Luke Combs has hit country music like a hurricane!
The North Carolina native reacted to earning an impressive six nods at the 2020 Country Music Association Awards — including Entertainer of the Year and Male Vocalist of the Year — after teaming up with Carly Pearce to announce the first batch of nominees live on “Good Morning America.”
“I’m feeling great — just kind of shocked a little bit,” he told Access Hollywood. “We came in with high hopes, but I think we overshot those a little bit, in the best way possible so I’m stoked. I’m really stoked.”
JUST IN: Luke Combs and Carly Pearce announce some of the #CMAawards nominees.https://t.co/ptW1pj8Ook pic.twitter.com/KNNi4a83rc
— Good Morning America (@GMA) September 1, 2020
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Despite a busy schedule, Luke also confessed that he has plans to sneak in a little celebration for the nominations. “I got a full day of media and press for my deluxe album coming up after this, so I’ll be running on fumes by the end of the day,” he said. “But I’m going to try to sneak some whiskey in there somewhere!”
The 30-year-old singer’s star has continued to rise following the release of his debut single “Hurricane” and his 2017 album “This One’s for You.” He recalled, “The song just matched up perfectly for the time and the situation and where my career was. That’s definitely the moment, career-wise, that shot me up.”
Luke admitted that longtime love Nicole Hocking has also played an influential role in his life and music. The pair tied the knot on Aug. 1, 2020 after a nearly two-year engagement.
“I think meeting my now-wife is something that really changed me in a lot of ways for the better,” he explained. “She inspires me every day, from songs and just being a better guy and just taking care of myself a little bit better and really just locking me in on the road. She was a major, major turning point in my life, personally and professionally.”
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The award-winning songwriter also credits his parents, Rhonda and Chester Combs, for being another key to his success.
“They did such a good job of raising me and they’ve always been very supportive of anything that I wanted to do,” Luke said. “And to get to help them and give them a better life and ease their financial burden a little bit and help them retire early and see them be happier than they’ve ever been, in their marriage and in their life, that’s been really rewarding as an only child. Being able to give back to them for everything they gave to me has been one of my proudest achievements, if not my proudest.”
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While Luke has certainly found his calling, he also confessed to Access Hollywood that he didn’t always picture a career in country music.
“I didn’t really know I wanted to do this until I was probably 21 or 22 years old,” he revealed. “I had been singing forever and I always loved it and I guess it had been one of those things where it had been right in front of me my whole life and I just never realized it until I was three quarters of the way through college and not really loving being in school and doing the grind of that. It all just kind of clicked. I picked a guitar up and I was off to the races after that.”
The 54th Annual Country Music Association Awards are scheduled to air Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2020 on ABC.
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