Luke Combs joins Kelleigh Bannen on Today’s Country Radio for a fun and sprawling conversation about his career and new album ‘Growin’ Up.’ Luke talks candidly about the unlikelihood of his success, collaborating with Miranda Lambert on “Outrunnin’ Your Memory,” and making music that reflects the “real-a** adult” stage of his life.
Tune in and listen to the episode in-full this Friday (June 24) at 11am PT / 1pm CT / 2pm ET or anytime on-demand at apple.co/_TodaysCountry.
You can read our review of ‘Growin Up’ right here
Luke Combs Recalls Moving to Nashville and Not Being Able to Get a Publishing Deal
I remember, I had been in town, I moved here 2014… I guess I signed my deal in 2016? I think mid 2016. Couldn’t buy a publishing deal. Couldn’t buy one. Couldn’t have given my publishing away. I could’ve went in somewhere, been like, “I’ll give you 90% of my publishing.” And it was, “No.” The answer was no… Multiple times… At the time, it was like, and nobody would say this, and I don’t know this at all. This is complete speculation and maybe completely unfounded. But I think the time is… I walk in the room or a super hot dude walks in the room, let’s be honest. Let’s be honest about it.
Luke Combs on Being Uncompromising When Trying to Land a Record Deal
You have to just be, I always thought at least, you have to just be uncompromising because if I’m not willing to change my thing… Let’s say I go in and [the music industry] [goes], “Okay, well we need you to do this.” And let’s say I lost a 100 pounds or 80 pounds or whatever it was and fit the thing and change my songs and did this thing, by the time all that’s done, it’s something else. I can’t beat the guy that’s already won the race that I’m racing.
Luke Combs on “Middle of Somewhere”
I’ve been in Tennessee now for seven or eight years, which is insane to think about. Then when me and my wife got engaged, we bought a place it’s an hour from town. A small town, small town. Fell in love with it. Fell in love with the place, my neighbors are just awesome folks. Everybody that I’ve met there is just so great. But, you can tell that everyone’s really proud to be from this town that nobody that hasn’t lived there has ever even heard of… Just that whole thing is where that song came from, was this feeling of being connected to this little town that we live in and the people that live there and how great they’ve been to me and my wife. The respect that they have for our privacy. They just have become protective, even in a way it feels, of us a little bit. They want to help us out. They don’t ask for anything in return.
Luke Combs on Naming His Album ‘Growin’ Up’
I feel like I’m in this transitional phase life. But, for me it’s been getting to produce more on this album than I did my first two. Or at least having the creative freedom more… In this ‘Growin’ Up’ deal, there are songs that I have written and I feel like really fit in with, ‘This One’s For You’ or ‘What You See Is What You Get.’ But, I’m 32 now and I don’t want to put the same record out 100 times.
‘Growin’ Up’ is out on all platforms everywhere now.
