Getting trapped overseas while the world is about to shut down sounds like a nightmare. Nowhere close to home, I can't imagine a more stressful feeling. Luke Combs knows this feeling all too well and he has a pretty solid way of getting over it — getting absolutely hammered.
Videos by Wide Open Country
Recently, Combs spoke with Australia's take on 60 Minutes. There, he talks about a myriad of things, including the time he worked with his friend and British superstar Ed Sheeran. Moreover, he recalls a time when Luke and his wife were incredibly drunk at Sheeran's place before COVID was formally announced.
"I was actually at his house when COVID started. In the sense of like, I was at his house outside of London somewhere... middle of nowhere," Combs recalls. "We're about to start a tour in the United Kingdom like two days after that. So I had gone there... we had already played two shows. We had played in Berlin and Amsterdam, I think, then had four or five days off.
Luke Combs Almost Gets Stuck Overseas as COVID Was Announced
"So I was gonna go to his house and write some songs with him. It was the first night I was there, me and my wife were there actually. We were just... hammered. I'm gonna be honest with you. We were absolutely crushed. It's Sunday, we're having the whole Sunday roast thing and he's got this pub going and we're just ripping drinks," Combs continues.
It's business as usual for Luke and Ed until he gets a call from his manager. Initially, he wasn't going to answer. How could you really answer serious calls when you're inebriated? But he picks up and learns that the U.S. planned on shutting down their borders and that Combs had to make his way out first thing in the morning.
"I get a call from my manager back in London. It's like two in the morning, it's late and we're still up. He's like, 'Hey man, I just got a call from my buddy who does something in the government,'" Combs says. "'Tomorrow, they're going to announce that they're closing the border to the United States. I bought us all plane tickets for like 6 or 7 in the morning.' I was like, 'This is not good.'"
Funnily enough, Luke didn't let such world shaking news sway him. Instead, he figures the best way to grapple with the news is to deal with it in the morning and keep drinking.
"I had to go and pop in and break the news to everybody, like 'Hey, world's shutting down. Life's over boys, might as well get hammered.' Didn't feel too great in the morning, getting in the car at 6 a.m. to get back to the States. But it made for a good story," Combs concludes.
