I think “proud” is an understatement.
On Saturday night, Eric Church and Luke Combs held their Concert for Carolina, which was an all-star benefit show at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte to raise money for those in North Carolina who were devastated by Hurricane Helene last month.
There was an impressive lineup of North Carolinians on-hand like James Taylor and obviously Eric and Luke, Chase Rice, The Avett Brothers as well as Billy Strings, Keith Urban and more.
During the show, Luke addressed the crowd, saying that his manager’s first call in the wake of witnessing the devastation of Hurricane Helene was to the Carolina Panthers to talk about using the venue, and his first call was to his friend and fellow North Carolinian Eric Church.
He also passionately declared that all of the money was headed “straight up the damn mountain” to the people who need it most:
@panthersConcert for Carolina filled the stands at Bank of America Stadium with 82,123 people raising over $24M for Hurricane Helene relief♬ original sound – Carolina Panthers
Of course, purely based on the fact that tickets sold out in hours, it was obvious that they were going to raise a ton of money, but at the end of the concert, host Marty Smith informed the crowd that they had raised a whopping $24,513,185.
It’s a truly astonishing number, and Luke shared a lengthy post on Instagram about how special the night was to him. He actually called it “undoubtedly” the night he is “most proud of in my career.” He thanked everyone involved for their help in putting this together so quickly, and it was a very special night I think all of us will remember forever:
“My goodness, what a night! This will undoubtedly go down as the night I am most proud of in my career. Being able to give back to the place that gave me so much. There are so many people to thank for helping making this night possible on such short notice. My team, band and crew worked so hard to pull this off and I seriously can’t thank them enough.
The Panthers front office team, The Tepper family, AEG, SES, Livenation, the venue staff, all the sponsors, the state of North Carolina, all the performers and their teams for donating their time and resources to this effort. The list is long and if I missed anyone I apologize but you know who you are.
We were able to raise 24.5 MILLION DOLLARS for the people of Western North Carolina and I’m so thankful and humbled to be able to be a part of that. There were countless friends, family, and neighbors there and you could truly feel the love in that stadium last night.”
Luke is good people, and the fact that the did all of this for the love of his home state and hometown proves it in a way that really, really matters. This shot of the packed full stadium really says it all:
Like Luke said during the show, ALL of proceeds from the event, including sponsorships, will be split 50/50 between Combs and Church’s Chief Cares Foundation to distribute to organizations of their choosing throughout the Carolinas and Southeast.
Combs’ portion will be distributed between Samaritan’s Purse, Manna Food Bank and Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest NC (all very legit, and great places to donate if you’re wanting to make a personal donation as well).
I want to end with a huge THANK YOU to Eric, Luke, both their teams, as well as all of the other artists and teams, from Panthers staff and beyond, who helped make the evening possible. The people in western North Carolina are still very much hurting right now, even if it’s not headline news on TV anymore, and like Eric has said in doing press for last night, they’re the people we should be championing in this country and are a huge part of what make it so great.
The fact that both men moved heaven and earth to make this happen speaks to their character, and as I’m sure you’ve figured out by now, mountain people are special and would do anything in the world to help their neighbors when they need it.
It feels fitting to leave you with “When It Rains It Pours,” because the concert ran until 1AM due to a weather delay during the start time… you can’t make this stuff up:
@thetraveladdict.com Luke Combs performs “When It Rains It Pours” at Concert for Carolina in Charlotte to raise money for those impacted by Hurricane Helene. @Luke Combs #ericchurch #lukecombs #concertforcarolina #carolinastrong #northcarolina #charlotte #charlottenc #country #countrymusic @Carolina Panthers #carolinapanthers #whenitrainsitpours ♬ original sound – thetraveladdict
Some more shots from Luke’s photographer David Bergman:
