“He Brought Traditional Country Radio Back” – Luke Combs & Garth Brooks Praise Randy Travis’ Impact On Country Music

A couple of country music legends in their own right paying their respect to one of the biggest country icons of all time.

Luke Combs recently sat down with the legendary Garth Brooks for an “Artist-to-Artist” conversation on the BIG 615 radio station. Garth launched the station (on TuneIn) in June of 2023, and in his words, it was an effort to take country music to the global scale, while honoring where it comes from (hence the 615 area code).

The radio station is currently in the middle of airing an in-depth discussion that Combs and Brooks shared. Yesterday’s conversation focused on Combs’ humble beginnings, and the newest clip shows a backwards-chair-sitting Brooks putting on his journalist cap and asking Luke some hard hitting questions.

Garth opened up by asking Combs what his favorite country music artists are, and the country singer responded by saying:

“When I was riding around in the car, my guys were Vince Gill, you (Garth), Clint Black, Brooks and Dunn, Randy Travis, Travis Tritt. The first thing I can remember singing was Vince.”

Combs certainly had a good taste back in the day, and Brooks made sure to point out that one name Luke mentioned stood above the rest in his opinion:

“The list you named… there’s one guy that’s ahead of all of them in age and it’s Randy Travis. And I’ll tell you this, being one of those guys on that list, being one of those guys in that era… if it wasn’t for Randy Travis, I don’t think any of us would have been on the radio. Because he brought traditional country radio back.”

Real recognizes real. You’ve always got to give some love to Randy Travis, who undoubtedly left his mark on the country music industry and is basically the face of the neotraditional movement. The “On the Other Hand” singer was forced into retirement following a stroke in 2013, but even after that, Travis has continued to make an impact on country music – even releasing a new song earlier this year.

As Combs and Brooks continued talking, Garth asked if country music was in need of another “Randy Travis moment,” or if Combs saw a monumental artist already occupying the “Randy Travis space” in modern day. Luke answered the difficult, complex question with a couple of different observations:

“I think it’s almost at this kind of fork in the road where (country music) has soared in popularity. Almost unlike anything – we’re talking you and Shania times – it feels like it’s that big. You got the Beyonce thing, you got Post Malone dipping his toes in and everybody else has got a country side project.

It’s the hot ticket item right now. And I think we’re in that space right now where it’s like… you can have the trap beat and the acoustic songwriter Zach Bryan thing and they’re both doing stadium shows. And there’s enough room in there for everybody to do it.”

Country music is certainly having a moment, and it’s cool to see two of the genre’s biggest names chatting it up about the greats of the past and the opportunities of the near future. And Luke’s not wrong about the kind of folks selling out big arenas and stadiums. Morgan Wallen, Luke himself, Zach Bryan… all very different styles and all garnering MASSIVE audiences.

You can listen to the conversation between Brooks and Combs below: