are drinking beers and they're not like rioting,

and I'm like, what's going on? And They're like, oh, dude, here's the demo of this thing. Okay, well sweet? Then you know, so they just kind of, you know, they just kind of took the reins on that one, and

I just kind of got lucky. And he was on that song too, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, So it's kind of the same we've you know, and Luke at that point to on beer Never Brought My Heart I remember because he was playing that was probably a five S club that night, and Luke was saying, you know, I need I need I'm gonna play I'm gonna be playing you know, stadiums next year, and I need something that

will rock like this. And we were kind of laughing at him when his back turned, you know, and then and then come to find out he was telling the truth, but he was he had the foresight to know he needed a song like that, you know. And and Cold as You was in the same vange, that same kind of it scratches the same che scratches the same way to say, yeah, So we were kind of heading down

that road. We kind of knew with Cold as YouTube, you know, that we were gonna end up being in that direction and uh and have a closer and and opener hopefully. And and Luke, when you say those songs scratched the same itch, are you talking about like the big riffs behind them or they they're both they're both

breakup songs in a way. I think it's the field thing, like a combination of both, you know, Like the lyrical content is is similar, you know, and it's going in the same direction, but it's also that like heavy riff thing. We were going over a mixed thing. Maybe a few weeks ago and me and Chip talked on the phone and we had gone through a couple of different mixes of it, and I was like, man, I'm just missing those big like riff fills in the verses like that,

like this chunky thing just wasn't in there. And it was there, it just wasn't as up as I thought it needed to be to match the like intensity of the song. You know, you had to pour some sugar on it as it was. Yes, absolutely absolutely, Tip does that. Yeah. I think Luke two is is looking for in those songs like it's you're you know, you want to just ride a fun, uplifting beer drinking song, but Luke always kind of wants a little more than that, and I didn't.

I've never thought about them both men breakup songs, but it would make sense they were trying to find some story to go along with the thing. Yeah, to go along with the song. That feels great. It's a beer drinking song, but it's like also like a breakup song at the same time. Tempo negative. I think it's tempo negative. I like that that's a term that is that's uh.

I think that's how you get there. Though I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you, but I think that's how you get there is you're looking You're looking at he wants that other next step of substance, meat on the bone and the song. How did you learn and develop as a songwriter your instinct is that you you want that little more there and and where where does

that come from? Was there a point just as a listener when you were even before you were writing songs, where you were just listening to music and thinking, how's that work? I like the way at that line that I like the way that sounds, or how do they develop? Yeah? And I think what it was is, you know, I listened to country music when I was younger, when I was living in Charlotte and on the radio with my with my mom, that's all we listened to was country radios.

I listened to Vince Gill and Brooks and Dunn and Clint Black and Garth and Alan Jackson, like those were the guys that were on the radio when I was

listening to the radio. And that's when I kind of remembered, you know, and this is maybe subconsciously, those songs always had more of kind of a story and so once we moved to Asheville when I was eight or nine, I kind of just stopped listening to country music because when you're eight or nine, you just kind of listen to what your parents listened to, and so you don't have your own musical taste when you're eight years old, you're just listening to whatever mom and dad listened to.

And so my parents, my mom and my dad was never really into country music. He's from Ohio, and you know, his first concert was it was We Had To I think it was The Who, and it was The Night We Landed on the Moon. Was that was my dad's first concert, and so he kind of was Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Who, the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, Like my dad's not.

He wasn't listening to Merle Haggard, you know, like I'd be lying if I was in an interview saying Diddy was spitting beach nut and listening to Whiteland Junny, you know, like he just wasn't doing that, And so I was listening to. My mom really was more of who I listened to music with, because as an only child, I spent the majority of time with my mother because my dad worked full time, and so did my mom. But she was the one that was kind of you know, she got home first and we rode in the car

to go get school clothes. Like I wasn't doing that stuff with dad, you know, he was mowing the yard and fixing ship at the house and stuff. So she was listening to like Tom Petty, John Mellencamp, Dave Matthews, like that was the kind of stuff Mom was listening to at that time, Like the satellite album Dave Matthews was on in our house a lot um And so I was is out like it, you know, not my choice, because I love Vince Gill was my favorite ever when I was I mean that was my first concert when

