Laird was born in Hartstown, PA, United States, on May 4, 1978. He wrote songs and learned guitar in elementary school. After seeing a Randy Travis concert in high school, Laird claims he became fascinated with songwriting and production. He taught himself basic elements of music theory by listening to the radio and dissecting songs. Laird's parents took him in high school to see Middle Tennessee State University and its recording program, and he enrolled there in 1997, graduating in 2001 with a degree in Recording Industry Management.
After college Laird moved to Nashville. Laird's first job in the industry was assistant tour manager for Brooks & Dunn, though he spent his weekends writing. He participated in songwriter nights in Nashville at venues such as Bluebird Cafe. In 2002, Chris Oglesby, at BMG Music at the time, offered Laird a publishing deal. BMG was later bought by Universal Music Publishing Group, which took over Laird's contract and made him a staff writer in 2008.
While working at BMG, he met a receptionist, Beth Mason. The two were married in 2010, and went on to co-found Creative Nation in 2011.
Music career
Early in his time at UMPG, Bill Luther took an interest in him and encouraged him as a writer. Luther brought Laird along with him to write a song with Hillary Lindsey. The three worked together and named a song around their rapport, called "Painless." The song went on to be Laird's first released song by Lee Ann Womack in 2005.
Laird and Lindsey went on to work on a number of songs with Carrie Underwood, including his first number one single "So Small" in 2007. The song held the number one spot on the Billboard Country charts for three weeks and went platinum. Since then Laird has co-written 23 singles that reached No. 1 on the Billboard Country charts. He is a proponent of the “New Country” style of country music, and has worked with pop artists such as Ne-Yo and John Legend. He has written No. 1 hits with Carrie Underwood, Blake Shelton, Tim McGraw, Kenny Chesney, and Eric Church, among others, and has had hits with artists such as Ingrid Michaelson, Jason Aldean, Sara Evans, and Kacey Musgraves, among others.
He was named BMI's Country Songwriter of the Year in 2012, and his song with Rodney Atkins, "Take a Back Road" was named Song of the Year. He was named ACM's Songwriter of the Year in 2015.
In 2011, Laird and his wife Beth founded Creative Nation, a music publishing and management company for country music songwriters and producers. While Beth Laird handles logistics, Luke Laird focuses on songwriting.
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