CHARLOTTE, N.C. — In the grand scheme of things, fellow North Carolina natives and country music stars Luke Combs and Eric Church are happy to be co-headlining a concert at Bank of America Stadium later this month.
And, at the same time, they’re unhappy about it — about why it’s necessary to begin with, that is.
“I wish it had never happened,” said Church, the 47-year-old Granite Falls native and 10-time Grammy-nominated singer, speaking to The Charlotte Observer by Zoom Tuesday.
“I’m glad we can help, but … I wish we were never here,” Church said. “So now it’s a matter of trying to figure out the best way that we can rebuild where we’re both from … the place that made us who we are as artists.”
Monday, Church and Combs were announced as two of the headliners of a special benefit show on Oct. 26 that will help victims of Hurricane Helene in the Carolina region.
“I would love to be there right now chainsawing trees down, or whatever that may be. Just trying to figure out, in what way can we have the most impact, right?,” added Combs, 34, who was born in Huntersville and raised in Asheville.
“Like Eric said, obviously, we wish that we didn’t have to be even having this conversation. But we are. So I think that’s where this concert comes in. This is something that we can do to make an impact.”
Tickets for the “Concert for Carolina” went on sale Thursday. Church and Combs will be joined for the event by folk legend James Taylor, who has ties to Chapel Hill; bluegrass star Billy Strings, who has performed regularly in North Carolina; along with Keith Urban, Sheryl Crow, and Bailey Zimmerman.
All proceeds from the event will be split evenly between Combs and Church’s Chief Cares Foundation, to be distributed to organizations of their choosing in support of relief efforts across “the Carolina region.”
The event is the brainchild of Combs, himself a Grammy nominee responsible for hits like “Forever After All” and “Fast Car.”
“I was just sitting at home and watching everything, and waiting to hear back from my friends and family, and I called this guy,” he said, gesturing to Church. “He was my first call. I was like, I know he’s gonna want to do something and step up. And I had the crazy idea of seeing if the Panthers would be willing to give us the stadium.”
The David and Nicole Tepper Foundation — which owns the team and already had pledged more than $3 million to those impacted by the deadly storm that swept through the Carolinas on Sept. 26 and 27 — was all-in.
“Then,” Church added, “we both got on our phones and started texting people, calling people, trying to put what this thing was together. … Normally, things like this — when you’re talking about that kind of concert — take months to plan. We’re literally trying to do it in days.”
Combs said finding a “day that we’re both available, and that the stadium’s also open, and all those other artists are available, that’s kind of a miracle in and of itself.”
Meanwhile, Church last week released a new song, “Darkest Hour,” that he said in a statement was dedicated to “the unsung heroes, the people who show up when the world’s falling apart.” He pledged to donate all of his publishing royalties for the new song to hurricane relief efforts.
On Tuesday, he called the reaction to it “great.”
“The biggest thing for me,” Church said, “is keeping focus and giving awareness to what’s happening in the area. ‘Cause a lot of times when these disasters happen — and this is just historically — everybody pays attention for a month or however long. And then there’s another thing.”
For more information on the show: concertforcarolina.com.
