LUKE COMBS: The Man Behind The Success (Marriage, Fatherhood & Life With OCD) | On Purpose with Jay Shetty

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I did.

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Hey everyone, welcome back to On Purpose, the place you come to become happier, healthier and more healed.

Today's guest is someone that I've been so excited to have on the show.

I'm speaking about Luke Combs, Grammy nominated, multi-platinum country artist and one of the most successful musicians of his generation.

His music is known for its honesty, heart and relatability and has reached millions around the world.

Beyond the success, Luke is known for his humility, his deep commitment to his family and especially his fans.

Today he joins me to talk about fatherhood, mental health and how he stays grounded through it all.

Please welcome to On Purpose, Luke Combs.

Yeah, thank you for having me, man.

That was a heck of an intro.

I got a lot to live up to, I feel like.

You did all of it.

You lived all of it.

You're doing all of it.

I mean, it's amazing when, you know, I just met your team and they're wonderful.

And the way they speak about you is wonderful, but it's genuine.

And I'm like, when I hear about your reputation, your reputation precedes you.

Before this interview, I'm like, Luke's amazing. the nicest guys.

I like hearing that.

Has that been work?

Has it been hard to stay grounded or is it just who you are?

Yeah, I think it's both.

I think I've always thought that when you reach a certain level of success or I hate fame.

I hate the word celebrity.

I hate those words.

They're weird and they make me uncomfortable a little bit.

But it's reality.

Like, I also accept it and it's just weird to, like, say it.

I don't want it to ever sound like a braggadocious thing.

But I think when you get to a certain point, like... the fame or the success or the influence like it just kind of accentuates and exacerbates the inherent person that you are right like if you're i think if you were a great guy and you become rich and successful and famous or whatever like it gives you the opportunity to be more of who you already are it gives you a chance to be more giving or more passionate or more um I don't know, more narcissistic.

If that was your, you know, if that's already like, if you have a proclivity to be that way.

Anyways, it just kind of inflates that.

It makes like the super version of who you already are, you know.

But it does take a lot of work too.

Me and my team are really close.

You know, everybody's like, oh, you know, we're a family out here.

You know, it's like I hear that all the time.

And I truly believe it.

And I hope that everyone else that says that believes that, too.

But that's really the way that we try to operate.

You know it's kind of like, you know it's it's, you know, one for all kind of mentality on the road with us.

And I think you you know, I mean, it's not hard, in my opinion, to be kind to people.

Um, and maybe that's just because that's the way that I am, you know um, and that's down to the doorman at the hotel or my manager.

You know what I mean.

Or you know it's like.

In my opinion it's not.

It's not a difficult thing to do to just choose to be kind and be grateful for this, even if I'm having a tough day.

You know what I mean.

I'm still go out of my way to be kind to people.

Um, because I think, you know, It's an important thing to do.

You know, it's every interaction that I have with someone, from a random fan I meet at the grocery store to my kids, like every impression makes an impression, whether it's a small one or a huge one, you know.

And so I always just try to be really mindful of that in my interactions with anyone.

Did you ever believe this would be your life?

Never, never.

What did you think life was going to look like?

You know, if you would have asked me 10 years ago or 12 years ago, I would have been really afraid of the answer, you know, because I had no idea.

I feel like I was kind of aimlessly floating.

I felt like I was kind of checking boxes that were like I felt like I was supposed to be checking which was like like I graduated high school and it was like okay, what now?

And I was like well, you go to college.

That's just what happens.

That's what you're supposed to do.

And so I went and did that and I had a great time in school.

I didn't like school.

I liked being at the school, but I didn't like being in school, if that makes sense.

So I was doing a lot of that and I would spend a lot of time like I was majoring in business at the very beginning, and then I switched to criminal justice And I enjoyed criminal justice a lot more than I enjoyed business.

I just liked that, like studying that.

It was interesting to me.

But it was still like, it just never felt quite right.

You know, it was like, it just doesn't feel like...

And I would get scared as every year would tick by in college.

It was like I'm a year closer to having to make this like really important life decision that I'm like don't feel prepared to make in any way or don't feel good about making like.

And I didn't really, I guess, maybe understand or have the ability to process that at the time.

It was just like time keeps going, whether you want it to or not, and so you're just kind of like sitting, like the light at the end of the tunnel gets closer.

But it was almost the opposite effect, like it felt like i was in this great place, like i'm in school, i love my friends, i love the social aspect, i enjoy being around people my age that are, you know, like-minded and having the activities i love to do.

It was almost the opposite.

It was almost like the darkness at the end of the tunnel was like this idea of like being a real adult and then college ends and then you're like you basically just go into the workforce and then you're miserable for 30 years and then you retire.

And it was like it was so scary that like idea of that, because I hadn't found like something I was passionate about at that time.

And so it was a scary proposition to go like, when this ends, what now?

You know what I mean?

So that was kind of my experience there.

And that was the way that I was living my life at that time.

And then when I found, you know, when I picked the guitar up, you know, towards the end of my college career, it was like immediately all made sense.

It like flipped, like the whole script just flipped.

It was like, then it was like, oh, like I'm almost out.

Like now I can go do the thing I want to go do.

And it all made sense.

But if I hadn't found that passion, you know, I don't know what I would be doing right now.

To be quite honest,

And is that what it felt like?

It felt like discovering a passion.

Like it felt like, Oh, definitely.

It almost felt like discovering what I was meant to do.

It was almost like beyond a passion.

It was like, well, this is what I was like meant to do.

Like this, what I was like put on earth to do is this thing.

Um, just because I'd loved singing my whole life, man.

It was like it was a big part of my self-worth was derived from like my identity.

I derived from like this is the thing that I'm good at.

Like, I'm not good at anything else.

As far as from a skill standpoint, I thought, okay, well, I'm a good friend.

I'm a good son.

That stuff wasn't kind of.

I felt confident in those things but I didn't feel fulfilled in what.

Will my role be in the world?

What will I contribute to the world?

And it never had to be some big thing.

My idea of it wasn't, well, there's some...

But I feel like if you're good at something and you have a passion for it, you have this inherent sense of like I can contribute or make the world a better place in some way by doing the thing that I'm good at.

I can positively impact people's lives by doing something that I love to do and being great at it.

And that can benefit other people in other ways.

And music was my way of doing that.

Yeah, what's like a childhood memory that you have that you feel defines who you are today?

I think I have a tremendous ability to suffer.

Wow.

Because of the OCD things that I've dealt with.

I've talked about that stuff a lot.

Almost ad nauseum, not in a negative way, but I'm very open about it.

I'm not afraid to speak about it.

But that was very defining for me.

I had a great childhood.

My parents were great.

Great home, hard working.

My parents are still married.

They're still around.

So I worry sometimes when I talk about like how tough it was being younger for me.

And like I worry when my parents see these things, that they think that that has some reflection of like them as parents.

It doesn't at all.

You know like they went above and beyond for me as parents, and becoming a parent myself has made me I'm more thankful for them every day as I raise my kids, because I realize how difficult it is and I realize how hard it was.

And I've gained this great appreciation, even more so for them, as I raise my own children.

So I don't want them to ever get the idea that it was anything to do with them, but...

The whole nature of that kind of OCD, there's a lot of like suffering and silence, right?