I was six years old. That was my birthday present was to go see Vince Gill at the Charlotte Knights Baseball Stadium and my grandma and my mom took me, and I mean it was awesome, you know, And and so I loved that stuff, but I just kind of it just kind of fell out of my life for some reason. And so once I got back into country music, it wasn't until I was probably eighteen or nineteen years old, and so I had missed a decade's worth of music. So when I rediscovered it, I rediscovered it because of

Eric Church. He went to the same college that I went to, and a friend of mine handed me his album or whatever. Little did I know that he was on tour with Jonathan Singleton. Jonathan was opening for him at that at that time, Uh, you know, same manager and and stuff like that, and so I think it's

really really it. I mean really his songwriting was something that because I went back and kind of you know, I would hear little bits and pieces of country music through high school and stuff, and I'm like, man, that's really not for me, because it's it just didn't have that thing that I thought Brooks and Dunn had, or that I thought Vince Gill had, you know, like there was always something to be somewhat emotionally invested in. As

a listener. It was like, oh, this guy's like getting his heart broken or he's you know, there's a story about something going on, and that that just wasn't there in those ten years that I missed a lot, Right, You listen, you listen to a Garth Brooks, you listen to the thunder Rolls, You that that's like a whole movie. There's a whole movie in that there's something going on.

And then so then when I heard Eric Church, it was like the missing link of like modern my era quote unquote of country music meeting back up with the

stuff that I fell in love with. And so then when I picked the guitar up three years later, that was what I gravitated towards was Eric's stuff, which I thought, you know, and I still think, is you know, on a different level than anyone else's really And then I got into looking at well, then I wanted to get into like who actually wrote these songs was the thing

that I became obsessed with. So then I became a fan of Jonathan Singleton and Casey Bethard and all these guys, and I was like, those are the guys that I want to hang out with and do stuff with, you know, like because they're bringing something to the table, you know, there helping they can help me become better at something that I want to get better at that I'm trying to do better at it. And that was a long process, but I think that's, you know, that's the short, long

version of how I got it here. I guess you know, uh, you were you were just talking about your mom and what you see. There was a dad song on what you See even though I'm leaving. And then in these additional tracks that are on the deluxe version, uh, there's a mom song that's added without you. Yeah. Yeah. The the way that kind of song played out was, you know, the first verses about my parents, second verse is about

my fiance, third verses about the fans. I wanted it to be kind of a an ode to like the main kind of you know, things that kind of keep me, I guess grounded a bit. And you know it's because I sometimes I feel really guilty about being the guy that's always everybody wants to talk to me, and everybody wants to say what did you do to do this?

And why is it you that does this? And everything, and like, you know, I'm very flattered by that, you know, and I've definitely worked hard to be where I am, but it's a definitely a massive team effort that nobody sees. You know. It's it's Chip and Jonathan and Massey and my managers and you know, my parents and my fiance or my wife now and you know, so it's it's there's all these people that I feel like, don't get the credit, you know, the fans, if they weren't there,

then they're just none of it would work anyway. So it's just get a key lyric in that in that track is, uh, it's it's me they give the credit to. But I think I have this right. But me don't mean a thing without you, right, yeah, yeah, And so that was kind of a hook that, honestly me and I wrote that with Dan Izble and whyite Dirett in

Boone up in one of those Boon trips. You've been up there, and uh, we ran a little cabin up up in Boone and sometimes we'll go up there for two weeks and just I'll have writers up for two weeks and and uh, I learned that from church. You told me about those kind of things that he does. And it's a good way to like lock in to just writing. It's better than like going, oh, I've got to ride in three weeks and it's just on a random Tuesday. I can't really get in prepared for that.

You know, It's like, but if you know you're gonna be up here for two weeks and you're gonna be trying to write two songs a day for two weeks, and like you kind of gotta buckle up. There's no and you know, I rent this cabin, there's like no service almost it does have TV at least, but it's like there's not you're not playing an Xbox, and you know, there's just kind of you sit out on the porch and just kind of write songs and and drink beer and stuff all day, which is really awesome. But yeah,

we were writing that we didn't have a hook. I mean, the whole song was pretty much done, and I just kind of sat there and you know, I literally just came up like pulled that hook out of the thin air pretty much. And it was like, I mean, it wasn't like we were just righteting those things like oh well, let's just talk about your parents, you know, and then let's talk about the all the stuff they do for you.

