Country Superstar Luke Bryan Stays Focused On Taking His Music Directly To His Fans

Even as he celebrates this week’s release of his latest album Mind of a Country Boy, Luke Bryan is in the midst of a three-day Farm Tour with shows in Kentucky, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.

For the past fifteen years, during the last two weeks of September, Bryan has invited some of his fellow country artists to head out to family farms in different parts of the country for a series of high-energy, live energy shows for local residents to enjoy.

As the son of a Georgia peanut farmer, Bryan remembers how challenging it can be for someone living miles away from a major music venue to see a live show.

“I grew up in a small town where seeing concerts meant making a trip a bigger city. But I loved the excitement of seeing my favorites perform,” he says. “So, the Farm Tour concerts go directly to the fans in those rural towns. The shows are literally built from an empty pasture of a local farm. I love the connection and the relationships we’ve built with the farmers over the years, and we try to play a few new farms each year.”

These are ticketed shows, but through some of the profits, and support from a series of sponsors, the Farm Tours give back to the communities.

Over the past 14 years, Bryan has granted 83 college scholarships and will make more available after the 2024 shows have wrapped up.

With the help of sponsors like Bayer and Fendt, the Farm Tour has raised enough money to supply more than nine million meals to farmers and their families, as well as donate $75,000 to the National FFA Organization.

Taking his music directly to the people has been a priority throughout Bryan’s career.

It started with his Spring Break shows where he’d perform on the beaches of Florida. What began with several thousand people, quickly grew to estimated 200,000 college students within six years.

“The Spring Break shows came from me and my team wanting an outlet to reach a young and fun audience, “Bryan explains. “Kenny Chesney had always been a leader in that space and someone I looked up to doing it. We started on the back deck of a club in Panama City Beach Florida and as it grew, we spilled out onto the beach. Those shows gave me an outlet to release EPs that had a different context lyrically that was separate from my studio albums. Fun, fun times.

The Spring Break and Farm Tours helped build a massive fanbase that would go on to fuel his headline shows in more traditional venues.

Ten years ago, Bryan created a new, special destination concert event called Crash My Playa. The four-day event takes place in Riviera Cancun, Mexico, features Bryan and a handful of fellow country headliners, and sells out every year.

He also recently did a residency at Resorts World in Las Vegas. It was one more unique concert opportunity where his fans could see him perform.

“When you’re in Las Vegas you’ve got Adele down the street and Usher and everybody else, but my thing was to go in there and be authentically me in my moment,” he says. “I realized fans are coming to see me, they’re coming to see a country act. Hopefully they were like, well, I didn’t know he could play piano and freelance like that and do those different songs.”

It also involved designing a set specifically for his show at that venue.

“It ended up being one of my most proud moments from the production and look standpoint.”

The residency is behind him now, but he hasn’t ruled out possibly returning again.

Between touring, writing songs and recording music, and his hosting duties on American Idol, Bryan maintains a pretty heavy schedule. In fact, his new album Mind Of A Country Boy is his first in four years. It’s a collection of 14 songs that touch on a wide range of topics from his love of the country way of life to his dedication to his family to his faith.

“These songs are what gets me right now and reflects a lot on where I am,” he says.

His single “Love You Miss, You Mean It,” a song he co-wrote, quickly made its way up the charts and one released earlier, “Country On” became his 30^th career No. 1.

Bryan says he’s grateful for an incredible career and the opportunity to continue writing songs and performing his music before a live audience.

“I’m still loving it and as long as I am I’ll keep doing it. When I look back on my career and how we’ve accomplished even more than I dreamed of, when the day comes down the road, I’ll be able to walk away with only fond memories and proud of how we built the dream.”