Luke Combs Made Me Realize I’m OLD

Where The Hell Have You BEEN?

In my mind, that’s what y’all are saying right now.

How are you?

How’s your Mom ‘enem?

Did you survive the Ro-Ro?

Hey, Y’all! HEY!!!

Are you reading other blogs because I up and disappeared on you?

I don’t blame you.

I’ve been reading the stuff that’s floating around out there in the cyberverse, too.

Fair Warning: If you could see my outdated iPhone, you’d see that I’ve got a list of post topics to write about.

The problem has been finding the time to actually sit down and write.

Correction: The problem has been making the time to actually sit down and write again.

And that’s 100% on me — if anyone is actually reading this.

Evidently, today is the day to write again.

Just to get you caught up, I’m in Texas now working on a project, and over the last year I’ve worked on projects in Pittsburgh and Reno, too.

Roseville, CA...I didn’t realize I was so close to y’all, until I was already in Texas!

Hand to God, the next time I’m even remotely in the neighborhood, I will be in Roseville, silently ninja-stalking all of you little Rosebuds!

Let’s see . . .What else?

(Tapping nails on desk and looking up…)

Oh!

Yours truly has been a guest on a local Houston podcast.

That little factoid has not gone to my head.

I promise.

So there’s all of that…let’s see, what else?

The world’s two most adorable pups, Izzy and Little Man, are melting in the Texas heat, but we’ve been lucky enough to find fabulous dogsitters (Beth & Randall & Miss Daisy [Beth & Randall’s 2-year-old] rescue pup).

Above all, my pups get to play and hang out all day with two incredibly kind folks and their sweet pup.

Call me crazy, but I think that puts us officially into “All Caught Up” mode.

Now it’s YOUR TURN to leave me some comments and tell me all about what you’ve been up to for the last 15 months.

Don’t be shy.

Tell me all about you and yours and what in the wide world of sports has been happening in YOUR WORLD.

You may be sitting there thinking, “How does this have anything to do with Luke Combs?”

“And how did Luke Combs make you realize you’re old?”

Well, like you, I’ve been reading what’s been floating around on the cyberverse, and relatively recently, I read that Luke Combs and his wife had a baby boy.

Congratulations!

The blip that I read immediately catapulted me back to May of 2019 in Colorado, when I saw Luke Combs in concert at the Red Rocks Amphitheater, just outside of Denver, Colorado.

It was Mother’s Day Weekend, 2019.

The Denver basketball team had made into the semi-finals, and my friend from Montana and I went to Game 7 and watched the Denver Nuggets lose the game.

(I’m not a big basketball fan, but the energy in the crowd was electrifying, so it was a good time.”

And after that afternoon game, we raced to Red Rocks to see Luke Combs in concert.

If you’ve never been to Red Rocks, this is one of those places that you definitely want to go and see.

And it is definitely one of those places that you want to experience a musical event aka go to a concert.

First, it’s beautiful.

Once you’ve climbed up the 10,000,000 steps to actually get into the amphitheater, you’ll eventually be able to breathe normally again.

Obviously, that’s when the sheer, natural beauty of what you’re looking at will hit you.

Amazingly, the place is literally in the middle of the top of a mountain, and it’s beyond gorgeous.

Click the Red Rocks link and check out the website for yourself.

GO. TO. RED ROCKS. AND. EXPERIENCE. A. LIVE. CONCERT.

LANCO was one of the opening acts, and I think they’re fantastic, too.

I’ll admit, I didn’t know of ton of Luke Combs songs that day.

However, I knew, “When It Rains, It Pours,” and “Hurricane,”and a couple of others, but not a ton of other songs he’d released.

Right about the time that LANCO wrapped up, a young couple from North Carolina came and sat beside us.

They said they knew Luke Combs and had come to Denver just to see this particular show. He was an accountant, she was a dental hygienist.

Nice kids.

They struck up a conversation with us and asked where were we from and how much we’d paid for our tickets.

We looked at each other and told them the truth, “$700.”

The dental hygienist couldn’t believe it. She looked me straight in the eyes and said, “Well, now I know my friend is a star!”

It was a cute moment.

As if on cue, Luke Combs took the stage.

Can I just tell you that the acoustics at Red Rocks is so amazing that you can actually hear every string being strung . . .?

…every individual drum beat…

…all of the keys being played…

…every note being sung.

IT. IS. AMAZING. SOUND.

And it doesn’t matter where you’re sitting.

It’s just astounding.

Luke Combs, himself, is one heck of an entertainer.

Moreover, he talked to the crowd throughout the show, as if he was talking to some close friends.

Luke spoke of how playing Red Rocks was a dream come true for him.

He told tales of how particular songs were written while sitting at his mother’s kitchen table.

And he specifically stated that he’d flown his Mom out to Denver so that she could experience this milestone of his hard work and success with him.

Occasionally, Luke talked about Nashville and how he toiled to become someone in the music industry and how hard it was.

He even mentioned that Eric Church and Peyton Manning were backstage listening to the show, too.

(My friend and I had gone to see Eric Church play at the Denver Pepis Center the night before.)

The biggest impression was Luke Combs made upon me — aside from his amazing talent — was just how humble and grateful and kind and engaged with the crowd he was.

At some point in the show, he mentioned that he was 26 or almost 26 . . .

Indeed, the second HUGE impression that Luke Combs made on me, was that he was appreciative of the level of fame and fortune he had earned.

Toward the end of the show, Luke Combs said to the crowd, something like this:

“You know, people tell me all the time that they GET to see entertainers in concert.

That’s not right.

The fact of the matter is that WE GET TO ENTERTAIN YOU.

WE GET to come here to Red Rocks and play music for you.

WE GET to spend these hours with all of you.

All of you, that paid your hard-earned money to come here and listen to us.

And WE don’t ever forget that . . . the fact that WE GOT TO COME HERE AND ENTERTAIN YOU.

WE thank y’all for coming out to Red Rocks tonight. This is amazing.”

Before I knew it, show wrapped up. Luke and his band took a couple of selfies with the crowd in the background, and we made our way down the 10,000,000 stairs — which, let me tell you, is a heckuva lot easier than climbing UP the stairs.

Here comes the reality…

Turning to my friend, and I said, “I wish I had opportunity to meet that kid’s parents. He was just so humble and kind. They did an amazing job raising that guy.”

My friend wholeheartedly agreed with me.

And then it hit me like a ton of bricks.

I looked at my friend again and said, “Holy shit. I just realized that I want to tell Luke Combs’s parents what a great job they did with that kid. . .

. . . Luke Combs just made me realize I am officially OLD.”

Wherever you are on this hot August 2022 evening, my hope is that the next time you sit back and reflect on where you are and where you want to be, you remember that no matter who you are and what you’ve achieved, recognizing that you did not do it alone, only proves that you are one of the truly good ones.

Just like Luke Combs.

More soon,

-A

---

Restart. Refocus. Reinvent.

---