And and so we had almost everything except the hook, which it usually never happens like that, usually kind of right around the hook a bit, and so that was different. You know, just kind of sat there for two hours, just beat my head into a wall, while Dan and

Why probably didn't think I was doing anything. They were probably, yeah, we're up here stuck in his cabin with this fat idiot of her writing these songs, you know, so you know, but I mean sometimes I have something to add, you know, when Jonathan doesn't have the demo done while I'm taking a ship, you know, it's that song is super interesting to me because it's it's without you, you know, it is what you could the time, you know, and how many without you songs you know, so I can see

where you would avoid that. But I loved how it was me don't mean a thing without you totally that's hasn't been that way. And heard that version of that song, which I thought was really really cool, and I guess again, Jonathan, you were talking about, you know, the negative and the positive and then those other songs we were talking about without you. Just as a title does sound like a song about losing someone, it does, yeah, yeah, and it kind of it kind of tricksy. It's not what you

expect to hear. And without you, I mean it feels like the Motley Crue song or the other eighteen versions, you know, but it does. It moves on it, and that's what Luke spend so much. We spend more time on that in a songwriting room on the line before the hook. If we get the hook, then we got to make the line before the hook pop and and if it doesn't pomp or really not moving until it does, give me how do you mean, give me an example of the line before the hook and how it pops.

It's just like I would compare it to you can't hit a home run without a good based bos swing, you know what I mean? And like the line, like that set up line to me, is the Senate sell it? That's the hook can be great. You can have a great song title, but if the line before it doesn't set it up to you know, hit it out of the park. You know, if you don't throw the right pitch, you're not going to hit it out of the park, you know what I mean. Like it's kind of something

along those lines. You know, it still feels good, but you still Luke always wants to be like, oh man, after that, you want to say that yeah, you know he still wants that to happen, which is great. I mean, you're not spend a lot of time banging her head against the wall trying to figure out what it is. That song in particular felt like it did it too. I was that because when I saw the title, I was that guy, greatest hits are here but me, I mean a thing without you? It's like, oh, I get it.

I mean yeah, So we're talking about a song where you bang your head against the wall for two hours to come them up with the hook. But you're still in a situation where you're writing a song or two a day. Are there are there any times? I mean, what, what's a song that that just lingered for weeks, if not months or years? There anything that that you you had even more trouble catching. The hardest, the longest one I've ever done was there was a song on What

You See Is What You Get? Called Oh God. The title will live to me right now? Um, I had I wrote it with Drew Parker and Rob Wilford and it was seven it was seven rights over two years to get it. It was is that is that? Is that? Nothing like you? Nothing like? Yeah? And we had really loved that song and we had kind of got the hook and had some verse stuff and I mean we had Yeah. It was over the course of like two

and a half years. It was seven different right like moving lines around and then decide we didn't like it and then bringing stuff back, and you know, sometimes it's like, I mean, that's the only song I've ever had that's been even remotely close to that long. I mean, I've had some that were like maybe three rights over the course of two or three months, but that one was just like we knew, we liked it a lot, and

we wanted it to get it right. But that was the point where I was getting like super busy with touring, and so it ended up just getting spread out over this like immense amount of time, you know, because we thought the song was strong enough to to like, you know, sacrifice that amount of time to do it. You know. One of the new tracks we haven't talked about is My Kind of Folk, which is a real party track.

My kind of rhymes with fire up a little smoke, yeah, um, and it it does end with some truly rocking instrumentals, and your guitarists and your organists are trading solos. Tell me about recording that one, Chip, go ahead on that one.

You give us a little Well, Jonathan and I had kind of talked about, you know, when we were looking at all the songs and the range of the things we were gonna do that we knew that one was the one that guys were gonna sling it and stretch on a little bit, even though cold as you, we knew needed to be just burning the edge. But this was the one that we wanted the guys to step

out a little bit and sling on. And the feel of it, the swing in it, you know, it just it was kind of loose and groovy in a way. And um, so the guys caught onto that pretty quick, and in rundowns we would just let them run a

little bit. Sometimes when your band's going, you you want to let them you you're kind of like working them a little bit into to the range that you want them to play in and the things you want them to do, but at the same time you want them to feel it and run a little bit and and and sometimes that brings stuff to the surface that you go, okay, wait,

