Story Behind the Song: Luke Combs, ‘One Number Away’

On the heels of a whirlwind 2017, including two No. 1 hits ("Hurricane" and "When It Rains It Pours"), Luke Combs released his third single, "One Number Away" in early 2018. The song was written by Combs along with songwriters Sammy Mitchell, Steven Andre Battey, Carlos Battey and Robert Williford.

While much moodier than Combs' last release, the fun-loving and tongue-in-cheek "When It Rains It Pours," "One Number Away" showcases Combs' vocal skills and more emotional lyrical themes. Below, Combs recalls to The Boot how "One Number Away" came to be written.

I wrote that with Rob, Steven and Sandy. I'm not sure how they met -- Steven is an LA guy. I had just moved to town, and Rob introduced me to the other writers and suggested I come in and sing some demos for them.

So I did, and we decided to sit down and try writing something. The second time we wrote, we got "One Number Away." Rob had the idea written down in his phone -- I can't tell you where he got the idea.

Steven is an incredible melody guy, so he said that he had this melody in his head that he really liked, and started humming the chorus of it. We just sat with it for a while. So Steven had the chorus, and then Sandy wrote the track. I had never written with a track guy before; I didn't know that was a thing.

It turned out to be pretty cool, I think. It wound up being one of my favorite songs on the record.