Luke Combs is sharing more details about his new Nashville bar. Opening next year in the space currently held by the Wildhorse Saloon, Combs wants to have something for everyone — including a place that celebrates songwriters.
“It’s important for me, I think, to have opportunities as a songwriter to showcase your ability,” Combs shares with his record label. “I remember just being able to play for other songwriters was a huge thing for me. So I think having a very, very, very high-end songwriters night would be something that I would love, for new artists to come and be able to play their favorite song, or the best song that they have in front of other songwriters.”
Combs began performing his songs, at the beginning of his career, not because he had dreams of fame and fortune, but because of his deep love of songwriting. It’s a passion he still has today, which is why he wants other songwriters to have an opportunity to perform their songs as well.
“For me, it wasn’t, ‘Well, I’ll come and play this, and I’ll get a record deal, and I’ll be Garth Brooks,'” the “Fast Car” singer says. “It was, ‘I would love to play my best song, and some songwriter that I love, hear it and go, ‘I want to write a song with that guy, because then that’s my next opportunity to write my next best song.” So I think being able to have a space for up-and-coming songwriters to do that is paramount. And I think there are places that happens in Nashville, but there can never be enough of those places.”
It was by Combs playing his songs everywhere he could, in and around Music City, that he was able to get his music heard, leading to his first record deal.
“I was playing three, four nights a week for free, playing songs that I wrote to anybody that would listen, in hopes that someone that I thought would be interested in writing another song with me, or give my songs an opportunity. I didn’t have a publishing deal until after I got my record deal. So I wasn’t someone who was at a publisher for years and years … Nobody would give me a chance. I just kept going and playing every night until eventually, someone was like, ‘I think this guy’s got something’. So I think having a space where that can happen is of huge importance to me.“
Combs’ new space reportedly will include a 250-person honky-tonk space, a two-story ticketed concert hall, holding up to 1500 people, and a sports bar catering to legalized sports betting on the third floor. The venue will also have a high-end bar for bourbon drinkers, a bachelorette-themed area, called “Beautiful Crazy,” and a section devoted to his fan club, The Bootleggers, as well as an indoor-outdoor rooftop space called the “Eye,” a nod to Combs’ debut single, “Hurricane.”
Combs is currently on his World Tour, with Riley Green, Lainey Wilson, Flatland Cavalry, Brent Cobb, Cody Johnson and Lane Pittman serving as opening acts on select dates. Find music and tour dates at LukeCombs.com.
Read ‘Luke Combs: 11 Things To Know About the Singer’s Life and Career’ here.