Luke Combs joins Jay Shetty to discuss his journey from struggling with childhood OCD to becoming one of country music's biggest stars. The Grammy-nominated, multi-platinum artist opens up about fatherhood, mental health, and staying grounded despite massive success.

The conversation covers Combs' early struggles with obsessive-compulsive disorder, his discovery of music in college, and the meteoric rise of his career through social media platforms like Vine and Instagram. He discusses missing his son Bo's birth while touring in Australia and how that experience shifted his priorities.

Combs also shares stories about his relationship with his wife Nicole, whom he met at a songwriting festival, his approach to fan interactions, and his commitment to giving back to his community through charity work, including rebuilding the Asheville food bank after Hurricane Helene.

Childhood OCD: Living with Unanswerable Questions

Combs describes his childhood OCD as 'rumination' where '95% of the day, from opening your eyes to closing them at night, you are thinking about this thing and it's causing you tremendous anxiety.'

The themes would change unpredictably: 'If I switched from worrying about violent thoughts to wondering if I was schizophrenic, I would instantly think the violent stuff was dumb and waste three months stressing about the new thing.'

His relationship with himself suffered most: 'I didn't really have a lot of time to figure out who I was because I couldn't think about anything else.'

Now he manages it by not 'giving any credibility or attention to the thoughts' and being 'so well versed and studied in it' that he can 'feel it coming on.'

From College Confusion to Musical Calling

He felt like he was 'aimlessly floating' and 'checking boxes' through high school and college, switching from business to criminal justice without passion.

College felt like 'darkness at the end of the tunnel' - the prospect of being 'miserable for thirty years and then you retire' because he hadn't found his passion.

Discovering guitar 'toward the end of my college career' changed everything: 'Immediately all made sense. It like flipped, like the whole script just flipped.'

Music felt like 'what I was meant to do' and 'what I was put on earth to do' - giving him a way to 'positively impact people's lives by doing something that I love.'

The Australia Tour: Missing Bo's Birth

Combs was performing in Australia when his second son Bo was born 2.5 weeks early, calling it 'crushing' and 'devastating' because 'my whole identity is that no matter what, I'm going to prioritize my wife and my children over my job.'

The tour was planned before they knew about the pregnancy, and Bo was born at 10am Sydney time, just two hours after his wife texted about going to the hospital.

He dreads the future conversation with Bo: 'Dad, you made this record about being such a good dad, and then you weren't there when I was born, but you were there for Tex and the next kid.'

The experience shifted his touring approach: 'I guarantee I spend more time with my kids than ninety percent of people' because when he's home, he's 'cooking breakfast, lunch, dinner, changing diapers, giving baths.'

The Maine Concert: Refunding Fans Despite Performing

After a late night with friends, his voice was 'rough' the next day and a steroid shot 'didn't work' five minutes into his warm-up.

Instead of canceling, he told the crowd: 'I'm not gonna be able to do the show tonight' but 'we're still going to play the show. It's just not going to be as good as I feel like it needs to be for me to take money from you.'

The crowd initially 'raining down boos' but he explained: 'You spend all this money and you've got hotel rooms and babysitters, and I can't make that right. So this is just free show.'

They played for 'probably an hour hour fifteen' and many fans later 'donated their refund' saying they 'loved the show and appreciated you being a stand up guy.'

Love Story: Meeting Nicole at Key West

They met at the BMI Key West Songwriters Festival where Combs was 'probably the last guy picked to go' with 'no publishing deal, no record deal.'

Nicole worked at BMI doing 'HR work' and 'was working two jobs, making a killing' while he 'got like nothing going on at all' but 'she just thought I was cool for whatever reason.'

Their relationship grew like 'a plant' that 'takes nurturing' - 'there was never any moment where I was like, maybe this isn't the person I should be with.'

She helped him become more adventurous: 'Mushrooms are like probably one of my top five favorite foods ever now and I would have probably never tried them if it wasn't for her.'

Success Philosophy: Money and Meaning

He believes success 'accentuates and exacerbates the inherent person that you are' - if you're great, 'it gives you the opportunity to be more of who you already are.'

Despite wealth, he struggles with guilt: 'I feel like I have more than I deserve, or I don't deserve to have been this successful' and worries 'people like can't relate to me anymore.'

His Hurricane Helene benefit concert became his 'most proud moment' when 'my portion of the proceeds rebuilt the entire food bank that I worked at growing up' after it was 'completely destroyed.'

He wants his legacy to be: 'Here lies good man, good dad, good husband, good friend, good son, good boss' rather than just hit records and ticket sales.