If you “hate country music,” then you’re probably listening to the wrong kind of country music… Luke Combs is gearing up to put out his first new album in nearly two years, The Way I Am, in March, and it’s been incredible to watch his journey from playing crappy bars in his college town to becoming one of the premiere mainstream artists in country music. He’s a global star at this point who can sell out venues all over the world, and earlier this week, he reflected on He recently shared a throwback photo from his first ever show in 2012, and in many ways, it looks like the same Luke Combs the world now knows and loves, but obviously the venues he’s in now are much bigger, but it all started right here: “My first ever show was 14 years ago tomorrow at Parthenon Cafe in Boone, NC. It doesn’t seem that long ago but I guess time flies when you’re having fun!” Luke previously spoke about playing his first show there during an appearance on the Dale Jr. Download in 2024, saying: “The owner of Parthenon was awesome, he was a total wildcard, just kind of whatever… just whatever happens he was down with. And I asked him the next week, ‘Hey man, can I play a gig here?’ He was like ‘Yeah, whatever, just go over to the calendar and put it on there.’ Like that was how my first show happened, you know? I wish it was that easy to book shows the rest of the time after that.” He picked a date, the owner charged $1 cover and gave Luke some free and he wound up borrowing a guitar and some other equipment from  some friends. 200 people came to the show, where he played mostly country covers, and Luke made $200 during first show. The rest, as they say, is history, and Combs’ first few projects he self released were his 2014 EP The Way She Rides, which includes songs in the title track, “I Know She Ain’t Ready” and “Let the Moonshine.” I still think “I Know She Ain’t Ready” is one of his best songs, but I digress… View this post on Instagram Even though Luke didn’t really pick up a guitar and get serious about playing music until he was in college, he’s always had a love for country music and during an interview with Willie Geist on Today at City Winery in Nashville earlier this week, Combs opened up about his love for the genre that he’s had all of his life. And he touched on the fact that, as a kid, he remembered people always saying that they like “anything but country,” and I’m sure we’ve all had similar interactions… he went onto explain that he could never figure that out, likening it to someone saying they don’t like bread, which truly does sound completely insane. As he points out, there are so many different kinds of bread, as there are many styles and types of country music, and if you give all of those different kinds a real chance, you’re bound to discover something you really love: “You know, I remember growing up as a kid, you would ask somebody, what kind of music do you like? Well, I like anything but country, was like the answer people would say. That always blew my mind a little bit, where I’m like, man, saying you don’t like country music is like saying you don’t like bread. There’s so many kinds of bread, like, what are you talking about? Even if you don’t like this kind, you might like that kind. Have you tried the cheese kind? It’s really good.” I couldn’t have said it better myself… Despite being more popular than ever, country tends to get a bad rap in the mainstream world of music. People view it as “dumb, redneck music,” or even “white, racist music” thanks to narratives from the liberal media and people like Maren Morris, but the bro country era certainly didn’t help people view it in terms of quality music. That being said, it is getting much better thanks to guys like Luke, and I’m definitely going to steal that analogy from him because if there’s two things in this life, it’s carbs and country music. The full interview with Luke for NBC’s Sunday Today will be out this weekend, and in the meantime, you can check out some of the pre-released songs from his new album below. “Sleepless in a Hotel Room” My Kinda Saturday Night Tour Dates March 21 Allegiant Stadium – Las Vegas, NV April 4 Scott Stadium – Charlottesville, VA April 11 Jack Trice Stadium – Ames, IA April 18 Notre Dame Stadium – South Bend, IN April 25 Ohio Stadium – Columbus, OH May 2 Neyland Stadium – Knoxville, TN May 9 Gaylord Family – Oklahoma Memorial Stadium – Norman, OK May 15 Lambeau Field – Green Bay, WI May 16 Lambeau Field – Green Bay, WI May 30 Parc Jean-Drapeau – Montreal, QC June 5 Rogers Stadium – Toronto, ON June 6 Rogers Stadium – Toronto, ON July 4 Ullevi – Gothenburg, Sweden July 7 Accor Arena – Paris, France July 11 Johan Cruijff ArenA – Amsterdam, Netherlands July 18 Slane Castle – Slane, Ireland July 19 Slane Castle – Slane, Ireland July 25 Scottish Gas Murrayfield – Edinburgh, UK July 31 Wembley Stadium – London, UK August 1 Wembley Stadium – London, UKThe post “That Always Blew My Mind”: Luke Combs Has Never Understood The “Anything But Country” Crowd first appeared on Whiskey Riff.