Following hurricane Helene’s destruction to the Carolina region, North Carolina natives Luke Combs and Eric Church have made it their mission to bring healing in the best way they know how — music.
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The Country stars pulled their resources together and coordinated a benefit show which will take place Saturday, October 26 at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina and benefit various organizations aiding in relief efforts.
“It was disbelief,” Church told Billboard of the destruction he’s seen in the area. “These are areas that I knew and then I saw the photos and I didn’t recognize these areas… 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.”
Added Luke, “As soon as both of us woke up, we were just inundated with calls and texts and pictures and images from the areas,” he shared. “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.’”
That’s exactly what they did as Combs donated his production for the show and called in a favor to good friend and GRAMMY-winning Bluegrass artist, Billy Strings, who agreed to headline the show.
“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,” Combs shared. “His fan base is heavily rooted in that part of the world, and he was just excited to be able to help out.”
While Combs worked to get Strings on board, Church made it his personal mission to get ahold of fellow North Carolinian, James Taylor. Not having any personal connection to Taylor made it “not the easiest mission” for Church, but his motivation to help out his hometown propelled him and he eventually caught a break after getting contact information for Taylor’s day-today manager.
“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,’” Church revealed. Soon after, Taylor agreed to play the show.
In addition to Combs, Strings, Church and Taylor, more artists have recently been added including Sheryl Crow, Keith Urban and Bailey Zimmerman with even more set to be announced in the coming weeks. Church and Combs shared several have reached out and are eager to lend their talents to help.
Hosted by ESPN’s Marty Smith and Barstool Sports’ Caleb Pressley the show will see all proceeds (including sponsorships), be split 50/50 between charities of Combs’ choice and Church’s Chief Cares Foundation. Combs’ portion of proceeds are set to benefit Samaritan’s Purse, Manna Food Bank and Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest NC, as well as one more organization still to be announced. Church’s portion will benefit those in need via care through his Chief Cares Foundation which is focused on helping established charities and organizations that are well managed, organized and can expedite aid directly to the families affected.
“The key is this is not going to be a one, two, three month build. It’s going to be a years long build,” Church concluded. “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.”
Tickets go on sale October 10 at 10AM ET. For those unable to attend the concert but still looking to support, donations can be made now to The North Carolina Community Foundation Disaster Relief Fund or to various organizations listed at concertforcarolina.com.