Luke Combs Had a “Less Than Ideal” First Encounter With Blake Shelton a Decade Ago—Here’s What Happened

Luke Combs’ first meeting with Blake Shelton didn’t exactly go off without a hitch.

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A decade ago, a very under the weather Combs met Shelton and influential music executives at a Mississippi farm. Colin Reed, the Executive Chairman of Ryman Hospitality, owned the .

“I’m the new guy, nobody knows who I am, and I felt like I wasn’t supposed to be there,” Combs recently recalled at a private event, according to People. “I’m in there, and Colin has this beautiful farm in Mississippi, and there’s deer, and I’m like, ‘Man, this is like Mecca for a redneck.’ There are ducks in the pond, and here I am, chugging the Imodium on the toilet.”

The “less than ideal” situation sidelined Combs to his room while other guests were busy enjoying the property.

“I remember thinking, ‘Well, this is it. My career’s over. I finally got invited to a cool thing, and I’m the weird guy in the room that’s sick,’” Combs said.

Luke Combs’ Big Moment Around a Campfire

On the third and final day of the trip, a “feverish” Combs emerged from his room to participate in a campfire song circle with Shelton and the other guests.

“I’m thinking, ‘He’s been sick for 48 hours. This is going to be a monumental disaster. I can see it,” Reed said at the private event, which was held to promote Combs’ Las Vegas bar, Category 10.

When it was Combs’ turn to sing, he told Shelton, “I don’t even have a record deal. I’ve never had a No. 1, but if I get a record deal, this song I’m going to play is a song I’ve written.”

With that, Combs began performing “Hurricane.” While the song hadn’t been widely heard at the time, it wound up hitting No. 1 following its release.

“I get chills even now describing it,” Reed said. “Everyone in that room went completely and utterly quiet, and it was like, ‘Holy crap, this is unbelievable.’”

Now, a decade later, Combs has released his sixth LP, The Way I Am.

“There are probably a lot of people who will encounter this album that have never encountered any of my albums, and the performance with Tracy [Chapman] brought in a whole new contingency,” Combs recently told GQ. “But I don’t think there’s anything too outside of what I would normally do. There are some things sonically we haven’t done previously, but it’s not…it’s not a pop album.”

Photo by Rick Diamond/Getty Images for CMT