Luke Combs Says He Still Wants To Make That Bluegrass Album

Before Luke Combs became Luke Combs, instantly recognizable by his beard, Blue Otter baseball hat, and PFG fishing shirt, he used to make regular trips to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum to wander its halls. He’d marvel at Merle Haggard’s boots and Keith Whitley’s motorcycle and let the history seep in. On Wednesday, Combs received his own exhibit at the Hall of Fame, Luke Combs: The Man I Am, a look back at the milestones, both personal and professional, that shaped his career.

“This was years ago when I just got to town,” Combs tells Rolling Stone of his anonymous visits to the Hall. “Now I’m the guy who has his stuff in here.”

Of all the artifacts — among them, first guitars, set lists, and trophies — two are especially consequential. One is a photo of Combs, clean-shaven and pudgy, playing his first ever live gig at a café in Boone, North Carolina, in 2012. The other is the actual cassette tape of Tracy Chapman’s 1988 debut album that Combs used to listen to as a kid in his father’s Ford pickup, imprinting its hit single “Fast Car” on his memory.

Combs’ stocky frame, at odds with the ironman physique of Tim McGraw or the runway visage of Keith Urban, would alter the way country music stars looked, while his own version of “Fast Car” would help expand the definition of what constitutes a “country song” and even entice the reclusive Chapman out of retirement to perform the song together on the Grammy Awards.

When asked to describe the guy strumming a borrowed guitar in that vintage photo, Combs says it’s a snapshot of a kid figuring out his future. “That’s the moment when I knew I could do this,” he tells RS. “I am 22 in that picture. That was my neighbor’s guitar and my buddy’s sound system. I didn’t even have a guitar that plugged in.”

Just before the pandemic, Combs was playing a lot of unplugged guitar, writing songs for a bluegrass album that, at least for the time being, he shelved. He had writing sessions booked with pickers like Ronnie Bowman, Sam Bush, and Chris Stapleton, but Covid got in the way. Combs was still able to pull off one bluegrass writing retreat, however, and spent a week and a half with Billy Strings, Old Crow Medicine Show’s Ketch Secor, Molly Tuttle, and Hailey Whitters.

“It was one of my favorite weeks of writing, and we got at least five songs,” he says. “I will definitely finish that project, without a doubt.”

Combs’ most recent album is Fathers and Sons, a record that explores family relationships that he dropped for Father’s Day in June. He’s been playing some of those songs on his current tour, which will set up shop for two nights at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on July 19 and 20. Each show features a different themed line-up of opening acts picked by Combs himself: The first leans into Red Dirt and roots music with guests like Cody Jinks and the Wilder Blue; the second is more mainstream, with Jordan Davis and Mitchell Tenpenny.

Combs is one of the few country artists who can straddle the line between radio country and rootsy Americana stylings, and he raves about gritty songwriters like Brent Cobb: “He’s one of my favorites. I am obsessed with his music.” He says he tries to cater to fans of both genres with his opening acts but also curate a lineup that he wants to watch personally.

“I’m never going to try to write a Zach Bryan song or a Jason Isbell song; it’s just not who I am,” he says. “But I’m a huge fan and that’s why I love it. I get to go watch those people that I listen to, from the side of the stage. It’s such a win.”

As for the follow-up to Fathers and Sons, which veered away from beer-drinking tunes to introduce Combs the family man, he says he’s still unsure where to take his sound. “I mull that over at least once a day, of what’s next musically for me,” he says. “I want it to be something great, obviously.”

Luke Combs: The Man I Am runs at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville through June 2025.