And it's given me this really great outlook on, I know what bad is, dude.

Like I've been to the bottom in here and it's like I'm not there.

You know I still have a proclivity to be able to go there if certain things line up and you know I were to have an OCD moment or something.

But those moments are few and far between and they're a lot shorter lived than they used to be And I'm not afraid of those moments anymore.

I lived my life when I was younger in fear of like, when is this going to come back?

And why does it, I don't even know what it is at that time.

It's like, I wasn't like a diagnosed, you know?

It was something I felt like I even had a hard time explaining to my parents.

Like what they're like, what do you, what do you mean?

You know, like they're not I mean they weren't.

You know, they're not clinical psychologists, so they don't really understand, you know.

And so I can't imagine how afraid they were at the time of like well, I wish we could help our child.

You know, I can't imagine how helpless he would feel.

Uh, If my kids came to me with something that I didn't understand, I would be like gosh.

I don't even know how to explain.

Where do I even take them?

And so that was a really defining part of my childhood.

It's not the only memory, but it's the one that kind of sticks out as this common theme.

Every couple of years I would go through these really brutal OCD stints without even knowing what was going on.

Wow.

Do you feel comfortable talking about some of those days?

Oh, certainly.

Yeah.

Certainly.

I mean, like days like filled with like rumination, you know, like a lot of like...

You know people ask me about and what the experience is like and I try to describe it to people and it's almost like indescribable sometimes.

Like I think.

They think and this is not a slight to anyone that may think this if you haven't experienced it, you almost can't understand it to some extent.

And they're like well, how often is like I'm talking about?

You know, 95 of the day, from opening your eyes to closing them at night.

Right, you are thinking about this thing and it's causing you a tremendous amount of anxiety and like mental anguish to try to like find the answer to this like unanswerable question.

It's scary because it's like you're.

So I think it's helped my songwriting and I think it's helped my ability to be creative.

I think the creativity can be a blessing and a curse in that way.

It can help me create scenarios in my mind that really don't have a leg to stand on.

And I can build them into, you know, one world trade in my mind from nothing.

And that can be really great in a songwriting sense.

It can be really dangerous in like a mental health sense.

So those days would be go to bed.

You close your eyes and you go gosh, like I just hope in the morning I'm not thinking about this thing.

And the second you open your eyes, it's the first thing you think of.

And then you spend the entire day either thinking about it or trying not to think about it and hoping that it would go away, and feeling hopeless and saying why me?

Why am I like this?

What did I do to deserve this?

Like almost having some, like almost like there's almost like an anger to it.

Shame and guilt as well.

Yeah.

And you're just like what like this like because outwardly like the world around me was so great.

I have this great you know these great parents that go out of their way to take care of me.

I have great friends.

We have a nice home.

It's safe.

I have food to eat.

I'm in a great school.

I have great friends.

I have a great life.

I have talent.

I have drive, you know, but that would just, it would just.

I mean, it's like basically, if everything in the room was so great and there was one pile of dog shit on the floor and all the lights went off and they just shined on the pile of dog shit.

It was like, that was the only thing I could focus on.

You know, I hate to put it in such a crude way, but like it's.

Like the room is perfect but the dog pooped on the floor.

All I have to do is clean it up, but you don't know how to clean it up and you can't get rid of it.

And it becomes the only thing you think about.

And it's like all you focus on and like you don't have the ability to focus on all the good or even the mental capacity to be appreciative of the good.

Cause you spend so much mental energy on the negative thing, the one negative thing.

And what were those thoughts as a kid that kept taking over like that?

So those themes, you know, they change every time.

So like, if you go through, let's say you go through a theme you know I'm sure you're aware of OCD stuff.

It all is theme based, right?

And you basically only have one theme at a time.

It's funny like, let's say, I was worried about like, if I was having intrusive thoughts about, like committing violence against someone or something, and they're causing me all this stress and I'm like, what does that mean about me?

What does that say about me?

And then if I switch, like if my theme were to switch to the next day, I'm like well, what if I was a schizophrenic and I didn't know it?

And you're like, and you're panicked and you're completely panicked and you're all consumed by that.

I'm talking to in an instant.

Like I would say, I've been worrying about all this violent stuff, all these horrible thoughts and things that you don't want going through your head.

The second I have that new thought of like, what if I, what if I'm schizophrenic?

Right.

And then you go instantly, you can think on all the violent stuff and go, well, that was dumb.

I'm not even worried about that at all.

It doesn't even seem like something you ever would have even worried about.

You're like, that was so stupid.

Why did I waste three months of my life stressing about that thing?

But when you're in it, you don't have the capability to turn it off.

I remember my dad would say, and this is no slight to him, this is classic dad stuff.

He'd be like, well, son, just don't think about it.

And I'd be like, well, man, that would be great.

That's kind of the whole point of like, well, that's what I'm trying to get to.

I'm trying to figure out how to do that.

That's kind of the struggle, you know?

And as no slight, because again, I'm undiagnosed.

We don't know what's going on.

No one talked about go out and take a walk, you know, and it's like it's not that simple, you know, i'm sure that would have actually helped quite a bit, but it's not quite that simple.

And so yeah, i mean, you know, you spend the whole day like.

I mean there's days when i'm like i don't even want to go to school man, like because i'm just going to be thinking about this all day and be stressed about it, and be thinking about it at football practice and think about it in choir, and think about it in math class and think about it at lunch with my friends, and just You're just constantly, your brain's just constantly bombarding you with like these like life or death feelings of like.

You need to address this issue.

It's a big issue and it has to be addressed right now.

And you are in this heightened state of like.

You're almost in like fight or flight mode all the time.

And it's just exhausting.

It's so mentally exhausted, like having this battle with yourself.

And I'm very thankful to be, you know, to have gone through that.

It's definitely made me a better person and made me more appreciative of myself.

The life I have now, the grasp on it, the understanding of my own mind and, you know, thankfulness and just joy unraveling in the good times when they're around which thankfully, now is 99 of the time.

You know, I just I'm well equipped to have the tools you know, and not that I'm immune to it or anything like that, but I'm hyper aware of it and I can.

I'm more aware now of the things that the what, the thought patterns and the way that it happens and the way that it comes about.

And I'm, I'm an expert at combating that in my own head.

And that's been a really great blessing, you know?

But I, and having the platform now to speak about it, And be okay with it.

And it's never something I was particularly ashamed of.

It was just something that I didn't know how to verbalize and know how to like speak about in a way that other people can understand.

And I feel lucky to have the ability now to be a voice for someone that's out there right now.

That may be in the situation I was in when I was 12 or 13 years old.

And they're going look at this guy like Maybe if there's one kid that doesn't feel as hopeless as I felt watching this now, it's all worth it to me.

Being able to be that light for someone else and hopefully is a really great feeling, to be honest.

Which relationship was most negatively impacted in your life at that time?

Because of it, my relationship with myself.

I didn't really have a lot of time to figure out who I was, because I couldn't think about anything else.

Maybe I would have picked up guitar in seventh grade when my parents bought it for me, because I would have had time to focus on that.

You know, I can't do anything about that now.

And things worked out the way they were supposed to work out.

I mean obviously you know, I mean here I am, you know, and it's that that was the one that was tough is like you don't get any time to like do all these like this kind of like.

