On 31 July 2026, Luke Combs became the first solo country artist to headline Wembley Stadium. I was there and reviewed that historic first night here. Then, as if doing it once was not enough, he did it twice more. Across those three evenings, 270,000 people saw him. Country music had not merely gone mainstream; it had taken over Wembley.
The Way I Am helps explain how Combs reached that point. Its 22 songs cover just about every aspect of his music, beginning with “Back In The Saddle”, which announces his return in the only way he knows how: with all the hard-rock stylings, enormous guitars and arena-sized intent.
“My Kinda Saturday Night” is a proper honky-tonk stomper—and the fact it was chosen as a single shows that Combs has no intention of sanding away his country edges. “Days Like These”, meanwhile, is the sound of absolute contentment, finding happiness in the moments that rarely make headlines.
“15 Minutes” turns one of country music’s oldest clichés on its head. Someone is indeed ringing home, but this time it is a convict calling his mother from prison. “Alcohol Of Fame” is a fun little drinking song, because an album like this was never going to get far without one.
There is always a car and a girl who got away, and “Daytona 499” combines the two. The title track is a lovely love song, although “I am a walking contradiction,” Combs admits. Perhaps that is the point: he can be the ordinary bloke and the stadium-filling superstar simultaneously.
“Wish Upon A Whiskey” deals in the sort of raw emotion that has always been a country staple, but Combs possesses both the voice and the band to make it soar. “Soon As I Get Home” is more pop-tinged, presenting the conquering hero returning to the place—and person—that really matters.
By the tenth track, most albums would be considering winding down. The Way I Am is merely getting started. “Rethink Some Things” has an unexpected funkiness, before “Giving Her Away” paints an idyllic picture of looking forward to the rest of a life together. I cannot pretend to feel the romance myself, but millions already do.
“Seeing Someone” is a ballad for the one you cannot forget, while the single “Sleepless In A Hotel Room” finds Combs lonely out on the road. “I Ain’t No Cowboy” is another ballad about the one who got away, but “Ever Mine” shifts into something more rooted. Alison Krauss adds her unmistakable voice, and the more Americana and folk-influenced approach suits Combs beautifully.
“Can’t Tell Me I’m Wrong” is a lovely, Latin-tinged thing, conjuring images of beaches and warm breezes. “Miss You Here” finds yet another woman to miss, although few singers communicate that sense of absence as convincingly as Combs.
“Tell ’Em About Tonight” looks ahead to the day when all this is over and somebody else is standing beneath the lights. That might have carried extra weight at Wembley, but rock’n’roll has never come with a compulsory retirement date. Combs does not sound remotely ready to disappear.
“Be By You” comes from the romantic end of his work, while “The Me Part Of You” is written for his children and possesses the warmth that made Fathers & Sons such a personal record. “Rich Man” celebrates the small things, suggesting that beneath all the superficial differences, perhaps we are much the same.
“A Man Was Born” finishes by considering mistakes, experience and everything that brought him here. Isn’t that precisely what country music is for? Taking the wrong turns, living with them and working out how they helped to make you who you are.
I have loved country since hearing Elvis’ Elvis Country album in the mid-1990s, but I have always believed it was where the fans of 1980s hard rock went once that world had died. The huge choruses, enormous guitars, Saturday-night escapism and communal celebration never disappeared; they simply found a different home.
Luke Combs understands that better than anyone. The Way I Am is a country album, unquestionably, but it carries itself like the biggest rock record in the world. After watching 270,000 people fill Wembley Stadium over three nights, it is difficult to argue that it is anything less.
