Luke Combs praised fellow country superstar Miranda Lambert for her songwriting abilities and discussed their forthcoming duet, “Outrunnin’ Your Memory” during a recent interview with Good Morning America (GMA).
In sharing more information about the track, which will appear on his third studio album Growin’ Up, Combs said neither he nor Lambert set out to write a duet.
“[Miranda and I] wrote [‘Outrunnin’ Your Memory‘] together, and it wasn’t like we sat down to write a duet. I didn’t plan to have her on my album and she didn’t plan for us to write a song for hers,” Combs told GMA. “There were no intentions in the songwriting other than, ‘Let’s go write a song that we both think is really good.’”
Combs then explained that he thought the track was “too good” not to share when he began cutting songs for his new album and that Lambert had to sing on it.
“When we were going in the studio, I was like, ‘I gotta cut this song,’” Combs said. “It was never like, ‘Man, it’s gonna be this duet, and we’re gonna do this.’ It was like, ‘We gotta have her on this song, right? It’s too good, and she’s too good, not to do it.’”
In addition, Combs praised Lambert, telling GMA the “If I Was A Cowboy” singer is someone he’s looked up to as a songwriter for a long time.
“She’s somebody I’ve looked up to for so long as a songwriter. And what she does as an artist is, I think, super authentic and amazing as well,” he added.
During a May 5 interview with Country Countdown USA’s Lon Helton, Combs teased that he had written a song with Lambert, but declined to go into much further detail.
“I have the same answers [Miranda] had,” Combs told Helton after he played audio from a recent interview with Lambert indicating that she and Combs had written a song together. “But we got to write together, and there were lots of opportunities during COVID. It was a super bucket list thing for me to get to do,” he explained.
Luke Combs Previously Praised Miranda Lambert As “The Most Badass Person On The Planet”
Combs previously praised Lambert at the 55th Annual CMA Awards in 2021 during an interview with Access. In discussing his big Entertainer of the Year win at the awards, Combs complimented his fellow nominees in the category, including Lambert.
“Like, you look up to a guy like Eric [Church], man, and his ability to hold a crowd and write a song and Chris [Stapleton], just one of the best songwriters of all time, and Carrie [Underwood]’s like the best voice ever and Miranda [Lambert]’s the most badass person on the planet. It’s like, this guy, this is the guy. It just doesn’t make any sense to me,” he said in reaction to his victory.
Combs’ latest album, Growin’ Up, which includes his duet with Lambert as well as 11 other tracks, will be released on June 24. He will soon share another track from the long-awaited project, “The Kind Of Love We Make,” on June 17, just days before the album release.
Growin’ Up is the follow-up to his chart-topping, 2x Platinum 2019 album, What You See Is What You Get, and the 2020 deluxe edition of that dubbed, What You See Ain’t Always What You Get.
Combs is also expecting his first child with wife Nicole Hocking Combs in the coming weeks.
Additionally, Combs will hit the road this fall on his Middle of Somewhere Tour, which features support from Jordan Davis, Mitchell Tenpenny, Morgan Wade, and Lainey Wilson.
