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Luke Combs blends love and heartache in the latest song to release from his highly-anticipated album, Gettin’ Old, and the country music giant shared how his wife inspired his latest ballad.
Combs shared the story on his social media channels on Friday (February 10), with the release of “Love You Anyway.” The idea stemmed from a live performance on Valentine’s Day in 2020, when Combs dedicated his performance of “Beautiful Crazy” to his then-fiancée Nicole, though he was unsure whether she was in the venue or asleep on the tour bus at the time.
That’s when Combs said, “If you’re here [in the arena], I love you. If not, you know I do anyway.”
“Unknown to me, my buddy Dan wrote down ‘Love You Anyway’ as a title in his phone after hearing that, then he told me the story later that month when he and I were writing with my good friend Ray Fulcher,” Combs said. “We loved the idea as a title and decided to write about loving someone so much that even if you knew from the beginning they were going to break your heart, you’d love them anyway. It came off very poetic and we wanted to find the words that could really give meaning to what we were trying to say, but as we say in the song, we didn’t know if there were deep enough words made for that. But it all came together and essentially it’s a heartbreak and love song all in one. And long story short, me dedicating a song I wrote about Nicole ended up turning into another song about Nicole, and now three years later the song is finally out at the same time of year. It’s a special one to me and I hope y’all love it as much as I do.”
Combs previously teased “Love You Anyway” on his social media channels, sharing a nearly one-minute audio clip of an acoustic rendition. The reigning iHeartRadio Music Awards Country Artist of the Year (who is nominated in multiple categories at the 2023 iHeartRadio Music Awards) confirmed that “Love You Anyway” is one of 18 tracks set to appear on Gettin’ Old, his follow-up to his 12-track project that released in June 2022, Growin’ Up.
“And if your touch shattered me like glass/ I’d be in pieces trying to make the breaking last/ If it took one look to turn my days to night/ At least I’d have the stars that sparkle in your eyes/ There’s just some things that leave a man no choice/ Like a compass needle needing its true north/ Even if I knew the day we met you’d be the reason this heart breaks/ Oh, I’d love you anyway”
Gettin’ Old also includes the widely-demanded song “5 Leaf Clover,” in addition to previously-teased “Tattoo on a Sunburn,” a cover of “Fast Car” (originally released by Tracy Chapman in the late 1980s), and the already-released title track, “Growin’ Up and Gettin’ Old,” among other lightweights. Listen to “Love You Anyway” here: