Luke Combs Shares Sweet Family Story That Inspired a New Song

June 2024 ยท 3 minute read

If there's one thing that Luke Combs has made clear leading up to the release of his Gettin' Old album, it's that he's trading in some of the signature beer-drinkin' barnburners that have been his calling card for years in favor of reflective songs about real life.

There's "5 Leaf Clover," a tender meditation on the gratitude he feels for his success; "Love You Anyway" is inspired by his real-life love story with his wife Nicole and "Joe" sheds light on a different kind of drinking song. Now, Combs is continuing that trend by sharing the poignant family story behind another new track on the album, "See Me Now."

On Thursday (March 2), which just so happened to be the singer's 33rd birthday, he hopped on social media to share a photo of himself as a toddler hanging out with his two grandfathers. Combs says he was close to both his grandpas, and tells his fans a little about each of the two men.

"The one on the left of the photo was my dad's dad, Pap Pap. When I started doing music, he told me, 'If you stick with this, you're gonna make it,'" he recalls. "I thought he had lost his mind, but he said it with such conviction that I almost believed him and that moment stuck with me forever."

Then there was Grandpa Jim, his maternal grandfather, who spent Sundays with a young Combs "watching races, cooking breakfast, telling dirty jokes, and driving Grandma crazy." Though the singer was close to both his grandfathers, neither Pap Pap nor Grandpa Jim ever got to see the full extent of his country music success. Pap Pap died in 2016, right after Combs finished his debut album This One's for You, and the singer played it for him, but "unfortunately that's as far as he saw my music career go," he writes.

Meanwhile, Grandpa Jim died several years earlier, in 2011. "[He] never got to see me pick up a guitar or sing a song, but I know he'd be my biggest fan if he was still with us," Combs says. "Especially when I got to play at the Daytona 500 two years in a row."

He was thinking about both Grandpa Jim and Pap Pap when he wrote "See Me Now," which checks in at track No. 7 on Gettin' Old. "I kind of got to tell these stories a little bit and tell them some things they never got to see happen," the singer says, before addressing his two grandpas directly. "I miss you both like crazy and I'd like to think you'd both be proud of the man I've become."

Gettin' Old will be out in full on March 24. Leading up to release day, Combs has dropped several of the tracks on the project.

Pictures: Luke Combs Performs at the 2023 Grammy Awards

Luke Combs performed his song "Going, Going, Gone" at the 2023 Grammy Awards.

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