My childhood was great, it was idyllic, really.

Besides this, I don't want to sound like it was like constant dread and doom and like there were certainly spells of that and it was like those were kind of like the defining things along the way and but there was a lot of good too.

You know, I don't want to make it sound like I had the worst life ever, because I didn't, But it was very, very hard at times and it was very isolating and made you feel very alone and very vulnerable and very confused.

What is going on?

I don't imagine my friends are dealing with this.

And if they are, I would talk to my friends about it.

I mean, Austin, who I'm sure you met, is my best friend from childhood, really.

And I talked to him about it.

You know he knew it's like, but you know they don't have any answers, but they're like bro, you're it's, it's all good.

You know, like they were always very supportive.

No one was like, you're weird.

I can't believe you're doing this.

Like, I'm lucky that everyone in my life was supportive.

And I'm glad that I was open about them and felt the ability to be open about them.

That in itself is a blessing.

You know, I can't imagine a kid out there right now whose family is like listen, you better stop talking about this.

I'm sick of hearing about it.

You know what I mean?

It's like that would just crushes my soul.

You know, it's already so hard, even if everyone is open to the whole thing.

Um, so that would say that that was the relationship that honestly affected the most, because if I didn't tell you, if you would have met me at 13 years old or 14 years old, like you wouldn't have even known.

It's not something you can see.

It's all in here.

Like.

That's why they call it purely obsessional because like, only because that's a bit of a misnomer in my opinion.

Dear medical people, it's a misnomer, but there are tons of compulsions.

They're just all mental compulsions.

They're not outward.

So they call it purely obsessional, because all the compulsion, it's not like.

I'm like, oh gosh, this glass, I better get it.

You know this thing, this moving this glass around and getting it to feel right is all happening in here instead of out here.

Yeah.

You know, they're like checking the stove a hundred times to make sure it's off.

I'm doing that up here instead of doing it.

There's no physical manifestation of the compulsions.

So, yeah, huge, huge part of my life.

Yeah.

No, I appreciate you saying it.

I mean you sharing.

It is helping so many other people.

As you said listening learning, trying to you know that kid who wants to tell their family, tell their friend, you know and recognize that it's not some dysfunction that they have, but just something that they're experiencing.

What does OCD look like now in your life?

What happens is not any different.

Um, I think now when it does happen, I'm just so much more aware of it, you know?

Um, and it's, it's good.

Cause, when it happens, I can just I straight up tell her, like when I'm like Hey, this is going on like, just so you know.

Like

If I seem a little absent-minded, or if I'm like – if you say something and I didn't quite pay enough attention to it, like it's not just me being aloof.

It's like I'm kind of going through this.

And so she understands that.

So I don't have to worry about that.

Like I don't have to worry about her.

Why are you being weird?

Like it's just an honest thing.

Mm-hmm.

And she feels for me, which is nice to know that there's someone that understands what I'm going through, that's supportive of it and doesn't judge me for that at all.

And, you know, I mean, again, she's no therapist either.

So, but I'm so well equipped now.

What has been that equipped?

What's actually helped the people who are struggling?

Honestly, the interesting thing about it is like not...

Like, not giving any credibility or attention to the thoughts is ultimately the thing that makes it go away, right?

But the years and years and years of not knowing that your go-to is like think about the thoughts and try to figure it out and try to solve it.

So when you do that, like I didn't find out what I had until I was probably like 19 or 20.

Really, like I didn't find pure O OCD until then.

I'd been dealing with it for seven or eight years at that time.

And once I found it, naturally enough, I obsessed about it. trying to figure it out.

Like, what does this mean?

And a lot of that not from.

I don't want to try to like.

I'm not trying to say like oh, it was really great and I figured it out.

It was basically like one of the big no-nos of OCD is seeking reassurance that whatever the thought you have is not founded in any fact or reality, right?

Like that's the trap.

It's like trying to solve the problem.

So when you're young and you're in it, you're constantly seeking reassurance in your own mind to discredit the thoughts that you're having.

And so I would use that diagnosis.

I would go and study this...

I would go study what's Piro and what's you know, understand the way that people that have it think and the tools.

And like, I was looking that stuff up to try to alleviate the anxiety from the thoughts.

Little did I know, and not that anyone should do this, I would not suggest it but little did I know.

I was basically teaching myself to be an expert on the disease that I had, or the mental illness that I had.

And so now I'm so well-versed and studied in it.

And again, not a therapist, don't claim to be.

Now I know the thought patterns and I'm so familiar with like I can feel it coming on.

I know when it's happening.

I know why it happens.

And I know, I just have the entire tool belt of like getting rid of it if I need to.

And I think that, as I mean, it's a blessing and a curse.

You know it was a curse the way I got to it, but it's a blessing now.

You know, having that knowledge, it keeps me from from, you know, slipping into that state of A lot, a lot.

And when I talk about OCD, I mean that's the most interaction I get from people reaching out to me.

A lot is like hey man, like you're the only guy i know that's ever talked about this because it's kind of like an obscure variant of ocd.

It's not as common as like stereotypical.

Sure, you know you're hearing about it more and more now, though.

Certainly yeah, certainly.

It's like it's definitely an understudied thing.

I mean, there was a time, even 10 or 12 years ago i was looking it up, that some ocd doctors were like that's not a real thing.

Yeah,

I'm like, wow, what a dangerous thing to like say in a public.

Like what an arrogant thing to say.

Like if you've never had it, even though you're an expert regardless and I'll probably get roasted for this online like how dare you say it if you've never like you like, saying someone's mental condition like doesn't exist is an incredibly damaging thing, especially given the nature of the one that you're talking about.

Yeah.

Because that statement in and of itself could send someone into a six-month spiral.

Like that statement could kick off an entire another episode of like life crippling OCD for someone with OCD.

Because then they would read it and go, oh my God, it's not real.

I really am a murderer.

Or I really am going to crash my car into a school.

You know what I mean?

Yeah, for sure.

And it just makes people so panicked, you know?

Yeah.

I had a friend who just constantly kept thinking she was going to do something bad to her kids.

And so she had to be away from them for weeks.

Oh, it's horrible.

Yeah, I get it.

Avoidance behavior, another terrible thing.

One of the worst things you can do.

Because then you're giving the thoughts like the power of like, well, there really is an issue.

So now you're isolating yourself from your kids.

So there really is a problem now.

It gives the thoughts more credibility.

So you're taking action and telling yourself these thoughts are important.

So I need to remove myself.

Yeah.

You know, it's, it's crazy, man.

It's a vicious, it's like a rip current in your mind.

Yeah, for sure.

Your instinct is to, you know, swim this way, and really you should just not struggle and just swim this way.

You just want to swim.

That was all you want to do.

You know, it's crazy.

It's a crazy spiral.

What if mind control is real?

If you could control the behavior of anybody around you, what kind of life would you have?

Can you hypnotically persuade someone to buy a car?

When you look at your car, you're gonna become overwhelmed with such good feelings.

Can you hypnotize someone into sleeping with you?

I gave her some suggestions to be sexually aroused.

Can you get someone to join your cult?

NLP was used on me to access my subconscious.

NLP, aka neurolinguistic programming, is a blend of hypnosis, linguistics, and psychology.

Fans say it's like finally getting a user manual for your brain.

