Entertainment Weekly - 11.2019

Luke Combs has new

cowboy boots. “Have you

ever seen that? That’s

stingray,” he says, ges-

turing with a grin toward

his elaborate kicks.

Shoes made of winged

carnivorous fish were not

something Combs ever

envisioned owning. But

then the 29-year-old

North Carolina native

never pictured that, two

years into his major-label

recording career, he

would have accrued

more milestones than

some artists do in 20.

To wit, since the

release of his 2017 debut,

This One’s for You—and its

cheekily titled deluxe iter-

ation, This One’s for You

Too—the red-bearded

singer-songwriter has:

made six trips to the top

of the country singles

chart with songs like “Hur-

ricane” and “When It

Rains It Pours,” been

nominated for a Grammy

and won both a CMA and

an ACM award, graduated

from clubs to arenas in a

matter of months, and,

most dazzling of all, been

inducted into the Grand

Ole Opry. His first album

still lingers in the top 25

of the Billboard country

albums chart even as

Combs prepares to

release his sophomore

effort, What You See Is

What You Get—which has

already spawned the No. 1

hit “Beer Never Broke My

Heart”—on Nov. 8. And no

one is more surprised by

it all than Combs himself,

who is nominated for

three more CMA awards

this month. He knows this

is all crazy. (“Beautiful

Crazy,” as one of those

No. 1s goes.) Or, as he

puts it with dramatic

understatement, “It’s

pretty wild for sure.”

Sitting backstage at the

Novo Theatre in Los Ange-

les prior to taking part in

the recent All for the Hall

benefit concert—where

he would delight the

crowd and visibly gob-

smack his costars Vince

Gill, Emmylou Harris,

and Sheryl Crow—Combs

reflects on his rocket-

fueled ascent with a

mixture of pride, self-

deprecation, incredulity,

confidence that never

tips into arrogance for a

nanosecond, and, most of

all, immense gratitude.

“Everything is bigger

than just one person,”

says Combs, the very

model of an “average

Joe”—stingray boots

MORE FALL RELEASES 10.25 → Josh Homme The Desert Sessions Vols. 11 & 12 Grace Potter Daylight King Princess Cheap Queen Jackson Wang Mirrors N

TWO YEARS INTO HIS METEORIC RISE, THE NEWLY

MINTED COUNTRY SUPERSTAR RETURNS WITH W H AT

YOU SEE IS WHAT YOU GET. BY SARAH RODMAN

Force

THE

IS WITH HIM

LUKE COMBS