Luke Bryan has had his Nuthouse fan base playing detective for the past few months, with the Georgia native continuously dropping hints about his ninth studio album, Signs.
Now that the 12-track project is officially out, the games still aren’t over. The 50-year-old “Fish Hunt Golf Drink” singer took to social media today to share a lineup of cryptic road signs, seemingly teasing the surprise guests set to join him for his massive Nashville show tomorrow night.
Celebrating his album release, Bryan is hitting the stage at Bridgestone Arena for a special collaborative concert featuring what appears to be six big-name stars. In the carousel post, which ended with the Five-time Entertainer of the Year announcing, “Nashville, there’s gonna be signs,” he also included six images with different designs that fans can’t help but connect the dots on who will be joining him.
I myself am still scratching my head at a couple of the hints and may need the help of the highly skilled internet sleuths, but as for the ones that fans have already basically confirmed, the first picture features a hurricane sign, which no doubt means his “Finders Keepers” duet partner, Luke Combs, will be joining him to help debut the song.
The next sign features various cities like “Raleigh,” “Roanoke,” “Philadelphia,” and “Johnson City,” which is most likely a nod to Darius Rucker’s hit cover, “Wagon Wheel.” Next is the simple “somewhere” wooden plank sign posted on a beach, which means “Somewhere on a Beach” singer Dierks Bentley is a surefire appearance.
The last image features a yellow crossing sign with a white horse that would make perfect sense to tie into a Chris Stapleton appearance. And I can’t help but wonder if we’ll once again get to witness the two sing Stapleton’s co-written 2013 hit for Bryan, “Drink A Beer.”
Now, as for the remaining two signs, which feature a mile 3 marker and “Welcome to Easy Street,” neither I nor the comment section have been able to pinpoint an exact guess. The latter could be a reference to George Jones & Melba Montgomery’s track, “Living on Easy Street,” but I’m not sure how that translates into who will be making a guest appearance in honor of the possum.
One thing’s for sure: none of these clues do much to support the internet’s widespread theory that Taylor Swift could be returning to her country roots. The speculation picked up after Bryan shared a throwback clip of the two performing “I Don’t Want This Night To End” on the 13th anniversary of her Red Tour stop in Music City.
I’d also be remiss if I didn’t mention the slight backlash Bryan is receiving for using AI-generated images in the post, which Instagram very clearly flagged with an “AI content” label. Unfortunately for the singer, who has already made headlines for pushing back against claims that he uses AI in his songwriting, the combination hasn’t exactly gone over well in the comment section. One user wrote, “Aren’t you rich enough to not need AI art?” along with another saying, “Using ai just like he wrote his songs.”
Nonetheless, while I won’t be there to witness the star-studded night in person, you bet your bottom dollar I’m in full fledged nancy drew mode, ready to see what other tricks Bryan has up his sleeve for tomorrow night.