It's about engineering consciousness.

Mind Games is the story of NLP, its crazy cast of disciples and the fake doctor who invented it at a New Age commune and sold it to guys in suits.

He stood trial for murder and got acquitted.

The biggest mind game of all?

NLP might actually work.

This is wild.

Listen to Mind Games on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

What do you do when the headlines don't explain what's happening inside of you?

I'm Ben Higgins.

And if you can hear me is where culture meets the soul, a place for real conversation.

Each episode, I sit down with people from all walks of life celebrities, thinkers and everyday folks.

And we go deeper than the polished story.

We talk about what drives us, what shapes us and what gives us hope, and We get honest about the big stuff identity when you don't recognize yourself anymore.

Loss that changes you.

Purpose when success isn't enough.

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Some guests have answers.

Most are still figuring it out.

If you've ever felt like there has to be more to the story, this show is for you.

Listen to, If You Can Hear Me on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

This is DJ Hester Prynne's Music is Therapy.

A new podcast from me, a DJ and licensed therapist, that asks one simple question.

Who do you want to be and what's the song that can take you there?

Music changes what you feel and what you feel changes what you do, right?

That moment where a song shifts something inside you, that's where transformation starts.

This year.

I'm talking to experts across every area of life, like personal finance icon Gene Chatzky, New York Times journalist David Gellis, relationship legend Dan Savage, human connection teacher Mark Groves and the man who shaped my ear more than anyone Questlove.

They'll bring the strategies.

I'll pair them with the right records and will teach you how to use the music to make change stick.

This isn't just a podcast.

It's unconventional therapy for your entire year.

Listen to DJ Hester Prynne's Music is Therapy on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

You've spoken so beautifully about your parents.

What's something that your parents did for you?

What's a lesson they taught you that you're trying to pass on to your children?

Yeah, I mean, I think really just work ethic, you know?

I mean, my parents, I mean, they taught me a lot of things, you know?

My mom was just, you know, she's, like, wonderful, you know?

And my dad was wonderful.

And my dad wasn't, like...

He wasn't like my buddy growing up.

Like he was like, he was my dad.

You know what I meant?

Like he was, like he was a maintenance man at the bank and it was like he worked 40 hours and he came home and he mowed the grass and he drank beer with his buddies.

And like not that I was neglected in any way, but like we weren't like palling around a lot because there wasn't time.

He was constantly working to provide me with food and provide mom with.

You know, mom was working too, you know.

So it was a very, very working class home.

And that's what our life centered around was mom and dad have shit to do and they're going to do it.

And that's, you know, that's just the way it is.

And, you know, obviously that provided me with a lot of things.

And I'm grateful for that.

I never had to wonder what you know clothes I was going to wear to school or what food I was going to eat when I got home.

I think those worries were gone.

And so, you know, nothing but gratefulness for that.

And my, you know it was like they.

I learned so much from seeing that.

You know.

Luckily, I'm in a position now where it doesn't have to be that way.

It had to be that way for them.

There was no other option.

It was either you know it was work and provide, or or don't provide.

You know, those were the two options that were presented with.

My life now is obviously a lot different than that.

It's, I have the ability to do both.

I have the ability to do it on my own schedule when I want to and where I want to.

I spend.

You know I have conversations with people that you know everyone wants to know what's it like to be.

You know a musician and you know being when you're touring.

And well, do you miss your family?

And it's like, well, obviously I miss them when I'm gone, but I'm not gone like that much now.

Like.

I guarantee I spend more time with my kids than 90 of people, probably because they're not in school.

And if I'm not here with you, I'm there.

Like they're on nowhere else basically, except for deer season.

Other than that, I'm not anywhere else, you know.

Like, I'm there.

And, you know, in a couple years, they'll be at deer season, too.

You know what I mean?

So, I get to, you know, like, when I'm home and, like, I'm home and I'm not –

I'm not splitting my time at home between, okay, well, I've got to do 50 work things today and, you know, the kids are at school and I don't ever see them and then I leave and they're, you know, begging me to, you know, play with them for five minutes.

It's like...

When I come home dude, I'm cooking breakfast, I'm cooking lunch, I'm cooking dinner, I'm changing diapers, I'm giving baths.

I'm in it.

You know what I mean?

I'm hands-on.

I want them to know that at the most critical stages of my career, that they were still the top priority for me.

And my parents showed me that in a different way.

It was like hey, we're going to go work these jobs that we don't like so that you can have the best life that you can have.

And so I learned that from them.

I just get to manifest it in a different way for my kids.

Yeah.

I like the way you put that.

Yeah.

That for you.

For them, it was doing something they didn't like to show you that they're number one out of love.

And yours is almost like.

I'm actually going to put aside something that I like to show you how important you are.

Exactly.

It's a different version of the same sacrifice.

Yeah, absolutely.

From the outside, I'm always fascinated by how things look from the outside and the inside.

From the outside, your career had this like meteoric rise.

What was it like for you?

What was the feeling that was actually happening?

Yeah yeah, i mean it was certainly, but it also felt like it feels like i've been doing it for a year and it feels like i've been doing it for a hundred years at the same time, if that makes any sense.

You know, tell me about those early years.

Man were really hard, you know.

I mean, the music industry has changed so much in the last 11 years.

Um, i mean really have been in it In an official, I've got a record deal, I'm promoting my music in the grand way that it's done.

Now, that's only been going on for I mean, I guess like this would be year 10 for me probably.

Year nine, maybe.

Yeah, year nine because of 2017 was my first number one.

Signed my record deal in the fall of 16 and then didn't really ramp it up until like the beginning of 17.

But had been doing stuff on my own for a long time before that.

And you know you almost learn more doing that stuff, like doing it on your own, and I wonder if people miss that a little bit now, because it's like you almost get invited to the table when it's time to be there, instead of fighting for this spot at the table in town.

I don't know if as many people are like moving to Nashville now.

Like you almost know if you're going to make it or not now because of social media.

And I was one of the first people that did that.

Not intentionally.

I don't want to make myself sound like a genius.

I'm not.

It's like that.

I just got, I just lucked into that.

Like I had, Vine came out on this big platform and I'm just singing on there and playing little six second covers.

And then Instagram comes out.

I'm doing that.

And I use that as a marketing tool for myself.

Again, not in like any way of like, this is the future.

I don't want to be like, I predict it.

You know, I'm not trying to Steve Jobs it and say I invented iTunes.

That's not the case.

I just lucked into it.

It happened to be the perfect time for people to be receptive to that.

And now that has become the model.

That is the way you do it.

So I was just one of, if not the first guy to do that.

I wish I could say it was intentional.

I just lucked into that really.

And so when I moved to town, I had all these sales numbers, ticket sales, that to me I was like well, this is normal.

Like, this is just how could people not be doing it this way?

This is the way it goes.

But I moved to Nashville.

I don't really know anyone.

I have one or two connections to like— some buddies that were nude in town, that wrote songs and didn't have anything else going on and i would just go out to writers nights and try to meet people and you know, i found like-minded people and we wrote songs together and then, you know, one thing turns into another and here we are.

But i don't know that that happens as much now, because if, let's say, you were a new artist and you go, i want to be a country singer, that's my dream.

Well, you just get on tick tock or Instagram and you write songs at your house.

