Grammy-winning country performer Luke Combs didn’t just appear on NBC’s “Opry 100” special Wednesday evening. No, he brought down the house at the Ryman Auditorium, country music’s “Mother Church.”
In performing his inaugural No. 1 country hit “Hurricane” and George Jones’ “The Grand Tour,” he offered stellar showcases that elevated his standing as a modern superstar.
Combs is a 2019 Grand Ole Opry cast inductee whose links to the Opry’s parent company, Ryman Hospitality Group, now include his Category 10 bar and honky-tonk in Nashville’s Lower Broadway neighborhood downtown.
Category 10’s name pays homage to the 2017 hit single he performed.
Opry 100: Special to breathe ‘love for country music’s history’ into another century
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‘The Grand Tour’
As for “The Grand Tour,” 1969 Opry cast inductee Jones released the lovestruck mega-ballad five years after his induction.
His first chart-topper in nearly a decade, it’s still celebrated because, as country music historian Bill Malone describes for the Smithsonian Institution, it’s “one of the great modern songs of divorce” and has the “perfect matching of lyrics and performance.”
Its “graphic imagery permits the listener to see both the inside of the abandoned home where love has died and the interior of the narrator’s mind,” the historian adds.
Combs’ Opry induction a ‘feather in his cap’
In June 2019, Chris Janson, Craig Morgan and John Conlee stunned Combs with his Opry invitation after the artist had made history as the first artist to simultaneously top all five Billboard country charts for multiple weeks.
Combs cried while he was doubled over in surprise.
“This is the absolute feather in my cap for me as far as career goals. It is the absolute No. 1 thing for me,” he told the Tennessean about his invitation. “It cannot be surpassed. It’s something I’ve dreamed about since I made my debut. It’s such a storied thing. I was like, ‘I will do whatever it takes to become a member of the Grand Ole Opry.’”
