Luke Combs just put Post Malone on blast for wearing counterfeit “Combs” merchandise during one of his performances.

Of course, the country singer was feigning being upset when he shared a photo of Malone to his Instagram Stories. In fact, it sounds like he’s more excited that his fellow collaborator would represent him at one of his own shows.

The shirt in question features a photo of Combs with what looks like his signature across it. The name “Combs” is written above the photo, with the song title “Beer Never Broke My Heart” below.

“Shirt is gas,” Combs writes on social media (that’s a good thing). “Even though it’s bootleg haha.”

Per Urban Dictionary, “gas” means “good a– s–t.”

Instagram

Bootleg Luke Combs Merchandise: A History Lesson

In 2023, Combs’ legal team sued one of his fans for selling bootleg merchandise. Nicol Harness was slapped with a $250,000 lawsuit for her Combs-themed tumblers that she designed. Harness says she made a total of $380.

According to News Channel 8 in Tampa, she was one of several defendants in a larger lawsuit regarding counterfeit merchandice. A judge ruled that Harness must pay the “Ain’t No Love in Oklahoma” singer $250K.

Once Combs learned of the lawsuit, he went to work to have it dropped. He said he contracts a company to prohibit large corporations from taking advantage of his name and likeness, but felt terrible that someone like Harness had become a target.

“I’m so apologetic, talking to her. It makes me sick, honestly, that this would happen, especially at the holidays,” he shared on social media at the time. “I can’t imagine being in her shoes.”

Country Stars React to Post Malone’s New Country Music

It’s not enough to say country stars are supportive of Post Malone’s genre-blending new album. Everyone we asked to react to the new music praised the pop-crossover artist and then took time to explain why.

This isn’t polite adulation. Below you’ll find honest responses from eight stars who’ve worked with him or watched as he broached the topic of a country album. They’re young and old, progressive and traditional. Unless noted, all quotes came from interviews with Taste of Country.

Gallery Credit: Billy Dukes

Picture of Brad Paisley with Post Malone

Amy Sussman, Getty Images for Stagecoach

Brad Paisley

“It was an old friendship, immediately,” Brad Paisley told the Zak Kuhn Show. “I was his first concert. He went and saw me when he was six years old in Darien Lakes, N.Y. with his dad. I keep reminding myself he’s young because he seems so much more mature than that.”

“I’ve never seen anyone that knows — like he knows as much as you or I about the history of this stuff. When Toby Keith passed away, he knows everything about Toby. He is so capable. He doesn’t read the words of karaoke for anything that was on the charts from ’90s on. He knows it and he’s a student of it.”

Picture of Jelly Roll

Rick Kern, Getty Images for Spotify

Jelly Roll

“Post is like me in the regard in he is truly country music. Remember when he (covered Sturgill Simpson’s “You Can Have the Crown”)? This was what, five years ago? This has been his heart. We all forget that Post Malone broke on YouTube singing Bob Dylan songs.

He’s one of the best dudes on Earth. The sweetest soul on Earth and he knows more about country music than guys in this town that have 10 No. 1s.

There’s guys in this town that have 10 No. 1s on country radio, that if you put them with Post Malone in a room together, right now, and they played country song for country song, who knew more country about country music, Post Malone knows more about country music than I’d say seven artists that have had 10 number ones in this town.”

Picture of Jason Aldean

Jason Kempin, Getty Images

Jason Aldean

“To me it seems like country music is one of those things that, you know, whenever somebody’s career maybe is doing not as well as it once did, sometimes they like to come over to country. I don’t think that’s the case with Post.

I think he’s just a country fan that loves the people in the genre, loves the music and I think the country music fans — a lot like they did with Kid Rock — will kind of welcome him with open arms. They won’t do that for everybody, but I think he’s a guy that country music fans like. They like his music. He fits in with what we do here. It’s not trying to force a square peg in a round hole kind of thing.

I love his music. He’s super cool. I had a good time hanging out with him … who knows, we may do something with him at some point? He’s a guy that can thrive in this business in our genre more so than a lot of other pop guys that try to come over here and do that. ”

Hardy

Jason Kempin, Getty Images

Hardy

“He came to Nashville and he sat and he listened,” Hardy told the Zach Sang Show. “He came to Nashville and said, ‘I wanna do this the way that you guys do it. He had songwriters that the world has never heard of, but in Nashville they’ve written tons of hit songs but he didn’t just want me and Ernest, Morgan and Brad Paisley, and Eric Church and Tim McGraw.

He was like, ‘Who are the good songwriters in this town? I wanna write with those guys.”

He immersed himself into the songwriting culture of the town, and I respect that a lot. He didn’t care about who anybody was, he just wanted to get the best song, and so he pulled in the best people for that job and made a great record because of it. It’s the coolest thing that I’ve witnessed in Nashville, because I’ve heard the record and how good it is. It’s the coolest thing I’ve witnessed since I’ve been in town, to see somebody come and do it that way.”

Picture of Post Malone and Luke Combs From 2019

Frazer Harrison, Getty Images

Luke Combs

“I mean he’s so nice and he’s an unbelievable guy,” Luke Combs told CMT. “You can’t help but be happy to be around him, to be honest. He’s in such a great mood all the time … he’s so welcoming to anyone and everyone and those songwriting sessions were really fun.

Sometimes here in Nashville we can be so structured and rigid, like, ‘We’re writing at 11 o’clock and we’re leaving by this time.’ And you know it becomes this nine to five kind of job sometimes. And his is, ‘We’re starting writing at 8 o’clock PM at night. And a lot of times I’d leave at three, four in the morning and we’d written four or five songs and we did that five or six times at least.”

Picture of Gretchen Wilson

Jason Kempin, Getty Images

Gretchen Wilson

“I sometimes feel like in country music, we’re a little like the border: a little too wide open. Everybody’s, ‘Come on it!’ I do. I get that feeling.

“But then there are other moments where I’m so glad that country music is so all encompassing and we have so much of a variety of people to listen to. I feel like it’s one of those things where if you don’t like this song, turn it off. You’ll find another one that you do like. Country music has become so wide that if you can’t find some part of country music that you like, there’s kind of something wrong with you.”

Picture of Carly Pearce

Jason Kempin, Getty Images

Carly Pearce

“I love Post Malone. I think he’s doing it in such a cool way and in a way that feels very much like the whole country community is rallying around him and I have to say his song with Morgan is stuck in my head most hours of most days.”

Dasha

Tibrina Hobson, Getty Images for TikTok

Dasha

“I bumped into him and I’m like, ‘Hey I’m Dasha’ and he’s like, ‘Hey I’m Austin.’ I was like, ‘I got a song called ‘Austin” and he’s like, ‘Yeah, I know.’ I was like, ‘Sick! This is sick.’

Because I’m such a Post fan, like his early s–t. His songwriting and his attitude and he’s so himself in his artistry which is the hardest thing as an artist to do is be yourself. And I know that sounds really stupid but there’s so many voices all the time that it’s so hard to block everything out and be like ‘I believe in myself enough and I’m going to be exactly like this.’

He is the master at it and I really look up to him in that way.