Luke Combs says Garth Brooks once surprised him with a thoughtful — and extremely generous — gift, even though they barely knew each other at the time.
He shared the story of how it all went down on a new episode of Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast, explaining that the gift confused him at first, for a few different reasons.
Brooks bought Combs a Ford Bronco Raptor, but he didn’t tell the younger star that the car was on its way.
Instead, Combs says, he looked out the window of his house one day, and saw his manager pulling up in the vehicle.
“This was last Christmas. My wife was out somewhere and I was feeding my son at the dinner table in our house,” the singer recounts. “I’m like, ‘Man, why is my manager pulling up in his Bronco?'”
That’s right: It just so happened that Brooks bought Combs the very same car that Combs’ manager drove, down to the “space blue” color.
“He comes in and throws me the keys to this thing, and I’m like, ‘Are you giving me your car, dude?'” the singer goes on to say. “He’s like, ‘No, man, Garth bought you this.'”
That wasn’t the end of Combs’ confusion.
He had no idea what the gift was for, especially since the two men — while they sometimes saw each other at industry events, and of course, Combs was a big fan of the country legend — didn’t know each other all that well.
“I’m like, ‘What’s…[this is a present] for what? This is a $90,000 car, dude! What are you talking about?” Combs remembers.
As it happened, Brooks had bought the car the year before, after Combs performed his song, “The Beaches of Cheyenne,” at the 2022 Nashville Songwriters Awards Ceremony.
Brooks received the Kris Kristofferson Lifetime Achievement Award that night, and Combs was one of several artists to sing Brooks-penned songs in tribute to him.
Combs’ rendition clearly made an impression on Brooks: He posted on social media afterward that he “never felt like a songwriter” until he heard the younger star sing “the sh&@t out of” “The Beaches of Cheyenne.”
Brooks connected with Combs’ manager to ask for gift ideas, and discovered he liked cars. So he decided to order the Bronco Raptor as a “thank you” present, but the car was on hold, and he wasn’t able to deliver it right away.
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By the time the Raptor actually made it to Combs’ house, a year had passed — and the two men hadn’t even really talked to each other much in the meantime.
So, Combs was pretty baffled to receive the gift, until he called Brooks and got the full story.
That phone call, Combs said, made a big impression on him.
He told Brooks the gift wasn’t necessary, but he says the star insisted he wanted to make a big gesture to show his appreciation for the time Combs took to perform in his honor.
“‘You could’ve went out and booked your own show that night, made this much money or whatever,'” Combs remembers Brooks saying, adding, “I was just kind of floored by that, to be honest.”
Combs says there’s just one big mystery left about his gift from Brooks.
When Shepard asked him how many other singers performed in tribute to Brooks at the ceremony that night in 2022, Combs guessed that there were probably about eight of them — but he has no idea whether they all got a car, or a gift of a similar caliber, as a “thank you” present.
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