What happens in Mexico stays in Mexico.
Luke Combs‘ appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience Podcast last year gave the world a glimpse into the life of one of country music’s biggest stars, and led to several memorable stories form the Gettin’ Old singer.
One of the wildest tales came when Combs shared his experience of one crazy night in Cabo, Mexico. Luke was invited by Columbia Sportswear to shoot some promotional material while fishing for marlin with a few buddies. In Luke’s words:
“I’m getting paid to go fish for marlin, in Mexico? That’s awesome.”
This all sounded great on paper, but we all know these things rarely go as planned. According to Luke, the Columbia executives might have been playing a bit fast and loose when they said the shoot was in Cabo.
“We’re driving and we get on the interstate and I’m like, ‘man, Cabo seems like it’s behind us kind of right now… that’s kind of odd.’ Then we’re driving for like an hour and a half. And then it’s like, ‘dude, we are in nowhere. Like nowhere dessert.‘”
Eventually Combs and company made it to a small secluded town in rural Mexico where they met up with the Columbia executives. The boys got in a great day of fishing, including Luke pulling out what he claims was a 90 pound tuna, but we all know you can never trust a fisherman’s word.
The real fun began after the fishing. After arriving back at the small beach house they were staying at, the boys were sitting around a fire playing the guitar when they noticed something strange.
I see just this one headlight coming down the beach from miles and miles down the beach.”
If I was alone in a remote corner of Mexico and saw someone coming late at night, my first reaction, much like Luke’s, would be that we were in some big trouble. It must have been the boys lucky day, however, because they were in for a much safer surprise.
“This ATV comes in… and it stops right where we’re at… Turns off and it’s this older white couple from Minnesota.
After figuring out what the hell was happening (and that they weren’t being abducted by the cartel), Luke and his friends struck up a conversation with the couple. They turned out to be a retired couple who spent their winters on the sunny Mexican coast.
One thing led to another and the boys ended up going back to the couple’s house to get some “grass.” On the list of bad ideas, wandering off with strangers in the middle-of-nowhere Mexico is pretty high up, but that wasn’t stopping them.
After a while of hanging out, the subject of country music got brought up, and it became apparent the couple didn’t know who they were dealing with when the gentleman said:
“Yeah but I don’t like any of them new guys, you know. They’re all sissies.”
After a bit more fun (and some tequila shots), Combs’ friend wanted to come clean about how famous Luke was. The singer was hesitant, but his buddy made a bulletproof argument:
“Dude, imagine if these people were in their twenties… and it was their grandparents hanging out with George Strait, and they didn’t know.”
Luke humbly responded with a simple “But dude, I’m not George Strait.” That may be true, but for young people he is in the upper echelon of star power in country music. Luke finally agreed and took some pictures with the couple for their grandkids.
Eventually it came time to head home, and Luke and his buddy began the long walk back to their house. Just when the night couldn’t get any weirder, the boys came across an entirely different surprise.
“All of a sudden these two huge steers walk out, like bulls dude. Walk down this road, and I’m staring down the barrel of these two massive bulls, on the beach in Mexico.”
This feels like the moment where you’d call the scene unrealistic if it were a movie, but sometimes life is stranger than fiction. We’ve heard stories of some wild nights from artists in the past, but this one might just take the cake.
Check out the full story from Luke here. The story starts at 1:22:06: