Why Vince Gill Says Luke Combs Is a “Sweet Kid” but “He Still Owes Me 40 Bucks”

Luke Combs owes a great deal to Vince Gill. The country music giant was Combs’ favorite as a child. And the “Fast Car” singer still considers Gill “the best country voice we’ve ever had.” Sharing a stage with the 18-time CMA Award winner last year was a high point of a country music career that might never have existed at all without Gill. Combs might say he’s forever in Gill’s debt. And Gill would say the same—except the “Go Rest High On That Mountain” singer has a much more literal interpretation.

Luke Combs Once Snuck into a Vince Gill Concert

Combs’ childhood dream came true last June when he and Gill performed the singer’s rollicking 1993 hit “One More Last Chance” during CMA Fest. Classic country collided with modern that night. The result was something far greater than the sum of its parts.

Speaking with The Tennessean before the performance, Gill, 67, called his duet partner “a sweet kid that kind of credits me with being one of his favorites when he was getting going.”

[RELATED: 5 Live Performances That Spotlight Luke Combs’ Star Power]

Gill doubled down when the interviewer chuckled at his description of 34-year-old Combs. “Yeah, he is a kid,” the 22-time GRAMMY Award winner said.

Gill then shared a story Combs told him. The “I Still Believe In You” singer was the first artist a 9-year-old Combs ever saw live.

“And he snuck in, so I tell him he still owes me 40 bucks for a ticket,” Gill joked.

Luke Combs Has a Vince Story, Too

That ’90s concert wouldn’t be Combs’ final awkward encounter with Vince Gill. In a 2019 interview with Taste of Country Nights, the “Where the Wild Things Are” singer recounted the first time he quite literally bumped into his hero.

Shortly after Combs moved to Nashville to pursue his country music career, he attended a Warren Hayes show at a Nashville bar called 3rd and Lindsley. The “Even Though I’m Leaving” singer was standing on the staircase when the country legend bumped into him.

“I didn’t have a publishing deal, a record deal — I had just moved to Nashville a couple months before this, and it was just like super awkward,” Combs recalled.

Featured image by Terry Wyatt/WireImage