And you see how people feel, yeah.

And you see how people feel.

And if all of a sudden it becomes this undeniable thing and then the record labels are calling your house.

So when you get to Nashville, it's like the culture of that, like the new people in town that are all banded together trying to succeed and do this thing, like that's kind of not there right now.

You know, because why would you now, when you could just stay live at your parents' house and not pay rent and not take any risk?

You don't have to go play shows because why would you?

It's all an unnecessary risk at this point.

And I'm not saying that's right or wrong.

Everything progresses and changes, but I think it has kind of like unintentional consequences.

And again, not that that's inherently wrong.

It's just the nature of the beast right now.

So I'm thankful for that.

I was of the kind of the last generation, like I kind of got to experience both.

I got to do the social media like get feedback instantaneously, create my own space, my own community, have my own fans before anyone else got to decide or control that process.

But I also got to move to Nashville and be a part of a culture that you know we created ourselves and IE.

We, being like me, and my friends, created kind of our own culture bubble of success that we all came up in together.

That was really cool to be a part of.

It's one of my favorite parts of like my whole story is like.

I mean, my first seven number ones was everyone's first number one song.

When my first record was turned into Sony, there was one person on the entire record that even had a publishing deal.

It was just all people I had like met at bars and shit and like wrote songs with that are now like lifelong friends of mine, you know, and people that I still collaborate with to this day.

Not everyone I'm still super in touch with, but the core crew is like...

I mean, people that I like go on trips with and like have around my kids and stuff.

You know what I mean?

So it's like, that's like, you can't create that artificially.

It has to be an organic thing.

So I feel sad for some of this generation that may lose that.

And they probably have their own community and ecosystem that I'm unaware of.

That feels just as great as mine.

Yeah. but I long for the nostalgia of that.

It's like I want other people to get to experience that the same way that I did, but they may just be having that same experience in a different lane, you know.

Yeah.

At least I'm hopeful that they are.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I can relate to a lot of what you're saying because my work kind of around the same time.

2016 was the year I again, just like you no strategy, no technique.

Right. just started sharing what I believed and what I cared about on social media.

And it took off organically.

I didn't know where it was going.

I didn't have a plan for where it was going.

And so I can totally relate to what you're saying about this idea of just putting something out there and you weren't doing it because you thought the platform was going to get you somewhere else.

It was just the platform was available.

The thing that I love about it is it creates no like barrier to entry.

Totally.

It's like purely what resonates with people.

It's like strictly talent based.

It's like strictly work ethic based.

Like it's all based on like, how hard are you willing to work?

How much do you resonate with people?

What's your music?

What do people think of your music?

So it's cool in that sense.

And whether it's a podcast or a music or I don't, I can't even imagine like, or a chef.

Like I think of, like you know, Joshua Wiseman, who's like he starts out putting videos on YouTube and he's like now he's like this guy, one of the most influential food creators in the world.

You know what i mean.

Like it's just so cool that you can create something from nothing on your own accord now and you get to control the narrative and how your career is going to go, as opposed to you know, this kind of nameless, like these nameless people and entities going like well, you're gonna do that and wear that and you know they basically they get to.

It's great for everybody because there's no risk for the labels.

In a lot of ways,

They don't have to go, we'll sign 10 guys and hopefully one of them works out.

And they go, now we'll just sign 10 guys and they're all going to work out.

Yeah, exactly.

Because we know.

We just know it's going to work out.

It's already proven.

We have the proof right there.

So it's kind of a win-win for everybody in that situation, at least I think.

But it's cool, man.

It's a cool time.

Yeah.

There was a moment in your life you were talking about your family being a priority now, but there was a moment in your life that kind of shifted you back in that direction right,

That made you take a bit of a break.

I mean, I think it was, I mean, COVID was a big reason for that.

Obviously, it was like my career was white hot when COVID happened.

And it was kind of like it was a bummer.

It was a bummer for a lot of us.

You know a lot of musicians.

You know there's a lot of people that didn't survive the whole covid thing.

You know, like you kind of come in and it's like all of a sudden you're.

You know, I can't imagine having been a new artist like a brand new artist when that happened, because then it's like you kind of only get the one shot.

And then if it, if it dwindles at that time just because of the what's happening in the world like well, that can be kind of it.

That was tough.

But my family thing, you know I, we have our first son texts, and then five months later we find out we're pregnant with our next bow.

And so that was a whirlwind.

I mean, like you know, you're having a five month old, you're figuring out how to be a parent, have a baby.

And then all of a sudden you have another baby, you know, you have two babies at the same time, you know, I almost would have rather had twins would have been an easier transition to be quite honest.

You know what I mean?

Like it was almost more difficult having like cause.

Then there are two different ages, but they're both so fragile and like I mean when Bo was born, like Tex couldn't even walk yet.

So it was like, my wife's got one on the hip and one in the cradle.

And it's like, I'm out, I'm in, I'm in Australia when Bo was born.

And that's like crushing the devastating things.

My whole identity is that, no matter what I'm going to prioritize my wife and my children over my job, over what I do like they're my number one priority.

I want them to know that.

And then here I am having this moment of like, well, guess who wasn't there?

Like the guy that says he's always going to be there and that will do anything to be there is the only guy that's not there.

And so it was a huge blow to like.

It was like man.

Well, you set yourself up to do everything you can to be there, and then the plan doesn't go the way that you thought it was going to go.

And it's nobody's fault, obviously.

It's just a way of, you know, it was the universe's decision at that point.

I mean, he comes two and a half weeks early, you know, four days from going home, and he decides, you know, to show up.

And, you know, everyone's like, well, you can't believe you planned the tour that close.

The tour is already planned.

The tour's planned before we even find out we're pregnant with Bo.

So there's no canceling the tour.

It's sold out before we even know we're pregnant.

So you have this obligation to your fans to go and do that and put the shows on and power through.

And I didn't tell anyone that until... after I got home, you know what I mean?

Like I kept it to myself because you know there was never this big, like I didn't want it to be this big.

Whoa, is me like PR campaign of look how sad I am and look how hard it's been.

It's, I mean, it's kind of—you know that that could happen going in, I think.

And so you have a right, you have a duty to your fans to continue the show on, you know?

I mean, even if I would have left, I would have not been home.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, I woke up— Yeah, you wouldn't have made it in time.

Right.

It's 8 a.m.

Sydney time.

My wife texts me 6 a.m.

Sydney time or whatever.

I don't even know what that time zone's called, but—

6 a.m., so I wake up two hours after the text of, like, I'm going to the hospital.

Obviously call her first thing.

She's in the hospital.

I mean, thank God my sister-in-law was there.

My mother-in-law was fine in that day.

My parents lived in town.

So the support system was there, and for that I am eternally grateful, you know.

It brings serious perspective to the it takes a village kind of thing.

You know, I can't imagine— if my wife would have been alone during that thing.

It would have been even more crushing.

But knowing that she had people that she trusted and cared about being around was a huge relief for me.

It didn't make it any easier, but it was better.

And so that really shifted my focus of like, what happens from here?

Like, how do I make You know, how do I make changes based on this thing?

Like I dread the conversation with my son at some point, like because obviously he doesn't know that he's two and a half.

Like he's not even going to understand that for five years, you know.

