Luke Bryan has achieved what few artists have ever done in country music. The country music superstar just celebrated 30 No. 1 singles, including his first chart-topping single, “Do I,” all the way through his latest No. 1 single, “Country On.” Bryan’s monumental accomplishment was celebrated at an industry event.
The 47-year-old was honored with performances of some of his biggest hits, by some of his closest friends. Lady A‘s Hillary Scott and Dave Haywood performed “Do I,” a song Bryan wrote with Haywood and Charles Kelley. Dierks Bentley performed “Play It Again,” while Shenandoah‘s Marty Raybon drove up from Muscle Shoals, Alabama to sing “Fast,” and Jason Aldean sang “Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye.”
“When you’re so focused in the trenches of all of this, it’s days like this where I guess your career flashes before your eyes. … You start thinking about everybody you need to thank,” Bryan shared with Everything Nash and other media outlets, ahead of the celebration. “it’s pretty surreal to think about all of the people that have been involved in the mix to make all of this happen.”
Bryan delayed his original move to Nashville when his older brother, Chris, was killed in 1996. But he never lost his dream of becoming a singer, which he pursued relentlessly
Photo Credit: Alan Poizner
“When I moved to Nashville, I moved for all the right reasons, just because I loved country music, and I loved being on stage,” Bryan said. “From the second I got here, there was never one minute — it just felt like I finally found the place for me to be. I never really looked back.
“To kickstart the whole process, and to have dreams of hopefully writing No. 1s and performing No. 1s, and being an artist, to the present day, you look at that, and it’s kind of hard to wrap your head around,” he added. “It’s s lot of sacrifices. I never would have imagined I’d hit a number like 30.”
Photo Credit: Alan Poizner
Bryan has had one of the busiest, and most successful, careers over the last 13 years. It’s his hard work and tenacity that made him largely unaware of how much that work was paying off for him.
“You’re focused on everything going on around you, and you don’t think about that you’re actually piling up quite a few No. 1 songs,” he said.
Aldean recalled hearing Aldean’s third studio album, Tailgates & Tanlines, out in 2011, which gave Aldean a hint of the superstar career his friend was going to have.
Photo Credit: Alan Poizner
“I’ll never forget, Luke came to my house in Florida one day,” Aldean shared prior to his performance. “He’d just finished the [Tailgates & Tanlines] album, and wanted to play me some cuts on it. We just sat there and listened to it. It was one of those things where, I didn’t know what was going to happen, but I knew he had a lot of hits on the record. Just a really great album.”
Bryan will embark on his Farm Tour on September 14th in Shelbyville, Kentucky. His Country On Tour wraps up on October 28. Find music and tour dates at LukeBryan.com.
Read ‘Luke Bryan: 11 Things to Know About the Country Music Superstar’ here.