we need that, we need that in there. And so what you hear on the outro um on the back side of the song is when those guys sort of knew what we were already doing and what we wanted. But then we just let them go and they came in on the back side, and then it was just too many cool little things that happened in there, And that happens a lot on recording sessions where you kind

of get your verses ironed out. That's where everybody has to be so regimented, and then when the when the tape machine stops or it's in the fade and everybody loosens up, then some really cool stuff happens. So it made sense to just let that, let that go for

a little bit and and let them play. Yeah, I know, it's a ton of fun and and and so are you cutting that live at the at that point mostly yeah, I mean we we grab a rundown, we play it down several times to get we're looking at little pieces each time, and then we sort of get the whole thing pulled together where we go, Okay, everybody sort of knows a roadmap and they know what we're gonna do.

But Jonathan, I are still trying to look at all the pieces like puzzle pieces, and they all have to fit together in a way that you still need to mold them. But you're trying to get it as much of it live as you can. You're trying to get it, and you know you have a little bit limit about a time, but you're still going, let's let's do it again, and and then you get I don't know, we get maybe in there, and then after after that we have to come back and start looking at each part and

maybe trim up some things. But you try to, particularly in Nashville where we've got such amazing players, the best player the best players players in the world, and of them, not to mention, guys who had played on Luke's earlier records, so you know, and here we are, you know, trying to fill up slot and and make it, you know, upgrade it and make it feel great, but still make it feel like Luke and and so Jerry row And and John and Saul and those guys who had played

on those earlier records. Sometimes it was like, well, hey man, well what should we be doing. And there's nothing wrong with that. We do it all time. They're great players, you know. Yeah, So that's one that uh really would have been a lot of fun to see you play, uh in a big space. Talk to me a little bit. You were, you had stadium shows booked, you were, you're

doing a headlining arena tour. And in fact, if I've got this right, you were overseas and playing a little bit when we went into lockdown and you came came home right before the CDC festival, Is that right? Yeah? We so we were there. We were there for probably a week before we had and I left. I think I left a day before the first arena show. So they've for the because I've played C two see that, I guess technically twice one time all the way through.

But I was I was gonna headline this year, um, and so it's like O two in in Dublin, O two in Glasgow, O two in London. Those are the big arenas that you headline the one night and it's three different headliners, and then we all swapped cities every night, so there's three shows in a row in the same city, but it's three different headliners each night, and so we

all swap out. But what they do is they've they're trying to expand the scope of that festival, and so they adage a show this year in Berlin and a show in Amsterdam, and those are smaller, like two to four thousand seat venues because they're just trying to establish like a country music base there, like it's such a new they call it American music by the way, Okay, they called American music, which is pretty interesting. And and then and the headliners you would have been trading places

with where Darius Rucker and Eric Church. Yeah, and so we went. Eric didn't play the two smaller shows, so he actually never came over. He was like the day we had to leave was the day he was supposed to leave. And so me and him were texting back and forth, like what's going on, Like I'm texting him like, don't get on the plane. You're like, you know, like everything people were there, His people were there, He wasn't

him and the band weren't there yet. His guys had flown over with the gear and stuff like the day before or something, um, which you know, that's unfortunate. But yeah, we were all there and luckily we all got back. I mean I was, I mean, I was, to be honest with you, and I was crushed the night that we found I mean, I was absolutely trashed drunk the night I found out, Not like embarrassingly drunk, you know,

but like fun like having a great time. Because we had played the two shows we played Amsterdam in Berlin, and we had two days off to just kind of do whatever. And so we were me and Nicole, We're at somebody's how else, and we you know, had some drinks and I gotta call it, like, I mean one am or something that was like hey, and I had some big rights lined up over there the next day and ended up having to get on a plane at like eight or nine in the morning and just go

straight back home, dude. And then it just stopped. Everything just stopped at that And and did you have to get on a plane right away, because that was when they issued the travel advisory recommending everybody come home now or you may not be able to do it. Yes.

So we got the call for management at one am because my manager was over there, but obviously he was awake, and we had seen that things were getting more It was already kind of on the line of like, you know what we're going because Old Dominion they backed out before the thing started, and so we were all kind of like, man, what if that, like it doesn't get canceled and they back out with that, look bad on them, you know, And I mean they ended up making a

would call. And I mean, I'm glad that we went and played those shows because I had a great time, you know, and um had still had some great experiences even though the circumstances were different. But there was no meet and greets. There was no interviews or signings, like they were already doing preventative measures at that time because it was starting to become well, people are starting to get it in other places other than China at that time.

