Luke Combs was among the honorees at Wednesday night’s CMT Artists of the Year ceremony, and on hand to celebrate his accomplishments in country music was one other than the Chief himself, Eric Church.
It’s no secret that Eric has long been one of Luke’s musical idols. Both men hail from North Carolina and favor a country-rock sound, and Luke recently enlisted Eric as a guest artist on his hit single, “Does to Me.”
The old saying “Never meet your heroes” cautions against getting too chummy with your idols, but when Luke finally met Eric, they got along a little too well. The singer tells that story in an installment of CMT’s Probably Shouldn’t Tell You This series, which came out in advance of this week’s awards show.
It all started when Eric invited Luke and his wife, Nicole, over for a steak dinner. Ever the gracious host, he kept the booze flowing all night, and Luke wound up overdoing it.
“I was on the whiskey and the rest of ‘em were on the wine. But whiskey has just a tad more alcohol than wine does,” he recounts. “I was on another plane of existence that evening.”
It wasn’t until 4:30 AM that Luke and Nicole made it to the car, where a driver was waiting to take them home. “And I had to stop in the middle of this really nice neighborhood,” the singer adds.
“Eric Church got me so drunk that I threw up on the way from leaving his house,” he admits. “I didn’t throw up in the house or anything. But in the middle of the road. It was kinda, like, semi-college-ish. I don’t think he knows that, either, so I hope he doesn’t see this.”
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