Luke Combs Became a Matchmaker on the Road

Luke Combs unintentionally became a matchmaker on the road, but it wasn’t for himself. The 28-year-old had a diehard group of fans who traveled from bar to bar in his native North Carolina, watching him perform when he was just getting started, leading some of them to unexpectedly fall in love.

“I know a lot of them, and a lot of them have been people that I went to college with, or people that I went to high school with,” Combs explained, via ABC News Radio. “And they’ve kind of formed their own community around coming to shows and meetin’ up with each other.”

“I had some folks that have ended up getting married,” he continued. “So it’s pretty wild to kind of see that materialize over the last couple of years.”

Combs just celebrated his fourth consecutive No. 1 hit, with “She Got the Best of Me,” from This One’s For You Too, the deluxe version of his freshman album. But Combs is already hard at work on his sophomore record, which he plans to release next year.

“I recorded 20 songs in January and am recording hopefully 20 more songs next January, all songs that I’ve co-written,” Combs previously told PopCulture.com. “And so, there are definitely big plans for a second record. I’m, in a way I guess, feeling the pressure. I had a lot of the pressure to put out another good album but I think I’ve written so many songs since we wrote this album. I think my thing has always been to just do the same thing.”

Combs’ success is rare – to have four songs from a freshman album land at the top of the charts. But he isn’t at all ready to dwell on his success, at least not yet.

“I think if anything, the success is a little bit, kind of driven me to become better at this,” Combs shared. “And I think there would be opportunities. I think the biggest obstacle for me is time. I have a serious commitment to my fans at this point to go out and play these songs and write new ones and put on the best show that I can.”

“So that consumes a lot of my existence,” he continued. “Whether that’s traveling to the shows or coming back, or being on the bus and trying to rest my voice, you know there’s so many things that go into that. I mean, that’s at least my focus right now is trying to be the best I can be and capitalize on this little bit of success where I am right now.”

Combs is nominated for two CMA Awards this year, both for New Artist of the Year and Male Vocalist of the Year. The CMA Awards will air live from Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena on Wednesday, Nov. 14 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

Photo Credit: Getty images/Tim Mosenfelder