Luke Combs Brings His Stadium Tour To The World
Luke Combs plays two nights at Nashville’s Nissan Stadium this weekend (4/14-15) on his current world tour, which plays NFL stadiums all over the country. The tour also includes prominent…
Luke Combs plays two nights at Nashville's Nissan Stadium this weekend (4/14-15) on his current world tour, which plays NFL stadiums all over the country.
The tour also includes prominent venues in other countries; he's also touring Europe and Australia. Luke told us recently that he and his team were very serious about including all those other countries from day one. He said, "We've been building to this tour for a long time, you know, we've always had a long-term strategy touring-wise. And, I mean, this will be my fifth time in Europe, my third time in Australia. So it's nothing new to us as far as going to these places."
He added, "We always knew that we wanted to set those countries up as their own markets. Not just go there and do it once and then five years from now. We'll do it again, and make a concerted effort to let the fans there know that we care about them. [We'll] make special merch for them and do you know, cut liners for them and do interviews for their media and, and do things of that nature."
Combs concluded, "This will be, I don't know, the fifth or sixth time in Canada, like, doing full tours in Canada and full tours in Europe. That's something we always wanted to do. And now, you know, we're doing 35 shows and 16 countries and 18 NFL stadiums."
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Luke told Billboard recently about meeting fans backstage before his show, "I've always just felt really weird about, like, charging people to meet me. Maybe that's just me feeling like, 'Well, it's not worth it.'" He added, "I just want to meet people who came to the show, whether it's their first show or their 50th show. It's like people who would have never gotten the chance to meet me or could never have afforded it. Because I couldn't have afforded that growing up."
Money is not his main goal; he wants his followers to know that. He explained, "I always want my fans to understand that I've never made any decisions based on how much money I can get out of them. It already costs so much to do anything, right? I want them to love the music and feel like they saw a great show that someone put a lot of thought into and did it at a price that was affordable to them."
As we celebrate Carrie Underwood's upcoming 15th Anniversary as a member of Nashville's Grand Ole Opry, we look at twelve country music stars who have embraced all things Grand Ole Opry since their careers began and are now members of the Opry.
The Opry member list is not one that all country superstars are on. A handful of country stars never really caught on to the Opry tradition for whatever reason, including superstars like George Strait, Miranda Lambert, Tim McGraw, and Kane Brown.
Let's focus on the stars who love and cherish the history and tradition of The Grand Ole Opry.
RELATED: Carrie Underwood Celebrates 15 Years As An Opry Member
Carrie Underwood
Rick Diamond/Getty ImagesOpry Induction date - MAY 10TH, 2008 - Carrie's Opry dream came true on March 15, 2008, when Randy Travis surprised her on the Opry stage with an invitation to join the cast of the show. "Let me think about it," she said playfully before responding with an emphatic "Yes!" as she wiped tears from her eyes. She was introduced to the Opry by Country Music Hall of Famer Bill Anderson and Garth Brooks inducted her.
Garth Brooks
Shannon Finney/Getty ImagesOpry Induction date - OCTOBER 6TH, 1990 - Garth made his debut on June 24, 1989, and wept tears of joy on the occasion. He joined the show's cast a year later, with Johnny Russell inducting him, and he has called that night one of the proudest moments of his career.
Blake Shelton
Rick Diamond/Getty ImagesOpry Induction date - OCTOBER 23RD, 2010 - On his Opry induction night backstage, Blake said that records and awards don't mean as much to him as the Grand Ole Opry. He said, "This is the reason that you move to Nashville to me. This is what I wanted from the beginning."
Luke Combs
Jason Kempin/Getty ImagesOpry Induction date - JULY 16TH, 2019 - Before becoming a member, Luke told us it was a big deal to him to play the Opry. He said, "It just seems like this thing that is unattainable, and it seems like something that you will never be able to do. I wish the Opry called me, but I was fighting for it from the start, and that was really something super important to me."
Brad Paisley
Rick Diamond/Getty ImagesOpry Induction date - FEBRUARY 17TH, 2001- When Brad was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry in 2001, George Jones wrote him a letter that Paisley read to the crowd. It said in part, "I am counting on you to carry on the tradition and make folks sit up and listen to what good country music should sound like."
Ashley McBryde
Terry Wyatt/Getty ImagesOpry Induction date - DECEMBER 10TH, 2022- Garth Brooks invited her to join the Grand Ole Opry on GMA Live on TV as she cried in accepting the honor.
Kelsea Ballerini
Ethan Miller/Getty ImagesOpry Induction date - APRIL 16TH, 2019 - Kelsea was inducted as a Grand Ole Opry member in 2019. At the time, she notably became the Opry's youngest member in its nearly 100-year history since being founded in 1925.
Keith Urban
Royce DeGrie/Getty ImagesOpry Induction date - APRIL 21ST, 2012 - Keith became a member of the Grand Ole Opry after being surprised by Vince Gill two weeks earlier with an invitation to join the Opry.
Darius Rucker
Terry Wyatt/Getty ImagesOpry Induction date - OCTOBER 16TH, 2012 - Darius told us a couple of years after his Opry member induction, "It will always be someplace special. It will always be my home now in Nashville. I just love it, and every time I walk in, I touch my plaque, and when I leave, I touch my plaque because that moment when Vince (Gill) inducted me was the first time I felt like I was part of country music."
Little Big Town
Rick Diamond/Getty ImagesOpry Induction date - AUGUST 12TH, 2022 - Opry member and friend Reba McEntire invited Little Big Town to join the Grand Ole Opry in 2014. As the group finished a three-song set with "Pontoon," Reba appeared from the side of the stage, improvising on the song's last few words and asking the question Karen, Kimberly, Jimi, and Phillip had been hoping to hear. "I know the Grand Ole Opry is very important to y'all, because this is the first place you guys played together as a group in 1999. I have been asked to ask y'all, Little Big Town, would y'all like to be a member of the Grand Ole Opry?"
Dierks Bentley
Jason Kempin/Getty ImagesDierks has always been a champion for the Grand Ole Opry and even introduced it to Elle King, who sang with him on the Opry stage in 2016. She recently made her solo debut on the Opry.
Carly Pearce
Terry Wyatt/Getty ImagesOpry Induction date - AUGUST 3RD, 2021- Grand Ole Opry member Dolly Parton extended the coveted invitation to Carly after 85+ appearances.
