Luke Combs has no problem opening up about his life in music, fatherhood, or even his humble beginnings. But when it comes to his struggles with mental health? That’s something fans don’t hear about often — until now.
During a recent interview with 60 Minutes Australia, the 35-year-old country superstar shared a rare and deeply personal look at his lifelong battle with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Unlike other subtypes of the disorder that are more well-known, Combs said he has a “particularly wicked” variant — one that comes without the outward compulsions (think: repeated actions such as checking locks until it feels “right”). Instead, it’s all in his head.
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“It’s thoughts, essentially, that you don’t want to have…and then they cause you stress, and then you’re stressed out, and then the stress causes you to have more of the thoughts,” the “Beautiful Crazy” singer revealed. “And then you don’t understand why you’re having them. And you’re trying to get rid of them, but trying to get rid of them makes you have more of them.”
Combs went on to explain that his OCD is a subtype known as “Pure O,” which stands for Pure Obsessional OCD. Per NOCD, Pure OCD is defined as “a subtype of OCD where compulsions happen mentally instead of physically.”
While the disorder has challenged him throughout his career, Combs says he’s learned how to manage it.
“I know I’m not going to be like this forever now,” the award-winning artist shared. “It’s possible to continue to live your life and be really successful and have a great family and achieve your dreams while also dealing with things that you don’t want to be dealing with.”
His ultimate goal? To give hope to kids struggling with the same condition.
“I definitely want to spend some time at some point in my life doing some outreach to kids that deal with this,” Combs said. “It held me back so many times in my life.”
Combs tied the knot with Nicole Hocking on August 1, 2020, after four years of dating. The couple shares two sons: Tex, 2, and Beau, 1.
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