McComb lands the last laugh

Brenda Neugent
Register & bee staff writer
Published: June 13, 2008

Despite spending several years as tour manager for Larry the Cable Guy, Jeremy McComb’s dreams were no joke.

But the behind-the-scenes gig was exactly the break he was looking for, because after Larry heard his music, he knew McComb was meant for the stage, and he persuaded his manager, J.P. Williams, to give McComb a listen. Williams now manages them both.

“My manager is amazing,” said McComb, who will open this weekend for Phil Vassar as part of the Harvest Jubilee Summer Concert Series. “He’s a West Virginia guy, a hillbilly who went to Hollywood. He tells me, ‘You be creative, you write, and I’ll do my job.’ And he’s passionate about my music.”
That’s likely because he feels the fire that has burned in McComb since he was a boy sleeping behind his father’s amplifier while his brother played drums.
“I loved watchig the reactions that my dad got,” McComb said. “I don’t think there was ever anything else I wanted to do.”

“I’ve been playing in honky tonks my whole life,” said McComb. “I groomed for that. I wanted to know the radio side, wanted to get to know why one artist gets their song played on the radio and another one doesn’t. I really wanted to be as well rounded as an artist as I could be.” 

“As a tour manager, it didn’t matter what I looked like and I sounded like,” said McComb.

He’s busy, playing late-night shows and giving early morning interviews, but he still wouldn’t trade places.

“It’s not like it’s a Monday morning you dread,” he said/ I look forward to everything. You know coming into it that you’ll be doing things.