Luke Combs & Eric Church on How Their Hurricane Helene Relief Concert Came About: ‘Let’s Do What We Do Best’ — UPDATE

UPDATE: This story was updated on Tuesday (Oct. 15) with livestream details.

When Luke Combs and Eric Church saw the destruction brought by September’s Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina where they both grew up, they had the same reaction as the rest of America.

“It was disbelief,” Church tells Billboard on Oct. 8. “These are areas that I knew and then I saw the photos and I didn’t recognize these areas. My family spends half the year in Banner Elk. That’s as much home as Nashville is. It was just this shock of I know what I’m supposed to be looking at, but that doesn’t look anything like what it looked like a week ago. I don’t think I’ve come to grips with it yet.”

Combs, who went to college at Appalachian State University in the mountain town of Boone, had the same reaction. The morning after the hurricane hit, “As soon as both of us woke up, we were just inundated with calls and texts and pictures and images from the areas,” he says. “I called Eric and was like, ‘Hey, let’s figure out how to do a show. I don’t know when, I don’t know where. We’ll worry about that later, but let’s just pool our resources.’”

The result is Concert for Carolina, a benefit for Hurricane Helene relief the pair announced on Oct. 7 that will take place Oct. 26 at North Carolina’s Charlotte’s Bank of America Stadium. The pair will be joined by North Carolina native son James Taylor as well as bluegrass superstar Billy Strings. Since the official announcement, a number of other artists have joined the bill, including Keith Urban, Sheryl Crow, Bailey Zimmerman and North Carolina natives The Avett Brothers, Scotty McCreery, Chase Rice and Parmalee.

Additionally, after the show quickly sold out, the concert will now be livestreamed worldwide via Veeps. The livestream will be free for those impacted by Hurricane Helene, as Concert for Carolina and Veeps have used geotargeting to ensure that those in the affected areas will not be charged. For those not directly impacted, the livestream will cost $24.99 with an option for additional donations available. All money raised from the livestream will go to the charities selected by Combs and Church.

While Combs’ immediate instinct was to go to the area and help, he quickly pivoted and thought, “‘Let’s do what we do best and help in the way that is best suited to my abilities and Eric’s abilities’ and I think we’re doing that.” While Church has similarly not visited the area yet because of their ties to Banner Elk, his wife and a team have boots on the ground and have been helping organize relief efforts.

The pair immediately thought of asking Taylor to join them for Oct. 26. “Growing up in North Carolina, ‘Going to Carolina in My Mind’ is a song that every time I would leave the state, no matter where I was in the world, reminded me of the state,” Church says. “I said [to Luke], ‘We’ve got to get James on this.’ So, I set out to make it my mission. It was not the easiest mission I’ve ever done.’”

Church eventually got the contact for Taylor’s day-to-day manager from Joe Walsh. “I called her myself and we had about a 20-minute conversation, and I basically said, “ ‘Carolina in My Mind’ is going to be played that night in the stadium either by him or me, and I hope it’s him.’”

Combs reached out to Strings. “Me and Billy have known each other for some years now and he just had his first child and he’s got a million things going on, but I know that that area of the country is near and dear to him,” he says. “His fan base is heavily rooted in that part of the world, and he was just excited to be able to help out.”

All proceeds from the event will be split evenly between Combs’ charitable endeavors and Church’s Chief Cares Foundation to administer to organizations they choose to support relief efforts across the Carolinas and the Southeast.

Combs and Church aren’t saying how much they hope to raise, but add that all the artists are playing for free, with Combs donating his production, and they hope more corporations will also come aboard providing services and donations.  “The key is this is not going to be a one-, two-, three- month build. It’s going to be a yearslong build,” Church says. “This is not a sprint, it’s a marathon. We have to have plans in place organizationally that we can help assist over the next 12, 24 or even 48 months.”

Concert for Carolina will be hosted by ESPN’s Marty Smith and Barstool Sports’ Caleb Pressley and presented by Explore Asheville and the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority. Tickets went on sale Thursday (Oct. 10) at 10 a.m. E.T. on the Concert for Carolina website and quickly sold out. The website also says a raffle and auction are coming soon.

Additionally, Church released new song “Darkest Hour” on Oct. 4, and is signing over all of his publishing royalties from the song to the people of North Carolina affected by the disaster.