Luke Bryan has seen just about everything thrown on stage at his concerts, including actual $1,100 phone, but during his last show’s final song, the “projectile” turned out to be something a little less dangerous: a beach ball.
“That’s just entitlement,” he stated about people feeling the need to throw things on stage at artists. But this moment came alongside some more frustrating memories from performing, including two separate times he’s gotten sick mid-show. The first happened in Arkansas when COVID hit him on stage, and more recently, a sudden illness made him wake up barely able to breathe. “This is happening again,” he thought. He started warming up hours earlier than normal, 5:15 p.m. for a 7:30 show, and eased in with songs like Huntin’, Fishin’ and Lovin’ Every Day and Country Song Came On during VIP. But once he hit the stage, his breathing started failing him again.
He stopped and told the crowd the truth — he wasn’t going to be able to deliver the show they deserved. He refunded the tickets and later holed up in bed for several days, calling on friend Eric Church to step in for his next festival set. “I don’t want to limp through shows,” Bryan said. “When this is going on, your brain and every fabric of your body is trying to do everything to do better. It’s the lowest I get as a human being because it’s so frustrating.” Bryan’s battled health issues his whole life, “I was the little kid on the inhaler and drinking the pink stuff," but that doesn’t make disappointing a crowd any easier. When he’s healthy, though, Bryan brings his voice and decades of experience to every stage. From playing David Allan Coe and Waylon Jennings in biker bars, to performing fan-favorites like I Don’t Want This Night to End, Play It Again, and Country Girl (Shake It for Me), he never takes for granted that he gets to sing these songs for the rest of his life.
And while he’s toured everywhere, there’s still one place he’s determined to conquer — Rogers, Arkansas. “All I want to do is go to Rogers and put on a good show,” he said, dreaming up a two-night event with completely different set lists, jokingly calling it Flem Jam. Bryan still makes time for life’s other joys than his usual touring schedule — like his Farm Tour, fishing trips where he’s caught 200-pound sailfish and 300-pound bull sharks (warning: never pull a bull shark onto the boat), and most importantly, his family. He’s even cleared his fall schedule to watch his son play football.
As for the coolest thing he’s ever gotten for free? It would be his first truck from Carl Black Chevy, “the biggest, jacked truck with shiny wheels” he could pick.