But I dread that conversation of being like you know well dad you, you know, 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 you were there for the next kid.

And why was I the only one that you weren't there for?

So I worry about that a lot.

Interesting.

And I think that it will be okay, but I haven't quite yet processed when to have that conversation.

Obviously not anytime soon.

But when I do have that conversation, how do I...

You know, say that to a seven or eight year old and it be meaningful.

I think it's bigger than one conversation.

It's not like, hey, I wasn't there.

Get over it.

That's it.

We're not talking about it.

You know, it's more nuanced than that.

I'm sure it will be a lifetime of, you know, conversations.

And I'm hopeful that he'll be understanding.

I'm sure that he will.

If I do my job right and my wife does her job right, I think he will be, if he turns out to be a good person, the way that I hope that he does.

What do you think you'd say?

I'd probably just break the news, you know.

I think the first conversation is going to be, I want to tell you before you find out first.

I think that's the most important thing is getting ahead of...

You know I don't want him to one day, you know, have access to the Internet and come across this thing.

And it's, you know, Luke Combs misses the birth of his child to be at the show.

And then he's like, well, I didn't know that.

Which child is it?

And then it's like, oh, it was me.

And why did he never tell me?

You know, I think that avoiding that is like number one.

So I think that's the first conversation you kind of like let that like wash the shock, a little bit of that like wash over him.

And then I think there's a follow up conversation which is hey, you know, like you know, I would do anything for you.

You know, I would have given anything to be there.

But like, even if I make the best effort I can, like there's no way I would have been there.

Like he was born at by 10 a.m.

And, like, two hours after I wake up, he's born.

So, like, I wouldn't even have been able to, like, get a plane and be at the airport yet.

And he would have been born already.

So, it's not like I tried and didn't make it.

It was like there was no way that I was going to make it.

And so...

I think I'm mentally past the guilt of it now, because I beat myself up about it for a while.

I couldn't even talk about it for a while without getting super emotional about it.

I think you just have to move forward and you just have to cross that bridge when you come to it.

And I'm lucky to still have you know to be five years older or five years wiser.

You know when that conversation has to happen and have had more time to process and think about it.

But, I mean, it's the nature of the beast, man.

Like you know, and if you work at the butcher shop, you're probably going to get blood on you when you're at work or you're probably going to come home smelling like raw meat.

You know what i mean.

Like you know that you kind of knew that going in it's not like sure.

You knew it could happen, you hoped it wouldn't and it did, and so now you just have to live with it and deal with it and address it and not let it become an issue.

Yeah,

In days like these, you sing when the sky is blue and the grass is green.

How much better can it be?

If I got you and you got me, we got everything we need.

And even if it grew on trees, well, money can't buy days like these.

And you talk about money in that song and in Rich Man as well, and how money can't buy happiness.

How do you define a rich life?

This is always such a tough subject for me because I think there, you know, there's no hiding.

There's no hiding that I do really well.

And that's something that I have some guilt around not guilt from like having money or having success.

I feel like it's a question of like, why do I deserve it more than maybe someone else?

I don't deserve it more than anyone else.

But you feel this guilt of like, I almost feel it's not an imposter syndrome.

It's not the same as that.

But like you feel like man well, I just.

I feel like I have more than I deserve, or I don't deserve to have been this successful, or you feel guilty for being this successful.

And you kind of get this feeling like, well, I, maybe people like can't relate to me anymore.

And like, I hate that because like, I haven't changed other than the circumstances of my life now.

At least I think that I would like to think that everyone around me would agree with that.

So I hope I'm not sounding like egotistical by saying that, but like I, I would.

I would be willing to bet that a lot of the people that know me well would say it's the same guy with a different bank account.

And so those songs are even difficult.

I find it a little bit like cliche for me to even say that.

And I danced around putting Rich Man on this record because I was worried about sounding hypocritical, right.

Because the whole idea of the song is a guy in a bar whose character is supposed to be a farmer.

The narrator of that song is not supposed to be me.

It's supposed to just be a guy who's in a bar and he sees two other guys having a conversation.

And it's basically a guy in overalls who is supposed to be my eyes.

We wrote it was a farmer or whatever, an older guy and then a younger guy who's kind of in a suit.

You know, he's doing the whole business guy thing and he's stressed out about the stock market.

He's stressed out about work and all these things.

And you know, the farmer just kind of gives him this allegory in the song of, like you know hey, rich man, you know I know you didn't ask, but I'll say this man, all the money in the world don't mean shit man, because it can't go with you when you die, buy you time or hold your wife and kids hands.

And for me, I'm very aware of how much better my life is by having things that I have.

And I'm cognizant of that.

And I'm not trying to hide that.

I'm very grateful for that and appreciative of it.

And I'm aware of, you know, that it makes me, it can make me sound hypocritical in that sense.

And I, I, I, tussled with that a lot when putting the song on this record.

So I didn't want people to be like look at this big blow hard, telling me how to you know, think about my life, or whatever.

Like I'm not trying to tell anybody how to feel, um, in any way on, on that song or on this record.

And I think.

For me though, there are these moments in life where I am, you know, you say the sky is blue, grass is green.

I remember that day we text was a baby.

And we're living in our house like an hour from Nashville at that time.

We've since moved.

And it was just beautiful outside.

And it was like my beautiful wife is there.

My kid is there.

And my career is going really well.

And I'm just really thankful.

It's almost just like...

There are these days to me that, like, you can't put your finger on, like, why they're so great.

You're still surrounded by the things that you have and the people that you love, in the same way that you were yesterday and the same way that you will be the next day.

But it's like everything just lines up and it's like you just you're almost on this like high of life.

Like it's the birds are singing and the temperature, you know, it's, you know, it's like the weather's like that every day here, by the way.

You know, I forget it's January.

Yeah.

It's spectacular.

Yeah.

It's unbelievable.

And it's like you know, it's like these bluebird days, and You know everything's just hitting on the same wavelength for what?

I don't really even know how to describe it.

But that was my mindset writing days like these.

It wasn't about I live in a nice house or I have this thing.

It was like it wouldn't have mattered where we were or what we were doing.

It was just everything in the universe lined up that day for it to be like this perfect day.

And it's not the first one I've had and it's not the last one I'll have.

But damn it if they aren't few and far between and damn it if I didn't wish they came around more often.

You know, and you just, I love those days and they're so rare and they're just that song to me, totally captured that moment in time.

So perfectly, you know, and I just love those days.

And I think that there's nothing that I owned or nothing that I bought, or nothing that I could buy or nothing that I could do that could recreate that feeling.

So regardless of the situation that I'm in now.

There's no doubt that money helps with those things.

There's no doubt.

I don't want to sound like a guy who's like well, it don't matter if you got.

That's the bridge of the song Rich Man.

I say that in the bridge of that song.

It's like, well, it ain't no secret having money is nice, but making a living don't make a life.

And I believe that.

And I know that's easy for me to say so.

I don't want anyone out there to think that I'm discounting the fact that I have money.

Have it way better than a lot of people.

I'm painfully aware of that.

And I struggle with that, to be quite honest.

Yeah, I appreciate you saying that part of just.

You know how you can walk around, especially when beautiful things happen to you.

And you totally.

I couldn't agree with you more that it's not that you don't want to have beautiful things happen to you.

