Name: Luke Combs on Learning to Play Guitar at 21 and the Moment that Led Him to Music
Uploaded: 2023-03-16T18:39:54.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Luke Combs on Learning to Play Guitar at 21 and the Moment that Led Him to Music' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-03-16. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Luke Combs on Learning to Play Guitar at 21 and the Moment that Led Him to Music' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-03-16. Transcript available.

The Joe Rogan experience.
In my brain, I'm thinking, okay, well, I only thought the only option was to be
a music teacher.
In my head, I'm going, well, that's the only option is to be a music teacher.
And I don't want to be a music teacher because I'm really bad.
Like, I can't read music.
Like, I can't do math.
Like, I have some sort of, like, I just can't learn it.
So you can't read music?
Wow.
Not at all.
And, like, it's probably some sort of form of, like, dyslexia, probably, to the
truest extent.
Like, barely past math.
Have you tried to read music?
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
And what happens?
I was in, so her husband was actually the band teacher.
He taught advanced placement music theory, which was a new class my senior year.
I took that class and got, like, a D.
Because it was, like, all these, the kids that were the best at band and the
best at chorus were who was in that class.
It was only, like, eight students in the class.
And all it is was advanced.
Like, here's the notes.
Here's this.
I tried out for Allstate Chorus three years in high school and didn't make it
because you had to be able to read.
You had to do a sight singing audition, which is where they would hand you a
piece of sheet music.
And you had to sing it just by reading the notes on there.
Right?
So it was a combination of what your voice sounded like and your ability to
keep up with the Allstate choir teacher, whoever that was picked out to be.
And I never made it because I couldn't read the music.
I just couldn't do it.
I don't know why.
Did you get coaching on it?
Did you get, like...
Yeah.
I mean, I try.
I mean, I busted to try to...
It's just something about it doesn't make sense to me, like, to my brain.
Like, I get it.
Like, if I sit there and, like, plink it out really, really slow, I mean, I
could figure it out, right?
But it just doesn't...
It's just such...
To me, it's such an instinctual thing, you know?
And so I was in an acapella group my freshman year at college for a year.
I enjoyed that.
But, again, it was just, like, an after-school kind of activity thing with
other people in college, you know?
Excuse to have people to drink with, really, you know?
People with common ground or whatever.
And gave that up my beginning of my sophomore year, really.
And then didn't do music.
I played rugby.
I got into playing rugby in college.
I did that.
Loved that.
And I was just the guy that would, like, sing at parties or whatever.
Like, my buddies that played rugby with knew I sang.
They'd be like, dude, sing for these chicks or whatever, you know?
It was kind of like...
I was, like, party trick guy, you know?
And then after my junior year, I moved home to Asheville.
And I'd always moved home every summer up to that point.
And then my mom goes...
Because I was sulking.
Because all my buddies that year, they all stayed in their college town for the
summer.
I was the only guy that moved back.
So, all my friends are gone.
They're in Raleigh.
They're in Charlotte.
They're in Chapel Hill.
They're in Boone.
They're in, you know, Collowee and all these different schools.
So, I'm working at the same job I had when I was 16 at a go-kart place with a
bunch of high school kids.
I'm 21 years old.
I got nobody to hang out with.
I'm living in my parents' house.
I'm not doing well in school.
I don't know what I want to do with my life at all.
And I'm sitting on the porch.
I remember sitting on my parents' carport.
And it was, like, my mom come out.
And she was, like, what's wrong with you?
Like, what's...
I'm an only child, too.
So, she's, like, what's going on?
And I was, like, I don't know, Mom.
I don't have any friends here.
Like, I'm working at fucking go-karts, you know, like, what am I doing?
And she's, like, well, you know, you know what, Luke?
Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw, they didn't even learn to play guitar until they
were 21 years old.
And I was 21, right?
And so, my parents had bought me a guitar in seventh grade that I never played.
I did two guitar lessons and hated it because my parents wanted me to do it.
You know what I mean?
Like, anything your parents want you to do, you don't want to do, really.
And so, I went in the closet and I got this, oh, it was, like, an Ibanez, like,
$50 acoustic guitar.
You know, just horrendous condition.
But I didn't know that.
Didn't know anything about guitar.
Didn't know what a good guitar was.
Didn't know nice guitars even existed.
So, I taught myself all summer.
I just sat on the porch when I wasn't at work playing, playing, playing.
Because I knew I loved to sing.
And I was, like, well, I'll just learn how to play and then I can sing at, like,
parties for my buddies or whatever.
And taught myself all year and then just kind of became obsessed with, like,
learning how to play.
And by the time I was 22, I'm back in school.
I'm in Boone, hanging out with my buddies.
I'm starting to dabble around with, like, writing my own songs because I was
like, well, I could, you know, this would be cool.
I like this.
And then I wrote my first two or three songs and I booked a gig down the street
just, like, at this bar my rugby team always hung out at.
Because I figured that guy would, you know, he was, like, coke head, like, wild
card.
Like, he would give me a show or whatever, you know.
The guy was awesome, you know.
I was like, this guy will give me a show if I want to do a show.
So, I borrowed my neighbor's guitar because mine wasn't even acoustic electric.
It was just a straight-up acoustic and sat on a stool.
My other buddy let me borrow his PA speakers.
And 200 of my friends came out and paid a dollar to see me.
I made 200 bucks that night.
That was more than I made at both my jobs that week.
And I was hooked, man.
I was like, dude, this is awesome.
Like, I love doing this.
One show.
First off, yeah.
I'm like, I love doing this anyways.
And I'm having a great time.
I'm, like, having drinks with my friends.
Everybody's psyched to see me here and stuff.
And I was like, it just made sense, man.
It wasn't one ounce of hard work in my mind after that point.
It was just always fun, man.
And I always loved it.
Wow.
So, it's like a door opened up, you walked through it, and your life changed
forever.
It just made sense, dude.
Yeah, it was like a true, like, aha moment, right?
Like, you hear about those from people.
Oh, I think I'm going to flip the top.
And you hear about those things, but it truly was that.
It was truly an aha moment, man.
And it was life-changing, man.
I don't know what I'd be doing if I hadn't done that.
That's so awesome.
I love those kind of stories.
I really do.