Luke Combs has what country has been missing: Arena rock. And he’s bringing it to Rupp.

It was the night before the Super Bowl and Saturday Night Live was out to capture a mood.

The opening sketch reimagined the recently concluded impeachment trial of President Trump as an episode of “Judge Mathis,” the opening monologue highlighted Houston Texans defensive end J.J. Watt as host and a faux commercial hawked a football-themed Oil of Olay product called Eye Black.

But in the midst of all the political and sports humor was perhaps the biggest introduction so far of an Asheville, North Carolina singer-songwriter rapidly on his way to becoming the biggest country music sensation since Garth Brooks.

His name is Luke Combs. Over the course of two performance segments on SNL (of “Lovin’ On You” and the megahit “Beer Never Broke My Heart”) that, combined, barely clocked in over six minutes, he clued a major national television audience in to what a massive country music following picked up on about three years ago – namely, that a new generation star respectful of country tradition but unapologetically removed from it had fully arrived.

“I would love to lie to you so people would think I was cool and say I was listening to Merle Haggard records when I was 10 years old, but I wasn’t,” Combs told Joseph Hudak of Rolling Stone magazine upon the release of his second and newest album, the aptly titled “What You See is What You Get,” in November.

Therein sits, in part, the appeal of Combs’ music to country crossover artists. The immensely electric, hook-heavy, three guitar charge he displayed so abundantly on SNL takes its cue not from the Haggard or Johnny Cash disciples, but from the radio friendly music that departed from country roots inspiration by assimilating loads of rock and pop references in a manner akin to the music that ruled Nashville during the 1990s. Not coincidentally, this was the sound Combs grew up with (he turns 30 next month). Its lasting impact on the singer is obvious.

To begin with, there is the recent alliance he formed with the hit ‘90s duo Brooks & Dunn. With Combs sitting in, the duo turned a re-recorded version its 1991 debut single “Brand New Man” into a 2019 Top 30 hit. Conversely, Combs recruited Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn to help out on “1, 2 Many,” one of over a dozen songs from “What You See is What You Get” that has received airplay independent of the singer’s official single releases.

He also name checked Brooks & Dunn, along with his favored brands of trucks, cigarettes and, course, beer as “Lovin’ on You” unfolded on SNL.

By the way, Combs openly honored another ‘90s inspiration on the broadcast by wearing a Hank Williams Jr. T-shirt.

To get an idea of just how vast Combs’ popularity has become in a recording career that is barely five years old, zero in on his local performance history. Combs’ Valentines Night performance at Rupp Arena marks his third Lexington visit in four years following introductory sets for the Red, White and Boom festival in 2017 (under the rain at Whitaker Bank Ball Park opening for Luke Bryan) and 2018 (at Rupp ahead of Toby Keith). The proverbial cheery-on-top to all this is the fact this week’s Rupp show, Combs’ first as a headliner, broke the record for the fastest sellout in the arena’s history. All tickets were dispensed in 12 minutes when they went on sale in September.

Of course, no level of mass stardom is immune to at least some amount of blowback. In Combs’ case, though, any seeming level of negativity is aimed more to the country music industry, and its unwavering favoritism to male artists, than to Combs himself. The New York Times, in a combination review of “What You See is What You Get” and Miranda Lambert’s simultaneously released “Wildcard” album, remarked that Combs’ new music makes a modest break from the bro-country ranks by turning the sub-genre, along with the singer’s retro influences, to his favor.

“Combs is a sometimes-impressive exemplar of the genre’s unending maleness — for 50 weeks, his debut, ‘This One’s for You,’ held No. 1 on the Billboard country album chart,” wrote Jon Caramanica in the review. “He inherited the machismo of the recent bro era and returned it to its rural roots while also reviving the arena-rock country of the 1990s.

“That said, Nashville’s minimization of its female performers is an issue so vast and so persistent that the relentless success of Combs is practically camouflaged by it.”

Perhaps, it’s fitting then than Combs finds himself back at Rupp, bigger than country life, on Valentines Night. But his performance isn’t likely to be awash in romantic sentiment any more than it will represent a further indoctrination of bro country marginalization. Combs will more than likely be out to spike the punch with the same kind of party cheer his heroes launched for the country masses three decades ago.

“To go from playing a chicken wing restaurant in Asheville, the Wild Wing Cafe, to selling out PNC Music Pavilion in Charlotte where I used to go see concerts when I was a kid is absolutely mind-blowing,” Combs told Lauren Black of Forbes.com in 2018, a full year ahead of the runaway success of “What You See is What You Get.” “Having 20,000 people buy tickets… that is insane to me.”

Luke Combs/Ashley McBryde/Drew Parker

When: 7 p.m. Feb. 14

Where: Rupp Arena, 430 W. Vine

Tickets: Sold Out

Call: 859-233-3535, 800-745-3000

This story was originally published February 12, 2020 at 12:04 PM.