This interview with Lighting & Design Director Kevin Northrup and Production Manager Jerry Slone, the masterminds behind Luke Combs' celebrated stage set and production on his My Kinda Saturday Night Tour, is part of Hypebot's Backstage Pass series. Here, we feature conversations with people working behind the scenes to help artists navigate live music industry economics, logistics, and trends.
What you have to understand about this live lighting, sound, and stage production rig, is that it was easily the most ambitious night-in/night-out technical lift a Country Music tour has ever achieved. A timelapse video showing the daytime construction of this rig showcases how perfect it had to be at every level, and the team pulled it off without any hitches. Kevin and Jerry's lighting and video display design was unlike anything audiences had seen before, and as the story goes:
It all started on a napkin at lunch one day.
I wanted to chat with the team that made it all happen. Here's our conversation about stadium-scale production design and planning with Kevin Northrup and Jerry Slone. Enjoy!
Backstage Pass is sponsored by venue, festival and promoter marketing solution Bandsintown PRO.
Hypebot: Hey Kevin and Jerry. You were the Lighting and Design Director and Production Manager for Luke Combs' famously massive 2026 My Kinda Saturday Night Tour, which featured an enormous, moving 360-degree stage with cutting edge lighting. Supposedly you conceived of this on a napkin? Tell us about that story.
Kevin: "I'll start; I'm Kevin, Luke's lighting designer, and for this design I would say I'm also co-production designer with Jerry. The napkin sketch is more of a metaphor for off-the-cuff design, but the truth behind how we work is far wackier. Working with Jerry is really fun, he has a creative mind, but (with all the peace and love, J) can't really even draw a straight line."
However, he uses whatever is around him to convey his thoughts. We've worked on many designs together, and nothing is really off limits. Sometimes it is a scrap of paper on his desk with three or four lines and a sign-off like, 'Something like that!' Sometimes it's a scribble on the back of a sticky pass with a Sharpie. To date, my favorite communication method was cardboard packaging from some gloves I had bought. He was using it to illustrate a new idea for the video walls. I actually grabbed a picture of him doing that."
Jerry: "Jerry here, Luke's Production Manager... all correct, haha. My pen to paper skills is rudimentary at best. When working through a concept, I will literally grab whatever is in front of me and start bending, tearing, folding, etc. into whatever is hoping around in my head. Kevin and I definitely have fun working on these designs together, I'm just glad he had the ability to sort through my chaos!"
K: "For the in-the-round rig, he simply talked and used his hands as if a scale model were in front of him. It was something along the lines of 'Next year; we are going to be in-the-round.' His hands were low, as if outside the stage structure. 'I was thinking we should do a circular stage with a circular video wall,' he said, gesturing up a cylinder with his hands. 'And let me know what you come up with!'"
J: "I love Kevin's ability to take just an idea and create a tangible creation. We were working on a previous version that looked good but just didn't feel great. I woke up at 4am with nothing but the design on my mind...I sketched out a new idea for the thrusts and went back to sleep. The next day Kevin and I were on Zoom call, and I literally held up my drawing to the camera and said, 'we need this,' and that became the final layout for them."
K: "I also can hardly draw a straight line freehand, myself; I express my thoughts much better in a 3D space on a computer, so I got to work doing that. What followed required a lot of work and forced me to relearn a lot of math about circles. To make a very long story short, I presented Jerry with a design containing elements similar to our final version. But even at that point, we were a very long way from the finish line. This was especially true when the excitement grew, and the design no longer fit into an NFL stadium."
J: "Also, true. This design was always going to be big, but the first version put the thrusts up into the first few rows of the stands, so we began the process of dialling it back."
K: "A creative project of this size can't come from one sketch or conversation. It involves many conversations and hours spent on a computer. You work on one piece at a time, and eventually you end up nowhere near where you started. And it is wonderful, especially with a great co-designer like Jerry."
J: "It's always a ton of work, but it doesn't feel like a job when you're surrounded by friends."
