Luke Combs has just done what no other artist in country music has achieved. The singer-songwriter scored both the No. 1 and No. 2 spots on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart. “Love You Anyway” is at the top spot, while “Fast Car,” a former No. 1 hit for Combs, sits at No. 2.
In addition, “Fast Car” also landed in the top spot on Billboard’s Hot AC chart, making Combs the first artist to sit at No. 1 on both Hot AC and Country charts.
Combs, who recently announced that he and his wife Nicole welcomed their second child last month, never expected “Fast Car,” a nostalgic and personal favorite for him, to resonate so much with his fans.
‘Fast Car’ has surprised me more than you can imagine,” Combs told Billboard. “Tracy Chapman wrote this perfect song that I first heard with my dad and it has stayed with me since. I have played it in my live show now for six-plus years and everyone — I mean everyone — across all these stadiums relates to this song and sings along. That’s the gift of a supernatural songwriter.”
“Love You Anyway,” which marks Combs’ 17th consecutive No. 1 hit, was written by Combs, along with Ray Fulcher and Dan Isbell.
“Valentine’s Day 2020. I was playing a show and had dedicated ‘Beautiful Crazy’ to Nicole and said, ‘If you’re in here (the arena), I love you. If not, you know I do anyway,’” Combs explained on social media. “Unknown to me, my buddy Dan wrote down ‘Love You Anyway’ as a title in his phone after hearing that, then he told me the story later that month when he and I were writing with my good friend Ray Fulcher.
“We loved the idea as a title and decided to write about loving someone so much that even if you knew from the beginning they were going to break your heart, you’d love them anyway,” he continued. “It came off very poetic and we wanted to find the words that could really give meaning to what we were trying to say, but as we say in the song, we didn’t know if there were deep enough words made for that.”
Combs has a few weeks at home before he returns overseas for the European run on his World Tour. He will embark on his Growin’ Up and Gettin’ Old Tour on March 12 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, playing back-to-back shows in most cities, with Cody Jinks, The Avett Brothers and Haily Whitters among those opening for Combs on Friday nights, and Jordan Davis, Mitchell Tenpenny, Drew Parker and Colby Acuff opening for Combs for the Saturday night shows.
Find music and tour dates at LukeCombs.com.