And so then it was like I got the call and literally I went to bed and they're like, there's gonna be a car to get you at seven, because I was two hours outside of London at that time, and so we had to come get a car, come get me into coal and we went straight to the airport from where we were straight to the airport and then straight home and straight into quarantine. Yeah, yep. So I mean for a lot of us, it's been weird.

But for me it's weird because I'm not seeing you know, ten or twenty people at the office, but you're you're not getting a chance to see twenty people in an arena. That that that that's a big difference. What what does that feel like? Oh, I mean it sucks to be frank, you know, I mean this was gonna be you know, I think this was gonna be kind of a career defining year for me as far as touring goes. And you know, obviously it was a massive honor getting the

Entertainer Nod today. But but you know, I would have loved to been able to be out there and really put a stamp on it with my touring numbers and and try to try to use that to kind of petition for you know, to make my case for maybe

winning that thing, you know. And so it's kind of it's weird in that sense because, like you said, at my first stadium show was gonna be this year back where I went to college, and you know, that was a huge deal to me, and and in that town it's a really small town, so it's a big deal for them, tourism dollars wise. And um, so it was just you know, two nights a matter a Square garden, two nights at Boston Garden. I mean every show on

the tour was sold out. I mean I think we you know, sold however, half a million tickets or something. I mean, it's it's like insane, you know the amount of people that were not getting to play for it this year, you know. And so and obviously we were hoping to use that success from this year to you know, transition into potentially you know, garth level shows next you know, next year was kind of the hope. So now that's

just kind of all been paused. I think, you know, sure, because if you're gonna mount that big a production, you've got to start thinking if you're going to go into stadiums. Yeah, it's two years to to plan that. It's not just like, you know what, let's do that next month, you know, it's I mean it's a year, year and a half of planning in the production and you're gathering the trucks and the buses and and adding the staff and you know.

So it's and that's all stuff that I, I guess I don't have to be involved in, but I'm like pretty heavily involved in like making sure that all that stuff happens, you know, I like to I'm not a control free because I'm not the guy that necessarily knows what should or shouldn't happen, but I do like to know what's going on and be involved in those decisions. So it's not like I'm just going, let's do stadiums. Call me when we're going, like I'm not that guy either.

You know what I mean? Right, you do more than wait for the wait for the car to pick you up. Uh. You know you mentioned your managers a couple of times. I I had the the the uh pleasure speaking with the Lynn Lynn Oliver Klin and Chris Cappy, your managers for Billboard. And I remember something. People always talk about how quickly things happened for you, but I remembered something that Cappy told me, and I went and looked it up.

He was talking about how the when he first joined up with you, that you guys were in a van, I even a trailer. It was an extended fifteen passenger van. The last two rows pulled out for the gear and we toured in that for five months. So and he was driving, yes, he was driving. So that that's six guys and their gears stuffed together in a van for for five months. That that sounds like some pretty hard work. Yeah it was. And we were playing about four shows

of four shows a week then that time. And you know, me and Cappy might as well be two guys a pop at that time. I mean, he's he's recently dropped about a hundred fifty bills Um, but you know, me and him were rotting shotgun just out of necessity really at that point. Um so he was driving, I mean and he drew. It wasn't like, oh we'll trade off. Like that guy drove every mile for six months and

I mean four nights away. He quit, uh you know, six figure job and blew through his entire life savings to come here and drive a shitty old van with some kid in it and a couple guys he met at the Tin Roof and you go play shows, you know. I mean like, so that level of dedication to me is like what sold me, you know on Cappy as a manager. Like you know, you don't you can't question

the guy's commitment at that point, you know. But but you have this effect on people because if I remember right, Cappy told me that he saw you play a show and then almost immediately started pitching you on being your manager. And Jonathan, do I remember right that you also you saw Luke at a songwriting on a day Yeah it was, Yeah, it was on a Tuesday, that Tin Roof revival that Rob and Channing and those guys put on and me and Randy Montana was standing in the back drinking a beer.