H: What is it about Luke Combs that makes him such a professional, brilliant performer?
K: "Aside from being an incredibly gifted singer and songwriter. He is genuine. When he makes mistakes, he calls himself out. Being shown that he is not a perfect performer is relatable and endearing beyond belief."
J: "Luke truly cares about the fan experience. From their point of view to the ticket pricing, he wants to give his all for those who support him. This is true for his band and crew as well."
H: How did you each get your start in Audiovisual Production / Design? Was there a concert you saw when you were young that inspired you to learn about it?
K: "It all traces back to my dad being a professional square dance caller. I grew up around music, especially country music. And through the years, I loved going to dances with him and helping him set up his equipment. I started setting up sound systems at the age of 8."
I discovered technical theater in high school and enjoyed working on shows as an audio technician, but lighting eventually grabbed me. I didn't see the concert in person, but rather it was a DVD of the Rush “Snakes and Arrows' tour. I watched that DVD repeatedly. I knew that's what I wanted to do."
J: "For me it was the Motley Crue 'Theater of Pain Tour' in 1985. I just had to have more of whatever it was they were doing at the time!"
H: There’s a viral video of the timelapse of construction of the Luke Combs stage set and tower. How many hours did that take to set up every day on the road? What was the fastest you ever got it rigged up?
J: "Fortunately, for our team when we went on sale with this tour, I made sure we had plenty of time to get everything in. 2 stage/structure days and 2 production build days. I can say that we were always ready for the band to sound check at 6pm on production day #2."
H: Was there ever a moment you thought you might not pull it off?
K: "I knew that we would pull it off no matter what but seeing it in its entirety for the first time in Las Vegas was a huge relief."
J: "I was never worried about our team not being able to pull it off but as Kevin said, seeing 'Frankenstein' walk and talk for the first time in Vegas was a damn cool moment."
H: How much did the setup differ from venue to venue? I mean, did sight-lines or tech limitations come into play? Low ceilings, audio-lighting grids, etc.?
K: "Traveling with the structure takes a lot of the venue-to-venue variables off the table. Your positions are locked, your sight-lines are consistent, your crew knows exactly where they're working before they even walk in the door."
The one thing that shifted show to show was some of the audience's lighting; coverage changed depending on the venue, and we knew that going in. But because everything else was so dialed, those adjustments were manageable. On a tour like Luke's, you're not chasing problems. You're just fine-tuning."
J: "When you basically control everything except the weather, you can get things dialled fairly quickly. Fortunately, we did just that."
H: And then something I don’t really know: were either/both of you working the live concert as well? Or just the pre-show design and tech setup?
K: "We both actively tour with Luke. I am behind the lighting console every show pushing the buttons that make the lights move and blink."
J: "I'm Luke's full-time Production Manager and oversee all live elements from budgets, vendor contracts, crew organization, trucking, scheduling, etc. 2026 marks my 33rd year touring."
H: Would a production like the My Kinda Saturday Night Tour be able to be shipped overseas? How would the logistics work on that, and with voltage changes in Europe for example, would you need to re-fabricate some of the custom-made equipment?
J: "For sure we can make this work overseas and have had a few small conversations about it already. Certain elements can be recreated with the vendors we work with when touring Europe, Australia, etc., and some elements would most certainly have to be floated over."
H: What was the biggest thing you learned on that tour?
K: "To be okay without having all the answers. I've learned to bring in extra help and to trust others to contribute their best to this project. I'll definitely be doing this again."
J: "Pretty much what Kevin said. We have such a great team of people, and you have them in certain positions for a reason. Let them go and be available to help in any way."
H: What’s on your next napkin?
K: "We'll have to see where Jerry is and what he has around him, for all we know, he might be building a stage out of knives and forks in catering!"
J: "You never know... We may have to hold our next design meeting at a hardware store! Whatever it is though, I can promise it will be a fun journey and it'll be something really, really cool!"
Luke Combs Tour Dates
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