Luke Combs Says His Next Goal Is To Destigmatize Country Music: “Parts Of The Genre Could Be For Anyone”

Luke Combs wants his music to be for everyone.

Ask any artist what they want out of their music career and they’d likely tell you they just want to connect with fans and give folks anthems for their own lives. Though that’s possible to achieve, one artist’s catalogue is often grouped into a certain genre, or placed into a specific, figurative box that makes it hard for some music fans to access.

Country music star Luke Combs has the desire to have his music be accessible by everyone.

In a recent interview with USA Today, the “Where The Wild Things Are” singer expressed that his goal for making music in the current state of his career is to expand his own limits. He’s calling it his “next frontier,” and I don’t think he’s dramatic in putting it like that. Especially when you hear what Combs means when he says he wants to expand:

“The next frontier is expanding my limits to embrace people who want to destigmatize country music. It’s a fresh, different challenge.”

The 35-year-old country artist credits the success of his cover of “Fast Car” with putting that very idea in his mind. Releasing his own take on the classic Tracy Chapman song, and then obviously getting to collaborate with the legendary singer-songwriter on multiple occasions, allowed him to see that his own music could reach audiences that he never thought it could.

It doesn’t sound like Luke Combs is going to dramatically change anything about his musical process or his live shows. Instead, it seems as though he’s going to be more open to embracing the sounds and rhythms that come naturally to himself – and more importantly his band:

“My band is so much more talented than I am with instruments in their hands. They’ll go from country to playing Vanessa Carlton or Train, then play a bass solo over the White Stripes’ ‘Seven Nation Army.’ The kids know ball. We’re not taking glitz, glamour, fame, flash, fire and smoke to these crowds. I will still get up there with my band, songs and talent, then give them the best live show possible that will earn their respect.”

And though Combs might be more open to sonically exploring outside of the genre that he’s made a living in, at the end of the day, he’s setting out to convince non-country-music fans that the country music sound isn’t all that bad. Fortunately for Combs, he knows what it’s like to not like country… and that could very well be his secret weapon in achieving his goal of de-stigmatizing country music:

“I’m passionate about country music and have a deep knowledge of its inner workings, but I’m also someone who ran as far away from country music as I could and hated it, for a decade, when I was 10 or 11 years old. I eventually rediscovered my love for country music and feel like, though the genre might not be for everyone, some parts of the genre could be for anyone.”

And because I’ll never waste an opportunity to cue up Luke Combs and Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” performance at the Grammys, let’s go ahead and fire up the duet that none of us knew we needed, shall we?

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