I mean, we can all guess who he’s talking about here…
Things have certainly gotten better in the past few years, but back in the dark days of the “bro country” era, most of the guys on the radio looked like they were manufactured in the same lab that GQ uses to create their models. Pretty boys in skinny jeans who looked like they would be more at home in Hollywood than in a hayfield.
So naturally when Luke Combs came along, he didn’t exactly look like all the other guys in country music – which seems like a good thing based on the music those other guys were making.
But Luke revealed that he faced some pushback because of his looks and not being the “pretty boy” that Nashville was looking for.
During an interview with Scott Van Pelt on his SVPod a while back, Luke discussed being told that he would never have a career as an artist because he didn’t look like the other guys who were racking up hits on country radio:
“When I moved to town there was a lot of people that were like, ‘Well, you’re destined to just be a songwriter for these bigger artists because you don’t look the part.'”
I mean, I grew up in a small town in West Virginia and all the dudes in my town look a lot more like Luke Combs than Luke Bryan.
And Luke had a hilarious response to being told that he didn’t look the part:
“I said, we’re talking about COUNTRY music here. If anybody looks the part, it’s me.
The OTHER guys don’t look the part, that’s the problem. I’m not the guy that’s the problem here.
You throw these other guys at the Jiffy Lube, they’re gonna look outta place. You put me in the Jiffy Lube, you’re gonna think I’m managing the son of a b*tch.”
He definitely ain’t wrong. And of course looks shouldn’t matter when it comes to talent, but you know that’s not how Nashville works. They want somebody who looks like they belong on the cover of a magazine or on a billboard, somebody who may not have as much talent but will still sell records for other reasons.
That’s really all that matters at the end of the day, not the quality or authenticity of the music. And it was that mentality that led to the sh*t pot of music that Nashville was pumping out back in 2013.
Luckily guys like Chris Stapleton and Luke Combs came along and smashed the conventional wisdom.
I mean, it’s hard to argue with 18 #1 hits, even if the label doesn’t think you “look the part.”
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