Tracy Chapman tape owned by Luke Combs' father among items in exhibit coming to Country Music Hall of Fame

Grammy-winning multiple-time chart-topper and Entertainer of the Year-winning country superstar Luke Combs will be highlighted in a Country Music Hall of Fame exhibition entitled "Luke Combs: The Man I Am" open from July 11, 2024, through June 2025.

"Once I decided I wanted to do music as a career, it didn't matter if it was for 100 people or 1,000 people, I just wanted to be playing country music for anyone who would listen. If I could have enough fans to call it a job, I was set. At my core I love country music and this exhibit is as prestigious of an honor as it gets," offered the "Beer Never Broke My Heart" vocalist in a press statement.

"Few artists have experienced the kind of meteoric rise and sustained success Luke Combs has since signing his first recording contract just two years after moving to Nashville," said Kyle Young, CEO of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. "He has earned a career-defining string of #1 singles, set new benchmarks on the music charts, won more than a dozen major country music industry awards since 2016 and sold out stadiums around the world."

The exhibition's opening continues in a series of career-redefining Music City moves for Combs.

Summer 2024 is also the scheduled opening date for Category 10, a downtown concert hall and honky-tonk bar partnership with Opry Entertainment Group — whose name is inspired by his 2016 breakout single "Hurricane." For 30 years, the 69,000-square-foot multi-level venue was formerly the longtime Ryman-owned country bar Wildhorse Saloon.

In support of the exhibition, Combs will participate in a songwriter round in the museum's CMA Theater on July 11 at 2:30 p.m. CT. During the program, Combs will be joined by four of his songwriting collaborators — Ray Fulcher, James McNair, Drew Parker and Rob Williford — to share the stories behind and perform some of the songs they have written together.

Tickets for the event are available via the Country Music Hall of Fame's website.

The exhibition will feature the following Combs stage wear, tour memorabilia, manuscripts, set lists, instruments, photographs, posters and childhood memorabilia:

• The cassette of Tracy Chapman’s self-titled 1988 debut album — which includes “Fast Car” — belonging to Luke Combs’s father, Lee Combs.

• Martin GPCPA4 Sapele acoustic guitar Combs used extensively at his early performances, 2012–2014. When he moved to Nashville, Combs gave the instrument to his friend and fellow performer Adam Church.

• Playbill from Combs’ leading role as Nathan Detroit in the musical “Guys and Dolls” during his senior year at A. C. Reynolds High School, Asheville, North Carolina.

• CD-R of the three songs recorded for Combs’s debut EP, "The Way She Rides," signed by Combs and Adam Church and given to Church’s parents. Combs wrote on the paper sleeve, “To the Church’s / Y’all rock SO hard!”

• Columbia PFG shirt and Swamp Assassin ball cap Combs wore in the 2016 music video for “Hurricane.”

• Manuscript of “Six Feet Apart,” co-written by Combs, Brent Cobb and Rob Snyder on April 14, 2020.

• Dale Earnhardt commemorative leather jacket Combs wore in honor of the famed stock car racer and team owner when he performed at Daytona International Speedway prior to the start of the NASCAR Daytona 500, Feb. 14, 2021. Earnhardt was killed on the final lap of the Daytona 500 in 2001.

• Jersey that Combs wore when he was a member of the Rockets football team at A. C. Reynolds High School.

• Dollar bill Combs kept as a memento from his first paying gig at Boone’s Parthenon Café, where the cover charge was $1.

• Crosley Dansette portable record player Combs used to share his recording of “Beautiful Crazy” with Nicole Hocking, now his wife, for the first time.

For more information on all things Luke Combs, visit https://www.lukecombs.com.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: What's in Luke Combs exhibit at Nashville's Country Music Hall of Fame