I think it was the And so we're always like the old eyes were like, hey man, we'll play the anniverse. We just put us on it like eight o'clock, you know, so we can go home early. And so we had

played and we got done. We're standing at the bar drinking beer right before we walk out the door, and we hear this guy started singing and we kind of jog back, you know, to the back and just sitting there playing and yeah, we're so as Google searching him and the because we were the only ones that didn't know like the people in town, like the people who were in the business who were there, were the people

who didn't know who he was. Everybody else was there to see him, and we're singing all the songs and we were like who he was? Like everyone else was like yeah, yeah. So all the silly music road people were standing there trying to figure out how they could how they could talk to this guy. And I figured it out real quick. It was turkey hunting and deer

hunting went pretty well after that. It was I remember when I so Jonathan, I've probably told him the story before, but so me and Rob, one of the guys in my band Wilfred are with and stuff. We were like, we're like, still you know, super Jonathan Singleton fans, you know, like we're listening to the grove like we're in deep We're in the worm Hall of John and Singleton, you know.

And so the year before that, like one year to the day was the anniversary before that, me and Rob went to watch you play at this thing and you were at the bar getting a beer and we were just kind of sitting there, like no one was around you, and and we were just kind of like we were just kind of looking over him, like dude, that's that's him, you know, kind of thing, like that's the guy, you know. And we just went over there and we're like Jonathan Singleton.

He was like yeah, man, yeah, We're like, dude, you're great, you know, like he's great. He was like cool, man, yeah, you know, because I just meet you guys, you know kind of thing, you know, And um, I remember that, you know. The year later when you saw me and stuff, you had guests got in touch with Channing to get a right with me, and I was like so excited about that. And I had I had been driving my two thousand Dodge Neon, which I had had since I was sixteen at that time, and I just bought a

used Ford Fusion Fusion. I always called it a probe, a used Ford Fusion, which I thought was like a you know, the sickest car ever due at that time. You know, it was for me at that time. And so it was my first car that had the little car phone in it where you could answer a call and it was like in the speakers. And so I was big time dude at that time. And so it was a couple months out, you know. And and so the day before the Right, I hadn't communicated with Singleton

at all. I just knew like, hopefully this right still happening because it's tomorrow, you know, and Channing is like, yeah, we're good. I'm driving down. Yeah. So the day before I'm driving into my ride or whatever, and I get a call on my car phone thing, which I'm already excited to answer because I just have a car phone. So I'm like hit the call button, you know, And it was Jonathan and he was just like smega casual. He's like hey man, uh, you know, pumped the right

and so like what's your deal? And but I was kind of like like do you want to fight like that? Be like what's your deal? Like did I do something wrong? And I'm like what do you mean? He's like like, you're publishing deal, you know, like what's your thing? And I was like, oh, I just don't. I don't have a publishing deal. And he was like, well do you want one? And I was like yeah. He's like alright, cool, We'll just do one and we just I'll see you more.

And I was like all right, cool, and then that was just kind of what happened to kind of and and up and real fast after that. It was actually, yeah, well you know that was that was a good deal to make for it. It was it was well so um of course six ft Apart talks about what you're looking forward to when all of this is over, and uh, just in terms of getting back out and playing live,

um talk talk to me a little about that. If you thought about the first show you're you're gonna play when you can play, I mean, I think you know right now there is no plan. I mean, I mean the hope is that we can do the shows that we left last year is literally where we'll pick up. Mhm. So the hope. The tentative plan as of this very second is that we will do those headlining shows at sea to see next year. That going the planned at

this exact moment. Whether that happens or not, I don't know, but I hope that that happens obviously, and maybe it will, maybe it won't, But as of now, that's the plan, and I'm you know, I'm pretty stoked about that because you know, I left a bad taste in my mouth not getting to play for those people, and they were those people only get a country show once a year, and that's kind of that week. What's there's not a lot of acts doing headlining going to Europe and playing

club shows. You know, you just can't afford to do that, so um that you know, there's definitely a huge base for it over there, that's that's heavily underserved, and so you know, i'd love for that to be the first show back. Well, I mean, fingers crossed, and we're all hoping that that that we're out of this by then, and uh and we're all looking forward to seeing some of the music live. Luke, thank you for being here, thank you, thank you for joining us. Of course, man,

thanks for having us, Yeah, it's a pleasure. M Inside the Studio is a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts for my heart Radio, check out the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.