Luke Combs is nominated four trophies at this year’s CMA Awards, including the night’s highest honor, Entertainer of the Year. But the award he is most excited about isn’t even for him, but for Vince Gill, who is the latest recipient of the Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award.
“It’s super deserved. I think he’s such an underappreciated artist, not just of the 90s, but of country music,” Combs tells Country Now. “So it’s great to see the CMAs recognize him. I think he’s a prolific songwriter, producer, singer, guitar player. I mean, he just does it all. He’s just in a rarefied era, someone that can really do everything to such a high level. So I’m excited to be there.”
Luke Combs Predicts Who Will Win the Entertainer of the Year
Combs shares the Entertainer of the Year category Lainey Wilson, Cody Johnson, Chris Stapleton, and Morgan Wallen. While any of them would be worthy, Combs predicts one of two artists will walk away with the trophy for the night’s highest honor – and it isn’t him.
“I mean, I think Lainey’s chances are high,” Combs tells Taste of Country. “But CoJo [Cody Johnson] would be kinda sick, too, you know what I mean? He’s great. I love him, too.”
Combs is also nominated for Male Vocalist of the Year, and Single of the Year, the latter both as an artist and the producer, for “Ain’t No Love In Oklahoma.”
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Luke Combs Refuses to Let Fame Change Him
Since 2016, Combs has had hit after hit at radio, beginning with “Hurricane,” which also became his first No. 1 single. Combs, already the father of two with another one on the way, is determined to remain the same person, with or without awards and accolades.
“I’m very grounded,” Combs says (via Buck Country Music News). “And I’ve had the same basically band and crew. 99 percent of my guys have been with me for nine years now, and so I’m just around the same people, and my assistant’s my best friend from high school.”
“I just hang out at home with my kids and my wife, and they don’t treat me any different than anybody else,” he continues. “I go to the grocery store and cook dinner every night, and then I go to work, and it’s like, I just can’t really be any different. It would just be weird to me to be any different.”
Combs took much of 2025 off to spend time at home, where he got hone in on his cooking skills.
“I feel like I’ve always been pretty decent at cooking,” Combs boasts. “It’s more like the speed at which I have to cook sometimes. Now it’s like, ‘Oh, the kids are up.’ They’re not going to wait. I can’t explain to them why it’s going to take 30 minutes to have breakfast on the table.”
The 2025 CMA Awards will air live from Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena on Wednesday, November 18, at 8:00 PM ET on ABC. The show will stream the next day on Hulu.