Photo: Getty Images
Tens of thousands of concertgoers packed Bank of America Stadium on Saturday night (October 26) in Charlotte, North Carolina. Luke Combs, Eric Church and other artists took the stage for the star-studded Concert for Carolina benefit show to help support the region in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
Concert for Carolina raised more than $24.5 million, Combs confirmed on Sunday (October 27).
Combs immediately called fellow North Carolina-born country star, Church, when he learned about the devastation in their shared home state. The pair immediately began planning a fundraising event, scanning through the contact lists on their phones to find artists who would join the lineup. Combs and Church headlined the show with James Taylor and Billy Strings. Others who took the stage — following a delay because of weather — included Sheryl Crow, Keith Urban, Bailey Zimmerman, The Avett Brothers, Scotty McCreery, Chase Rice and Parmalee, in addition to Randy Travis and a few other surprise appearances throughout the night. Artists performed some of their unforgettable, career-spanning hits, in addition to a few covers by other beloved artists (including The Avett Brothers’ rendition of Toby Keith’s “As Good As I Once Was,” and Church’s performance of Brooks & Dunn’s “Neon Moon”). Combs and Church invited artists in the lineup to join them on stage to close the show, after they delivered the first-ever live rendition of their 2019 collaboration, “Does to Me.” It was all hosted by Caleb Pressley and Marty Smith, and live streamed on Veeps and iHeartRadio.
“North Carolina is both of our homes. The small communities that specifically make up western North Carolina are these strong, independent, proud communities,” Church said during a press conference earlier in the day. “And I’ve said many times that they’re the exact community that when the community next door is in trouble, out can count on that community to come help you. And in this situation, there is no community next door. It’s all been destroyed. So, what you’re seeing tonight, is we are the community next door. The people that are in this stadium are the community next door. And Luke called right after this happened, a day or two after, and said, ‘you know, I wanna do this.’ I thought it was a great idea and then we started putting our heads together because the most important thing, the most powerful thing we have in this, is the people that wanna stay in their community. …it’s up to us to figure out a way to help them stay in the community where they are.”
Combs remembered the moment he found out about the devastation of Hurricane Helene, while he sat at home in Nashville, Tennessee. He remembered the “scary” few days without hearing from loved ones who were without cell service, and “wanting to figure out how I can be of service, how I can help the place that raised me and the place that I came from.” Combs knew Church would team up with him, and “this was gonna happen, come hell or high water.
“Everyone has come together and made this such a special, special night, and I just can’t wait to step out on the stage tonight and do what I do best, and see him [Eric] do what he does best, and a lot of other great artists do everything that they know how to do to raise a lot of money for a lot of great causes,” Combs said during the press conference on Saturday morning. He added later, “show like this usually takes a year, or a year and a half, to plan, and we were able to get it done in three weeks. ...We’re thankful for tonight.”