Luke Combs Wrote His New Song In A Parking Lot In Alabama

Luke Combs closed the 14th Annual Academy of Country Music Honors on a high note, and told the story behind his latest song.

Combs released “South On Ya” on Thursday (August 26) and it’s “as much of a head banger as you’re gonna get out of me,” he said after the Honors show. The powerhouse country artist expressed a mix of nervousness and excitement to debut his first new song in a while, and it’s one that dates back a few years.

Combs explained:

“I wrote that song in a parking lot in Orange Beach, Alabama, a couple years ago. Me and some friends had got a lead that the SEC was looking for a song to kind of go hand in hand with football season, and we wrote this great song called ‘South On Ya.’

“It didn’t work out at that time, but I believe that everything happens for a reason. (I) ended up making a friend with Marty Smith at ESPN and sent it to him a year or so later, and he was able to kind of run it up the flagpole at ESPN and the SEC picked it up this year. It’s coming out in conjunction with football season. It’s a song that we wrote with football n the south in mind.”

The latest release comes at a time that Combs is reflecting on the successes of his career so far, including with a performance in his honor by his “dear friend” and “incredible talent,” Ashley McBryde, who performed Combs’ “She Got The Best of Me.” “It was pretty wild,” Combs said of McBryde’s performance, adding later: “I really do think she’s the most bada** person in country music right now.”

Combs also reflected on previous hits in his new music video for “Cold As You,” which he teased had tons of “Easter eggs” hidden throughout. He said after the ACM Honors:

“Its a fun video. My mom’s in there, there’s all kind of wild stuff going on…It hearkens back to essentially every video that I’ve put out up to this point, so there are some cameos from every video that I’ve done even back to some stuff I did in my college days.

“So, it kind of feels like the ‘end of an era,’ so to speak, I guess, for the last two albums, and time to start working on the next one and figuring out what that’s gonna be like…If you’ve watched any of the videos, there’ll be something in it for you.”