You just want it to happen to a lot more people.

For sure.

And you want beautiful things to happen to everyone around you.

You want beautiful things to happen to strangers that you've never met.

Absolutely.

Because that's the joy of it.

It's only beautiful if more and more people get that opportunity.

100%.

Yeah.

You know, it is, man.

It's a crazy world out there, man.

It's hard.

Yeah, it's hard.

It's hard, man.

It's really, really hard, you know.

Absolutely.

When you're in a position, guys like us are in, man.

We're so lucky.

I do everything in my power to give that feeling back to other people, whether it's people that work with me, or giving money to charity or whatever it may be, or volunteering me going to sing at something like any way I can give back.

I always try to do that at any chance that I have, because that's just something that my mother instilled in me at a young age.

You know, we, I grew up working at the food bank in Asheville.

She would take me over there and we would work at the food bank and you know, she's explaining what this is and what this place is.

And you know that at the time made me like wow man, like you know, this makes me really thankful, for you know everything we got.

And, you know, I can't imagine going home and opening up the cabinet and there's nothing in there.

You know, there's no, it's not even a can of corn in there.

You know, I couldn't imagine that feeling.

And, So she she forced me to do that when I was younger.

And I'm thankful for that because, you know, she's still doing things like that.

You know she still goes out and works at the, you know at the animal shelter at the food bank and in Nashville.

And you know I I got to go from that to, you know, after Helene, you know that ravaged the part of the country that I grew up in.

And when we put on the benefit concert in Charlotte, my portion of the proceeds, part of my portions of the proceeds, rebuilt the entire food bank that I worked at growing up.

It was completely destroyed, like completely gone.

And I got to watch my success and influence have the ability to do something that great and rebuild their entire facility.

And that is like something that's, you can't even put words on it.

And like the amount of pride I have in that is immense.

You know, like my most proud moment of my career from here on out and forever will be.

You know the show that we did that night and getting to see these charities.

Send me videos and emails and here's what we did and here's how this worked and here's how this happened.

And it's just cool to get to be a part of that, you know, and it's not...

I don't come at it from – it's not like an egotistical pursuit.

It's just, like, you get to, like, watch the money that you raised.

You get to watch, you know, people be directly impacted by these things that we got to do.

And I owe all that to my team.

You know, I owe all that to everyone else.

Like, I always say, like, I'm the guy that works the least – amount.

Like I'm, I have the easiest job in the whole thing.

Like I think, um, obviously I do a lot of things.

I'm in a lot of places.

I go to a lot of different things and I'm constantly working, but when you love it, it doesn't feel that way.

And I'm just grateful for everyone else on my team that allows me.

You know their.

You know they get to be a billboard for me when they're out.

You know meeting.

Even if I'm in there, you know, getting touched up before this thing, and they're talking to you and you're like man well, these people are nice.

So I really do believe it's top down.

I try to be great and give my team the ability to be great because we work in a good environment.

We respect each other.

And that transfers, man, and people can feel that.

People can feel that energy when you're around.

And that's my biggest point of pride is when we're at a show, whether it's the stadium Or we're going and doing a club gig.

For you know, we played a club gig last year for the first time in five years and it was wild.

It was like 850 people in the Georgia Theater in Athens and, like, a venue we used to play.

And, like, it felt like the biggest venue in the world.

And you go back and when I'm walking through the halls, backstage or whatever, like even the people working the doors are like They'll say to me your, your team is the best team we've ever worked with.

Like, everyone was so kind and so gracious and they communicated so well and they're all professional and they were all in great spirits.

And like, to me, that is like, that's the legacy I want to leave behind is like, sure.

I had a lot of success.

Sure.

I had a bunch of hit records and sold a lot of tickets and sold a lot of t-shirts or whatever.

But all that be damned.

Like you know my headstone, you know, here lies good man, good dad, good husband, good friend, good son, good boss.

Like, that's the things that I want to be remembered for.

And so I live every day trying to make those happen to the best of my ability.

What is one thing about love you've had to unlearn that it's earned?

That it needs to be forever for it to count.

February is the month of love.

Whether you're in a relationship, casually dating or proudly single, it's a great time to reflect on yourself and what you want.

I'm Hope Woodard, host of the VoiceOver podcast, and each week this month we're looking at love from every angle.

I don't know how to tell my partner what I want in bed.

The thing about romantic fiction I would say, more than any other genre of culture, is that it's always put women first.

My marriage stopped making sense.

The connection started to feel off.

The behavior started to feel different.

This February, get in touch with yourself by listening to Boy Sober.

That's B-O-Y-S-O-B-E-R.

I would love to not hate the man I'm sleeping with.

I don't know what that's about.

Listen to Boy Sober on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I saw a video of you starting a concert or at one point in a concert, basically saying guys, I'm not feeling well today.

I'm still going to do the show, but we're going to give you a refund.

And I'm like, dude, you did the show.

Like you showed up, you did the show, but you didn't.

You were like I'm not going to be my best, or something like that.

I was like, wow, that's amazing.

Yeah.

I remember it was in Maine is where it was.

That's it, yeah.

We did two nights in Bangor, Maine, and the first night show was great.

Run-of-the-mill show, and by run-of-the-mill, I mean we had a great time.

It was great.

It was fun.

We got buddies in town.

But that venue is wonderful, by the way.

And we were backstage, and they have a fire pit going, and they're bringing you out.

Food and like all the employees are so nice and it's just a great atmosphere to hang out in.

And so we had some friends in town and, you know, up having some cocktails, but we were all outside.

I'm talking two or three times as loud as I normally was because we're playing music.

We're having some drinks.

We're staying up late.

And the next day I wake up and I'm like man, my voice is like just a little like, it's just a little rough.

You know like not my worst morning I've had, like by a long shot.

And I know I've done that enough times to know how it goes and know how it's progressing.

And so as the day went on, I'm like.

I'm like, well, man, this isn't like progressing the way it normally does.

Like it doesn't feel like it's getting much better.

So I don't know, I guess maybe around two or three o'clock I call my manager and I'm like hey, this ain't going so hot.

I'm starting to get a little bit worried because we have the show tonight.

And I said, could you, and I've done this maybe twice ever.

Once was in Australia.

This was the second time.

I said, I was like, I need to get a steroid shot to do the show tonight.

And I hate doing that.

If you're any kind of singer, you should not get those, because they're horrible for your voice in the long run.

Don't, it's not something you should be doing a lot.

It should be an absolute emergency parachute situation, which it was for me, because I'm like well, everyone's here.

I get the steroid shot.

I'm like, okay, I'm going to be good.

I'm going to get through this. a couple hours goes by, I go to do my warmups.

I do my warmups, let's say we're on at nine, I'll do my warmups at eight.

It's 20 minutes, 25 minutes, and then I'll join the band and we all hang out and have some drinks, get together, whatever.

And I get five minutes into my warmup and obviously, I mean, everyone's already played dude.

Like the first of three he's played direct supports already done.

Like people are just waiting for me to come out at this point.

I get five minutes into my warmup and I call my manager.

I'm like, dude, I'm not gonna be able to sing tonight.

And he was like, what do you mean?

I was like, I don't know, man.

Steroid shot.

Like it didn't work.

Like it worked the first time I got it.

