“I'll Root You On All The Way to No. 1”: Drew Baldridge Shares Luke Combs’ Heartwarming Reaction When He Asked For His Song, ‘Tough People’, Back
By Maxim Mower
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While speaking on the Holler Stage at C2C Berlin 2025, Drew Baldridge delved into the rollercoaster ride his current single, ‘Tough People’, experienced before being released last October.
The ‘She's Somebody's Daughter’ singer-songwriter explained how, before he decided to cut the philosophical, uplifting ode himself as his debut single with BBR, Luke Combs and Lainey Wilson had plans to release ‘Tough People’ as a blockbuster duet.
After confirming that Luke Combs had recorded his own version of ’Tough People’, Drew Baldridge reflected on the moment he first played it for his good friend, Lainey, “Me and Lainey, we go way back. She was my first friend in Nashville. We've known each other for almost 13 years now, and she was over in my house last January - not this one, but the one before. We were just having dinner, catching up”.
The fast-emerging artist expanded, “She's like, ‘Play me something you're excited about’. So I played her ‘Tough People’, and we got through the first verse, and she just hit ‘stop’. She's like, ‘Drew, this song is, like, Song of the Year. This is so good. What are you doing with it? And I said, ‘Well, I recorded it, but two weeks ago, Luke Combs texted and said he wanted to record it. I said, ‘I don't know what to do. It would be awesome to have Luke record it, but also, this is a special song for me’”.
Such was the visceral impact the evocative ‘Tough People’ lyrics had on the Bell Bottom Country star, Lainey Wilson immediately raised the possibility of duetting it with Luke Combs, “Lainey's like, ‘Well, I'm just gonna text Luke's ass right now and see what he's doing with it’. So she just texted him, like, ‘Hey, a little birdie just played me this song, what do you think of it?’ And he hit right back, ‘Yeah, we should do it together’. And she goes, ‘What do you think? Should we do it together?’”
The Illinois chart-topper underlined that he gave Lainey and Luke the go-ahead, and they started working on cutting the powerful track, “I was like, ‘Man, that would change me and my family's life, if y'all did this together’. She's like, ‘Well, send me the song’. So I sent her the song, she went home, and she was living with it, and Luke was texting. Luke went in and recorded it, and I sat in the back of the studio and watched him record it. It was special. He sounded awesome singing it”.
Drew Baldridge went on, “That was February. So then you think, March, April... They're busy. Their lives are crazy. Lainey is working on a record. Luke's working on a record. Then June rolls around, and by this time, I have ‘She's Somebody's Daughter, which is almost Top 10, and every radio guy in America is like, ‘What's next for you? What's the next song?’ I'm sitting over here with ‘Tough People’. I'm like, ‘This is my freaking best song that I have, and it's in limbo because Luke Combs recorded it, and I don't know if Lainey is going to sing it. I don't know what's going on there. I'm calling Lainey, and she's like, ‘Luke hasn't put his vocal on it yet’...It just didn't feel right. It didn't feel like it was supposed to happen”.
Once Luke Combs had released his concept album about the relationship between fathers and sons, the fate of ‘Tough People’ seemed more up-in-the-air than ever, as Baldridge explained, “Luke put out a Father's Day album, which I'm sure you all heard. It's really great, but ‘Tough People’ is not a Father's Day song, you know? So he's sitting on it. I just called him around June, and it was a really hard call to make, because I had two other co-writers that were on this song with me [Adam Sanders and Jordan Walker]. I called them, and I was like, ‘Hey, I'm thinking about taking this song back from Luke Combs and Lainey Wilson’”.
Drew Baldridge joked, “They're like, ‘You're an idiot!’ I was like, ‘Well, I bet on myself last time, and it worked. Just trust me, let me bet on myself. I think we can have a hit out of it. I mean, I don't know if it'll be ‘Luke Combs and Lainey Wilson’ big, but I don't know what they're doing with it. I can promise you, with me, it's going to be a single’”.
Then, Drew Baldridge recalled the endearing moment he rang up Luke Combs to discuss ‘Tough People’, with Luke emphasising that he would have Baldridge's back either way, “So I called Luke, and he was like, ‘Dude, I do love this song. But you wrote it - you should sing it’. I was like, ‘Man, I appreciate that. You know, this is such a big moment. He's like, ‘Yeah, I'll root you on all the way to No. 1’”.
Baldridge quipped, “I got off the phone, and I was like, ‘That was the stupidest thing I've ever done in my life...!’ I just called Luke and told him I wanted this song back, and he gave it to me. Now I have to pull a hit off. Now I gotta call my co-writers and tell them, ‘Well, you got a Drew Baldridge single, not a Luke Comb and Lainey Wilson single’. But it's been such a blessing, and that song is now our second Top 15 in America and our second No. 1 on the UK Country Radio Airplay Chart.
Despite the tantalising prospect of a Luke Combs and Lainey Wilson link-up - something we'd still love to see one day - Holler's Ross Jones stressed to Drew Baldridge on-stage that his rendition of ‘Tough People’ sounds fantastic, with Baldridge lacing the emotion and gravitas that pervades ’She's Somebody's Daughter’ into the single.
Following his discussion, during which he also touched on the transition from being independent to signing with BBR, Drew Baldridge serenaded the packed-out Holler Stage crowd at C2C Berlin 2025 with an array of fan-favourites - and even some unreleased gems.
Baldridge treated us to a stellar performance of ‘Rebel’, which we're hoping will be arriving soon, as well as delivering the live debut of the striking ‘Man Don't’. The latter finds the ‘Can She Have This Dance’ hitmaker once again offering his male listeners some advice, as he dismisses restrictive stereotypes about what it means to be ‘a man’.
