Luke Combs Opens Up About His OCD Diagnosis

Country superstar Luke Combs may have shared his love songs and heartaches in tunes like "Forever After All" and "She Got the Best of Me", but now he is opening up about something even more personal. In an interview with Apple Music's Kelleigh Bannen, Combs shared his struggle with anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder, or OCD.

"I did tend to have pretty tremendous anxiety at times in my life," Combs told Bannen. "Mine was like really bad like OCD [obsessive-compulsive disorder]. I mean crippling is a word I would use."

While he was able to continue making music and releasing chart-topping songs like "Hurricane" and "Beer Never Broke My Heart", Combs has spent years struggling with anxiety and intrusive thoughts. What helped him was learning "to live with the uncertainty" about things he had no control over. He also found support in becoming a family man and being able to stay home during the pandemic instead of touring nonstop.

For Combs, welcoming his son Tex into the world also helps him keep things in perspective. "I look at things now in ways that I never would've been able to before," he told Bannen. "There's stuff that used to matter as far as the things that you worry about. You just don't really worry about that stuff anymore. Almost instantly. You're just kind of like, 'Don't care about that. Don't care.'"

Watch the full interview with Combs and Bannen above as they talk about fatherhood, his career, and his latest album Growin Up'.