How Luke Combs Puts His Fans First When Plotting New Tours: “I Want Them to Love the Music”

Luke Combs has built a reputation for being one of the most down-to-earth, genuine country stars in the modern landscape, with the ‘When It Rains It Pours’ hitmaker regularly eschewing lucrative branding and ticketing opportunities in order to keep his loyal Bootleggers fanbase at the heart of every decision.

Last week, Combs unveiled his biggest tour to date, the My Kinda Saturday Night run, which will see the North Carolina native performing across iconic venues in London, Ireland, Paris, Sweden and more, as well as hitting the US and Canada.

By adding the extra step of making fans sign up for his Bootleggers pre-sale, which went live earlier today (October 14th), Combs explains that this is just one means of attempting to deter ticket touts, who would otherwise inflate the ticket prices.

It epitomises Combs’ fan-first approach, which he delved into during his Billboard cover interview. He touched on his reasoning for not making fans pay for Meet-and-Greets at his shows, despite most other artists charging significant sums for this luxury. R&B chart-topper, Chris Brown, for instance, went viral earlier in the year for his Meet-and-Greet packages, which allegedly cost around $1,000.

Chatting to Billboard, Combs reflects, “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’”.

The ‘Hurricane’ crooner expands that he “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”, before shedding light on his outlook heading into previous tours, “Could I have gone out and done super-mega platinum tickets at even more stadiums and made an assload of money? Probably so. But I think eventually the fans will be like, ‘I’m not doing that again’”.

Combs emphasises that his motivation has never been materialistic, “I always want my fans to understand that I’ve never made any decisions based off 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 f***ing thought into and did it at a price that was affordable to them”.

He concludes, “I didn’t get into music to be famous or rich. I got into music because I love singing. I love singing for big crowds of people, and I feel like I’m good at it. People like to hear me do it. And I want to continue to do that as long as possible”.

Kappy, Combs’ long-time manager, offers further insight into the ways in which the country titan has been striving to ensure his fans remain the priority in all their decision-making.

Kappy outlines how he once turned down a $5,000 offer from a banker that wanted to meet Combs, stressing in no uncertain terms, “That's not the type of people we want...I’d rather have the guy who can barely afford to come to the show because that’s more of a real fan than you wanting a picture with Luke for your Instagram”.

He also reveals that Combs makes a point of always having a selection of tickets on-sale for $25, even as his crowds have grown into the 70,000’s and 80,000’s, “I don’t tell a lot of people this: we always offer $25 tickets to every show, no matter the size. There’s always at least 100 tickets at $25 available to our fans, because if you can’t afford $100 tickets, that’s fine; hopefully you can get two $25 tickets, pay a babysitter and go see Luke Combs for less than $100 all-in”.

As for keeping his Meet-and-Greets free through a ballot, Kappy conveys how Combs would never have it any other way, “It’s natural to him, because he cares about his fans so much...Other managers, are like, ‘How can you leave so much money on the table?’ Luke’s answer is, ‘Am I leaving money on the table, or am I putting 50 people out into the world that are ambassadors for me and my music?’”

Fans have been battling it out today to try and secure their tickets to Combs’ My Kinda Saturday Night Tour, and given the enormous demand, many have been left disappointed.

However, they can take comfort knowing that this is simply the result of Combs’ colossal popularity, rather than any attempts to extort listeners with sky-high ticket prices.

With more pre-sales coming up throughout the week, Combs’ loyal Bootleggers will be doing their best to score tickets to this run of shows, which will solidify his status as one of country's biggest - and most kind-hearted - stars today.

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