On Wednesday (July 10), Luke Combs celebrated the opening of his new Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum exhibit, Luke Combs: The Man I Am.
The exhibit opens July 11 and runs through June 2025, and is included with museum admission. The exhibit chronicles North Carolina native Combs’s life and career, from growing up in a small-town community to his current status as a two-time Country Music Association entertainer of the year winner and one of country music’s foremost hitmakers.
The exhibit traces some of Combs’s earliest musical moments, such as seeing a Vince Gill concert with his mother and grandmother, his early musical performances in school choirs and musicals, and Combs’ decision to practice guitar while studying criminal justice at Appalachian State University. He began posting cover versions of country and R&B hits, as well as his original music, on platforms including YouTube and Vine.
Combs moved to Nashville in September 2014, at age 24. But he also steadily continued building his audience one concert at a time. He released a few independent EPs, with his song “Hurricane” swiftly connecting with fans.
In 2017, “Hurricane” became Combs’s first No. 1 on Billboard‘s Hot Country Songs chart and marked a gale-force signaling of a star on the rise–one with a formidable combination of top-shelf songcraft, a humble, hard-working, everyman persona and what would quickly become one of country music’s most distinctive voices.
Two years later, Combs became the first artist to top Billboard‘s Country Airplay chart with his first five singles — and went on to extend that lead to 13 consecutive chart-toppers (he has now seen 16 solo songs reach the pinnacle of the Country Airplay chart). In 2019, he also ascended to headlining arenas and amphitheaters, then rose to stadium headlining status. His sold-out 2023 world tour not only traversed North America, but displayed his music’s global-spanning reach, as he also headlined in Europe, Australia and New Zealand.
He’s also earned three top 10 hits on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100, including 2020’s “Forever After All” and 2022’s “The Kind of Love We Make.” Last year, he earned a No. 2 hit on the Hot 100 (and a five-week Country Airplay chart-topper) with a rendition of Tracy Chapman’s 1988 hit “Fast Car.” The two singer-songwriters would create one of the Grammys’ most talked-about moments of the decade when they joined forces to perform “Fast Car” together in February. The song also earned a Grammy nomination for best country solo performance, and was named single of the year at both the Academy of Country Music Awards and Country Music Association Awards.
Combs’s The Man I Am exhibit displays stage clothes, photographs, childhood memorabilia, manuscripts and set lists from his life and career, but also highlights a key relationship that has sparked and sustained the chart-topping albums, sold-out tours and surging global acclaim: his solid relationship with his fans.
“I’m so excited for the fans to finally see this exhibit,” Combs tells Billboard via email. “The Country Music Hall of Fame has put in a lot of time and effort, and I think it turned out really great. Still crazy to think my things and career need an exhibit, but the fans have made that happen, so this is for them and I hope they enjoy it.”
Below, Combs tells Billboard about five items that highlight his new exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.
This cassette of Tracy Chapman’s self-titled 1988 debut album — which includes “Fast Car” — belongs to Luke Combs’s father, Lee Combs. Luke remembers listening to the tape in his dad’s 1988 Ford F-150 pickup truck when he was young.
Bob Delevante for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
“Man, this means a whole lot to me, because it takes me back to days of being a kid and hanging out with my dad,” Combs says. “Kind of like I do now with [sons] Tex and Beau. I hope they have something from their childhood that brings back good memories like this does for me. And it’s also the beginning of my love for ‘Fast Car’ and Tracy’s music as a whole, so it’s special.”
Combs kept this dollar bill as a memento from his first paying gig, at Boone’s Parthenon Café, where the cover charge was a $1.
Bob Delevante for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
Featured in the collection is a dollar bill that Combs has kept as a memento from his first paying gig at Boone’s Parthenon Café in Boone, North Carolina, where the cover charge was $1.
“This was the moment I believed I could do this for a living,” Combs says. “I know it was only a dollar per person, but people were willing to pay to hear me play music. It gave me the confidence I needed.”
Combs used this Crosley Dansette portable record player to share his recording of “Beautiful Crazy” with Nicole Hocking, now his wife, for the first time.
Bob Delevante for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
Combs kept this record player, which has sentimental value for Combs and his wife Nicole. The couple wed in 2020.
“[I] still remember the moment I first played Nicole ‘Beautiful Crazy’ like it was yesterday,” Combs said. “I was definitely unsure what she would think, so I was pretty nervous. Thankfully she liked it, and now that’s a memory that means a lot to both of us — so it’s cool to still have the record player.”
This CD-R of the three songs recorded for Combs’s debut EP, The Way She Rides — released independently in 2014 — was signed by Combs and Adam Church and given to Church’s parents. Combs wrote on the paper sleeve, “To the Church’s / Y’all rock SO hard!” Courtesy of Adam Church
Bob Delevante for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
Also included in the exhibit is a CD of the three songs Combs recorded for his debut independent EP, The Way She Rides. The CD was signed by Combs and Adam Church and given to Church’s parents. On the paper sleeve, Combs wrote, “To the Church’s/ Y’all rock SO hard!”
“Crazy to think about this, since music distribution has changed so much over the past 10 years,” Combs said. “My kids may not even grow up really knowing what a CD is, but this is how I was able to share my music early on. I would give one to anyone who would take it, but the Church Family is one who means a lot to me, so I was proud to be able to give them one. They have always been huge supporters of my music.”
These are Rob Williford’s handwritten lyrics for Luke Combs’ country radio hit “Doin’ This,” which Williford co-wrote with Drew Parker.
Bob Delevante for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
“I thought it was fitting to have these here, because it’s truly a song that describes who I am,” Combs says. “I really do believe I was born for country music and I’m just forever grateful to all of the people that have given me an opportunity to be a part of the genre, one that has such a history and means a lot to me.”