Bar owner tells Grammys audience about a former NC bouncer — country star Luke Combs
Years before Luke Combs made a name for himself in the country music world, he was working as a bouncer at a North Carolina bar.
“Luke was a student then, living upstairs at the bar, and from the first night he came down — just him and an old guitar — and played for us, he truly had us in the palm of his hand,” Justin Davis, owner of Town Tavern Blowing Rock, told the audience at the Grammy Awards on Sunday, Feb. 5.
In a video posted to social media, Davis said he got an early glimpse of Combs’ potential when he worked as his boss in Boone, a mountain town that’s home to Combs’ former school Appalachian State University and roughly 85 miles west of Winston-Salem.
“I’m so proud the entire world now gets to witness what we witnessed night after night with a crowd of just 75 people at my tavern,” Davis said, according to award ceremony footage that social media user Brad Greene shared on Facebook.
But Davis did admit one thing about his former part-time worker.
“Luke wasn’t the best bouncer, because he was just way too nice,” Davis said, according to The Tennessean newspaper. “I’m sure Luke never spotted a fake ID.”
The crowd learned more about Combs before he performed the song “Going, Going, Gone,” marking his first time taking the stage at the Grammy Awards. He said he was “kinda nervous” to try something new with the song, which received a standing ovation.
Combs — who was born in the Charlotte area and later moved to Asheville — didn’t take home a Grammy this year. The 32-year-old singer received 2023 nominations for best country album for “Growin’ Up,” songwriting for “Doin’ This” and best country duo for the song “Outrunnin’ Your Memory” with Miranda Lambert.
“I just wanted to work in music,” Combs said in a video the Grammys posted before he performed on stage. “I just wanted to have a job that never felt like a job. That was the goal. It wasn’t to be famous.”
This story was originally published February 6, 2023 at 9:48 AM with the headline "Bar owner tells Grammys audience about a former NC bouncer — country star Luke Combs."
