Country musician Luke Combs spoke with Billboard as part of the “How It Went Down” video series, to discuss the making of his hit debut single “Hurricane.”
Combs says that his friend Taylor Phillips, a co-writer on the song, was discussing a buddy of his who had broken up with a girl and was worried about running into her at a bar. Combs, who keeps a list of potential song titles on his phone, suggested mashing up that idea with the word “hurricane,” which was on his list, and the song was born.
The singer explains that while he was in college and working two jobs – in retail and as a bouncer at a bar – he had recorded two three-song EPs, and had saved up enough money from those to record a new six-track EP, on which “Hurricane” would ultimately appear.
“I didn’t have a deal or anything. I just knew I needed to get some new music out there [to] build the fanbase,” he explains. He had just enough money to pay the musicians and record the song, then spent his last $200 to master the track and put it on iTunes, where it went on to sell 14,000 copies the first week. He then used that money to fund the rest of the EP.
After he released the EP, Combs landed a booking deal, which led to an independent deal and eventually a deal with Columbia Records. “Now it’s a two-week No. 1 and it’s just crazy, man,” Combs says. “You can’t really plan on any of that stuff happening, but it did.”
Watch the video above to hear Luke Combs tell the full story of how the creation of “Hurricane” went down, and listen to the song below.