Luke Combs Went Broke Trying To Get This Hit Recorded

Luke Combs knew “Hurricane” was a well-written song. But even he admits he had no idea what the song would do for his career. Written by Combs, Thomas Archer, and Taylor Phillips, “Hurricane” is Combs’s first single, which also happens to be his first No. 1 hit.

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On his freshman This One’s For You record, Combs released “Hurricane” in October of 2016. Not only did “Hurricane” land at the top of the charts, but it stayed there for two weeks. It also ended Sam Hunt’s multi-week run at the No. 1 spot with his “Body Like A Backroad” hit.

When Combs sat down to write “Hurricane”, one of the co-writers began talking about a recent break-up.

“I guess it was a Nashville thing—and Nashville is a big small town,” Combs tells The Boot. “He was like, ‘I want to go out, but I can’t see her out. I know I’m going to see her out. It might not be today. It might not be tomorrow. So I don’t go out as much. We should write something about that.’”

Luke Combs Reveals How Pivotal “Hurricane” Became to His Career

Combs had the title “Hurricane”, but wasn’t initially sure how the two could combine. But once they started writing, the words quickly fell into place.

“Hurricane” says, “Then you rolled in with your hair in the wind, baby, without warning / I was doing alright, but just your sight had my heart storming / The moon went hiding, stars quit shining, rain was driving, thunder, lightning / You wrecked my whole world when you came, and hit me like a hurricane / You hit me like a hurricane.”

In a separate interview, Combs reveals that the song originally had “eye of a hurricane” instead of “hit me like a hurricane”.

“‘Eye of a hurricane’ doesn’t make any sense because that’s the calm part of the storm,” Combs says (via Songfacts). “It’s kind of counter-productive to where we were going with the title. When I go back and listen to it, I’m like, ‘What were we thinking when we wrote that?”

When the three men wrote “Hurricane”, Combs didn’t have a record deal. In fact, he spent the last money he had, a whopping $200, getting the song recorded.

“I’m like, ‘I can do one song,’” Combs recalls on Today. “So I spent 200 bucks, do ‘Hurricane,’ put it out, sells 10,000 copies the first week. No deal, no manager, no nothing going on.”

“Hurricane” is the beginning of one of country music’s most successful careers. In 2025, the RIAA named Combs the highest-certified artist of all time, beating out Garth Brooks, who previously held the record.

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