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He wrote "Beautiful Crazy" about her.
By Rebekah Kuschmider — Written on Aug 03, 2020
Luke Combs has had a big year.
The breakout country star took home three major awards at the 2019 CMAs, including Best Song of 2019 and Best Male Vocalist. He even got a shout out from Entertainer of the Year winner Garth Brooks who said: “Luke Combs, wherever you’re at, this has got your name on it in the future, I can tell you that right now.”
But Combs isn't just thriving in his professional life. He married long-time girlfriend Nicole Hocking in August 2020.
The singer met Hocking, who works on the administrative side of the music industry, through mutual friends two years ago. Nicole says it was pretty much love at first sight and she knew she wanted to marry him early on.
Who is Nicole Hocking?
Read on for more details.
1. Nicole Hocking also works in the music industry.
Nicole Hocking is a Florida native who went to school for civil engineering, according to InTouch. She decided to go a different direction with her career, however, and sought out internships in the music industry. She decided to focus on country music and moved to Nashville to take a job with BMI doing recruiting for the publisher.
2. She met Combs through mutual friends.
InTouch reports that Hocking and Combs had mutual friends and they ended up hanging out together at a music festival, well before he was a big name star. He then asked her out when they got back to Nashville and she was smitten right away.
"That was all she wrote," she said of their first date.“[I knew] pretty close to right away. I saw the way he treated me and other people and it was like, ‘My heart is yours forever.'”
He recalls that when they got together he told his friends he didn't think he had a chance. "Everybody was like, ‘Yeah, this is never gonna work,' and so I didn't have anything when we met." But Nicole was in it for his heart and they've been together ever since.
3. She has a song written about her.
Combs didn't know that their future was a sure thing so he sweetened the deal a bit by writing Nicole a song. His Number 1 hit "Beautiful Crazy" is actually about her.
"Beautiful, crazy, she can't help but amaze me / The way that she dances, ain't afraid to take chances / And wears her heart on her sleeve," the lyrics run. "Yeah, she's crazy but her crazy's beautiful to me."
He isn't ashamed to admit that the song impressed her when they were first getting to know each other. "That got me some serious brownie points. That was before we were officially dating," Combs told ABC.
4. She got engaged to combs in 2018.
The couple got engaged back in November 2018, allegedly in the kitchen of the house they had just bought in Nashville.
They didn't let his fans know the happy news until a month later when he and Nicole were on vacation in Hawaii. Luke posted a photo of the two of them on Instagram with a caption saying "She said yes a while ago but this is a way better place to take pictures than the kitchen. Can’t wait to spend forever with you @nicohocking I Love You! #Mahalo."
Nicole also announced their engagement with a picture of her hand and her gorgeous engagement ring.
"Now that I’ve had time to let it sink in a little... I always said if I was to ever get married, I didn’t want to pick out the ring or go ring shopping. I wanted it to be something that when he saw it, he knew that it was the one.. & boyyyyyy did he outdo himself. I never thought a ring could mean so much to me," she wrote. "I love you, Luke Albert Combs, I’m going to marry the hell outta you."
5. She has addressed body shaming.
In October 2019, Nicole got salty on Twitter in response to people making disparaging comments about Luke's appearance. She commented that she was not happy with people "being less than pleasant to me for dating a bigger guy." She called out body shaming as a cultural problem and suggested that people need to learn to be accepting of everyone no matter their size.
She tweeted, "also grow up. it’s 2019. the double standard for this is absolutely disgusting."
6. Hocking is protective of Combs.
Nicole might have worried that she was going to have to get sharp with the audience at the CMAs for a minute. When Luke took the stage, there was a lot of cheering and a lot of voices yelling something that sounded like "Booo." It didn't take long for everyone to realize that it wasn't that at all. Far from being upset about Combs winning three major awards, his fans were so excited that they were shouting his name.
The Tennessean tweeted "Those are not boos at the #CMAawards. That’s @lukecombs’ fans screaming out his name as he takes home Male Vocalist of the Year. LUUUUUUKKKEEEE.”
7. Hocking married Combs in 2020.
In 2019, Combs told People, "We're actually a lot farther along than I think we both thought we would be with our schedule. I'm excited about it. I really am. I'm looking forward to that day quite a bit."
That day came on August 1, 2020, when Hocking and Combs officially tied the knot in Florida.
"Despite the threat of a hurricane, the couple had a lovely intimate ceremony and will be celebrating with friends and family in the new year," a rep for the couple told Entertainment Tonight.
Rebekah Kuschmider has been writing about celebrities, pop culture, entertainment, and politics since 2010. Her work has been seen at Ravishly, Babble, Scary Mommy, The Mid, Redbook online, and The Broad Side. She is the creator of the blog Stay at Home Pundit and she is a cohost of the weekly podcast The More Perfect Union.
Editor’s Note: This article was originally posted on November 14, 2019 and was updated with the latest information.