Luke Combs dropped his new album Fathers & Sons on Friday, and that same night — appropriately, on Father’s Day Weekend — he was in front of 70,000-some fans at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, to celebrate his love of family… and his love of beer too.
Ahead of performing a string of love songs written about his wife of four years Nicole, Combs said fans often ask him why he records so many romantic ballads.
“I still sing beer-drinking songs too. I still like beer-drinking songs,” Combs said to wild applause. “But I love my wife. I love my kids. And if it wasn’t for her, I’d be about five No. 1s short of where I am right now. So these next couple of songs are about her.” (For the record, Combs has scored 17 No. 1 hits on Billboard‘s Country Airplay chart, so apparently he’d be down to a dozen without those love songs.)
Combs dedicated the newest song he performed, “The Man He Sees in Me,” to his two young sons: Tex, who was born on Father’s Day 2022 and turns 2 next week, and 10-month-old Beau. It’s the lead single from his new album, and it captures Combs’ drive to be a great dad while understanding that his kids will grow up and realize he’s not Superman (“One day between him leaving home and driving on my knee/ Maybe I’ll finally be the man he sees in me”). While the song was only released on June 6, he’s been playing it since April on his Growin’ Up and Gettin’ Old Tour.
Ahead of the song, he talked about the release of his 12-track new album Fathers & Sons. “Thank you for listening to it,” he humbly told the crowd, wearing a Los Angeles Chargers hat on the home field of both the NFL’s Chargers and Rams. “If you listened to it, thank you. If you haven’t, I hope that you do.”
But just like he said onstage, there was plenty of time for beer-drinking songs too.
The final two tracks before his encore really drove that home, starting with Combs’ 2019 Brooks & Dunn collab “1, 2 Many.” More than halfway through the song, Combs was joined by actor Luke Wilson and Miami Heat star Jimmy Butler to shotgun a beer onstage. (Well, at least one of the Lukes shotgunned a beer; Wilson took a few generous swigs before chucking his Miller Lite can into the crowd.) And next up was arguably Combs’ biggest party-starter of a song: one of those 17 Country Airplay No. 1s, 2019’s “Beer Never Broke My Heart.”
Combs returns to SoFi Stadium for night 2 on Saturday (June 15). On Friday, he was joined by The Avett Brothers, Charles Wesley Godwin, Hailey Whitters and The Wilder Blue as opening acts, and he’ll have a full new slate of openers on Saturday night: Jordan Davis, Mitchell Tenpenny, Drew Parker and Colby Acuff.
Watch the Wilson and Butler moment below, along with a little taste of “1, 2 Many.”