Luke Combs on that Miranda Lambert duet and where he hopes to land in country music history

How did Luke Combs recruit Miranda Lambert for a duet? Will his new album "Growin' Up" receive a deluxe reissue? And what does he think of his growing legacy in country music?

We asked Combs about that and more during a backstage visit with the reigning CMA Entertainer of the Year ahead of his first NFL stadium headlining show in Denver earlier this year.

Read on for excerpts from the interview with Combs. Want more? Get an in-depth look at Combs on the road in a new Tennessean profile that chronicles his journey from writing rounds to stadium headliner.

He wrote a truckload of songs for 'Growin' Up'

Combs worked on about 50 songs for his third major label album "Growin' Up," cutting 35 (!!!) of those for album consideration. The album dropped last week via River House Artists/Columbia Nashville.

How does he narrow 50 songs to a dozen heard on the album?

"You just change it 100 times," Combs said, adding: "You just keep changing it and changing it and changing it until it's like, 'OK, we need the ... record, man. What's the record?' I made that tracklist 50 times, dude. And there was different songs on it every time."

On the road with Luke Combs: How country music's blue-collar champion rose to the top

But a backlog of "Growin' Up"-era songs doesn't guarantee a green light for a deluxe reissue like with past Combs projects, he said.

"I don't want people to be like, 'OK, of course,'" Combs said. "I don't know what's next. It's not like I went and did final vocals and overdubs. It's not a finished thing. There's a lot of work to be done with those other songs."

"I wanna settle into this kid groove and try to do that," he said, referencing the birth of his first child, Tex Lawrence Combs. "I haven't even gotten into that yet, from a writing perspective."

His next single is a total groove

Combs enlisted his guitar tech Jamie Davis for a co-writing session on his rising new radio single, "The Kind Of Love We Make." A country-rock song with a throwback groove, Combs co-wrote the number with Davis alongside collaborators Dan Isbell and Reid Isbell.

The vintage touch comes from Davis' time in regional soul-rock outfit Jamie Davis & Soul Gravy, Combs said.

"He sent me that song and I was like, 'This is super awesome. It's got this super bluesy, Mississippi thing going on," he said, adding: "We went from there ... and it just ended up being really perfect."

He was hesitant to duet with Miranda Lambert

Combs enlisted country heavyweight Miranda Lambert for a monster "Growin' Up" duet, "Outrunnin' Your Memory." With a restless, road-worn chorus led by two of country music's favorite voices, the song leaves a can't-miss mark on the season's most-anticipated Nashville release.

He and Lambert sat down for a session during the weeks that COVID-19 derailed touring. They began workshopping an idea Combs started the day before with Dan Isbell, eventually calling the songwriter to join.

The end result? "Outrunnin' Your Memory."

"When we had written that, there was no talk of "Is this for your album? Is this for my album? Is this a duet?'" Combs said. "Nothing. It was three songwriters writing a song."

But when Combs hit the studio, he couldn't resist cutting the song.

"I was like, 'We have to get Miranda on this, right? We just have to. I can't not ask,'" Combs said. "As much as I don't want to ask ... because that's a big commitment from another artist to go, 'Hey do you want to be on this song?' One: It puts you in this spot where you don't want to say 'no' and hurt somebody's feelings.

"A lot of the times it's not about whether it's really good or not. It's 'Do I have the time to put into this?' Because let's say this song becomes a single. There will be work associated with that for her."

Still, he asked and Lambert agreed — and country fans can soak up the result on the tune.

"I was like, 'Hey, feel free to say no to this ...'," he said, adding: "I love how it turned out, man. I think it sounds awesome."

He's not too concerned with legacy ... yet

Despite a record-breaking streak on the country radio charts, Combs doesn't dwell too much on the 30,000-foot view of his career.

But he hopes to be part of the answer when one question comes up among circles of beer-drinking buddies: Who's on your Mt. Rushmore of country music?

"I would love to be the best to ever do it, that would be great — But how do you even categorize that?" Combs said. "To me, the most realistic thing is: How do I end up in someone's couch conversation 30 years from now? And some guy who's seven beers deep is coming to blows with his best friend, saying 'Luke Combs, he's the guy. How dare you leave him off?'

"That, to me, is the ultimate 'you've left your mark' thing."

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Luke Combs on that Miranda Lambert duet and his country music legacy