You never want to peak too early.
By now, I’m sure you’ve seen the music video for Luke Combs’ “Back in the Saddle.” It came out back in July, and features NASCAR legends Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Richard Petty. The song itself was written by Luke, alongside frequent collaborators Jonathan Singleton and The Brothers Hunt, and it finds the country superstar getting back to doing what he does best: Manufacturing anthemic, high-energy, stadium-filling country songs.
Because the song was so fast paced, it felt as though it was only right to give it the racing music video treatment. How did that come together? Well, they first had to find a location, a car, and a driver, and Luke Combs was quick to rule himself out as a potential driver, as he revealed in the Vevo Footnotes for the music video:
“It would have taken me a minute to even get in the car, then I definitely would have probably wrecked it.”
Though Luke Combs was out as the driver of the race car, the idea was still to film someone driving in a Next Gen car at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The premise – along with the song – was pitched to Dale Earnhardt Jr., who said he liked the song, but felt like the video treatment didn’t exactly match the message.
Around the time the music video came out, Earnhardt Jr. went on to explain in the Ask Jr. segment of his podcast how the music video came to be, and the suggestions that he had to change the vision of the music video up:
“Luke Combs texted me the other day. Going, ‘Hey man, I got a video idea. You wanna be in it?’ And I’m like, ‘Of course I do.’ And they were like, ‘Alright man, so you’re going to be driving a car and here’s the song.’ So he sends me the song, and I was like ‘Alright, the song is cool.’
And they were like, ‘We’re gonna get a Next Gen. We’re going to Charlotte.’ I was like, ‘This song sounds like it’s about grassroots racing to me.’ So I thought, I love the late model stock stuff, so why don’t we shine a light on that. So we ended up making that.”
Leave it to Dale Jr. to become an impromptu music video director for Luke Combs.
Combs later piggybacked off what Dale Jr. had to say when the music video was coming together, and also shared how Richard Petty was added to the mix. Now, as the country music star stands back and sees what they created for “Back in the Saddle,” he’s worried that he might not ever top it:
“I just texted Dale and told him about the song and the idea for the music video. He had the idea of Tri-Country Motor Speedway and it really fit well with the idea of the song and highlighting grass roots racing. Richard is a legend and lives a couple hours away from the speedway, so we asked if he wanted to be a part of the video too and thankfully he did. Definitely will be a hard lineup for me to ever top in a future music videos.”
As for Dale Earnhardt Jr., he was just happy to be a part of it all, and was overjoyed that the opportunity morphed into a way for grass roots short track racing to take center stage:
“It’s awesome to get to know the musicians you and your friends are fans of. It’s an honor to be included in something that could be seen and enjoyed by millions. It helps promote things you are passionate about, such as grass roots short track racing.”
Check out the music video if you haven’t already:
