Luke Combs: US country music star dominates Australian ARIA charts

Luke Combs is one of Australia’s most popular music stars and has become so huge he has been in the ARIA top 50 for two and a half years.

Luke Combs, the singer, whose hits include love songs and party anthems such as Beer Never Broke My Heart has spent over 200 weeks collectively in the Australian top 50 album chart (mostly in the top 10) with his first two records.

It has become a tradition at the annual CMC Rocks festival for Australian country music fans to demand the American acts on the bill attempt a shoey.

On Luke Combs first visit three years ago, he answered the chants by chugging a beer from his cowboy boot. And paid the price, having to visit a doctor in Sydney for a mystery infection.

“I ended up having to get a steroid shot; I’m assuming it was from drinking beer out of my sweaty ass boots,” he says, laughing. “I’ve been scrubbing my boots extra good since then.”

Whether it was the shoey performance, the mega-hit Beer Never Broke My Heart or his succession of chart-topping love songs, Combs has become so huge in Australia he has been a weekly presence in the ARIA top 50 for two and a half years.

The 30-year-old’s 2017 debut record This One’s For You has had an enviably long life on the charts, finishing as the highest selling country record in Australia in 2019, buoyed by the platinum singles Hurricane, One Number Away and She Got the Best of Me and peaking at No.7. It has clocked up 138 weeks in the ARIA top 50 as of February 1.

His second record What You See Ain’t Always What You Get, was released in November 2019 and went straight to No.1. It was given the “deluxe” edition makeover a year later and has now reigned in the top 50 for 64 weeks.

Luke Combs is one of Australia’s top country singers now.

The reissue borrowed the tricks employed by pop and hip hop artists to rejuvenate their streaming numbers — feature a handful of news songs and then promote heavily on TikTok, where he has more than two million followers.

Combs struck a resounding chord with the kind of music fans who think they don’t like country music with love songs and good times anthems, rousing celebrations of the everyman’s triumph over adversity and musical tales of tragedy and heartbreak.

Songs like Beautiful Crazy, Better Together, When It Rains It Pours and that tribute to the amber ale – “longneck, ice cold beer never broke my heart” – have been omnipresent on all the biggest streaming playlists with Combs breaking country music records on the platforms.

His global popularity has seen him courted by big brands including Columbia Sportwear – their fishing shirts are his go-to uniform – and Crocs footwear whose celebrity “designers” include pop superstars Post Malone and Justin Bieber. The Luke Combs model sports a bottle opener.

Combs, who is exceedingly polite and mild-mannered offstage compared to his on-stage party starter persona, remains mystified as to how he has commanded the world’s pop and streaming charts, let alone dominated America’s country music airplay and sales charts.

“I never would have imagined going to Australia now a few times – I hadn’t been on an airplane five years ago – and I was a little surprised that they dug it,” he says from the Florida home he shares with wife Nicole Hocking.

“I think I got a pretty good grasp on Australian culture when Beer Never Broke My Heart came out there.

Luke Combs has made it in the US by going to Nashville.

“They just knew every song, they sang every song off both albums, it was crazy, and me, my band and crew we just love the place and the people and can’t wait to get back whenever that can happen.”

Combs took the long road to Nashville. While he knew he could sing, he didn’t start playing guitar, writing songs and performing at local bars until he was studying at Appalachian State University.

The reception he got was enough to convince him to head to America’s country music capital and started doing the rounds of the record labels and music publishers, persevering through the rejections until he independently released Hurricane.

When it landed on the Country Airplay charts, the industry came calling and he signed a deal with Columbia Nashville.

Combs says songwriting feels natural to him now and believes drawing from his own life experiences has been the key to connecting with fans.

Nicole Hocking and Luke Combs attend the 54th annual CMA Awards at the Music City Center on November 11, 2020 in Nashville, Tennessee. Picture: Getty

And if Hocking and his friends love it, he’s confident “I’m onto a good thing.”

“I’m just grateful that people can relate to my life story a little bit,” he says.

“I think if you write about what you’re going through, you gotta know there will be people going through the same thing. Maybe just not at the same time.”

Combs has thus far managed the transition from anonymous to global star without any controversy or breakdowns, no doubt in part thanks to the support of Hocking, who he married in August last year.

He says the COVID-enforced break from the relentless touring – he’s been writing new songs and gardening – also helped him to reset.

“It was a huge transition going from a completely anonymous person to someone people recognise at the store or the airport,” he says.

“Everything was so new to me and exciting and it still is but it all took a bit of used to. Now I can’t tour, I can’t wait to get back to it.”

Originally published as Luke Combs: US country music star dominates Australian ARIA charts