I was like, it didn't work.

It didn't do enough.

Like I physically am not going to be able to do it enough.

And so we were having conversations.

Well, what's the options?

You know, he's like, well, he's like, well, we'll just cancel it.

We're just, that's what we do.

And I was like, no, dude, that's what everyone else does.

Like, we're not doing that.

Like, I'm not.

These people are here, dude.

Like, this is... Those concerts, man, like, concerts are expensive.

And I'm aware of that.

Like I, have so much respect for how hard people work and things they sacrifice to come and see me play.

Because I used to be one of those people.

You know, I would work all summer to save up to go see one concert.

And it was a big event, man.

It wasn't just...

Oh, this is the thing I'm doing tomorrow.

It was like, I'm building my whole summer around this one night, you know?

And I know there's hundreds of people, thousands of people, you know, a thousand yards away from me, that have done the same thing.

And I can't live with the idea that they are going to be let down.

And they're sure as hell not going to be let down by somebody else that isn't me.

So I told Cappy, I said listen, dude.

I said I'm going out there and I'm telling him like, and he's like what do you, what do you mean?

And I'm like, I'm going out there and I'm telling him on the microphone that I can't do the show.

And I said, me and the band, we'll play for an hour.

I said, we'll play all the hits.

I'll sing the best I can, but we're just going to refund everybody's money.

And he's like, I'm in, dude.

Whatever you want to do, let's do it.

And he's, who cares about the money?

It doesn't matter.

We'll all refund it.

So go out.

And usually we have, like you know, there's the big intro song and like the video and all that stuff.

I'm like, we got to kill this, dude.

Like we're not doing the hype up video.

And then I'm walking out and telling them I'm not playing.

So I walk out and I remember being like so somber and like my heart rate is just through the roof.

I'm like so nervous because I've never done anything like this before.

And I remember saying it, like, hey, guys, I'm not going to be able to do the show tonight.

And it's, like, just raining down booze, man.

Like, it's just people are brutalizing me.

Oh, wow.

And, like, as I feel like they have the right to do.

Like, I would be pissed, too, right?

Like, Mr. Big Tom comes out here and tells me he's not going to do the thing or whatever.

And I go, but wait.

I was like, before you guys get upset, like, 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 and use it for the betterment of my life or my team you deserve.

You know you spent all this money to be here and you've got hotel rooms and babysitters and like I can't make that right.

So I still want to give you the show.

I'm just not going to take the money from the tickets.

Like and and I'll just just so this just free show, but it's just not going to be as good of a show as I feel like you deserve for all the sacrifices that you've made to be here.

And we played for probably an hour and Hour 15 and we played all the hits and I sang the best I could and the crowd sang.

And it was a really cool night.

It was really stressful.

And man, I got to give it up to my fans.

Like a lot of fans reached out to me and they were like, hey man, I donated my refund.

Because like we loved the show and we thought it was still great.

And we appreciate you being a standup guy.

And we just wanted to, we just felt like it was wrong to take the refund.

Now, not everybody did that.

And I can understand that.

I wouldn't be mad if nobody donated their refund, you know?

But then we came back, I think it was two years later.

We came back, like scheduling was crazy, but we came back and did a night there.

We were like doing stadiums.

And then we came back and did the little amphitheater and banger and And it was cool, man.

That's awesome.

Great story.

Yeah.

Great.

It's turned into a great story.

I was very stressed about that.

I can imagine.

But that's awesome.

I love, I'm so glad you told me that story.

Cause I just saw the clip like on social media that I'd seen.

And I thought, wow, that's incredible.

But now to hear the backstory behind it.

I mean, you know, earlier you were talking about your wife.

We've been together for 10 years now, thereabouts.

It's mine and my wife's 10-year wedding anniversary this year.

We've been together 13 years.

That's awesome.

And so it's fun when you've lived that life with someone.

How did you guys meet?

We met, she actually was living in Nashville.

I was living in Nashville.

We had met in passing a few times.

Not many, not more than five minutes here and there like.

But we kind of had some of the same friend group like you know.

Think of, like the Venn diagram.

There's like a couple people in the middle.

You know, we all know much different folks and stuff.

So

Met like that, and she worked at BMI, which is a huge, I'm sure you know what that is.

For those of you that don't, a performance rights organization that just collects and distributes royalties to songwriters, and that's how they get paid for the most part.

There's a few organizations that do it.

BMI is the biggest one, and she was working there at the time.

She did kind of like specialized HR work there, BMI also puts on a songwriting festival in Key West.

The Nashville branch puts on one in Key West and it's called the BMI Key West Songwriters Festival.

It's every year, so much fun.

So their whole office like shuts down.

I mean, it's like I can't tell me how many people work there probably in the hundreds and they all just kind of go to the Keys and help out with events or just hang out or whatever.

It's not like a stressful work week.

Maybe it is for one or two people, but the rest of them are kind of chilling and having a good time.

And so they invite around 200 songwriters down there all like kind of in the country space.

Um, and it's cool because BMI, you know, they foot the bill for your flight.

They put you up in a hotel like it's an all expense kind of paid, like trip to Key West, and you play a couple of songwriters rounds and fans come and it's.

It's really fun.

It's a really killer.

Like if you love country music, if you love songwriting, you have to go.

Um, it's really, really great.

So it was my first year going to that.

I was probably the last guy picked to go.

I have no publishing deal, no record deal.

And my buddy Channing Wilson, who is fantastic, he was going down there.

I remember me and him were having lunch and he was like, he's like man, why don't you come down to Key West, dude?

And I was like, well, it's like I didn't get invited, you know?

So he called up his rep at BMI.

I was like, hey, I'm eating lunch with this Luke Holmes guy.

And I had had a meeting over there with them.

I was there.

And they were like, yeah, man, like he can just room with you or whatever.

So I was like, hell yes.

I was pumped up, get down there, run into her at an event and kind of hung out like for the evening with friends and stuff, like spent a couple hours together hanging with friends and stuff.

And then, once I came home, we made plans to get together like a couple of weeks, like a couple of weeks after I got home, we ended up.

Staying in touch via text or whatever and made some plans to get together.

And we've been dating ever since, man.

Like, it was just crazy, you know what I mean?

Like, she didn't have any reason to think I was cool at all, man.

Like, I was wearing a t-shirt and gym shorts when I ran into her and was like...

She was like working two jobs, like making a killing and I've got like nothing going on at all.

She just thought I was cool for whatever reason.

So I thought that was pretty awesome.

So it worked out, man.

It was great because she's been there with me, you know, since the beginning and you know, seen me through everything.

And, you know, we made it through the whole rise together and all the craziness together.

And she's the best, dude.

I mean, you know, I mean, she really is.

Like, I just can't imagine, like, I wouldn't be here without her.

You know I'd have.

There's 10 hit songs that I wouldn't have written.

You know, because I wrote them about her, you know.

Um, so I'm very, very thankful for her, man.

And she's a great mom and she's a great wife and a great friend and, um, she's just a great person.

So, um, I'm very blessed to have that like connection with her, man.

Like that's been a huge, huge positive light in my life.

Like having her is, you know, she's one of the biggest reasons for my success.

Certainly.

How did you know she was the one?

It's funny as you say this like everyone's like well, it's like you know, like immediately, like it's for love at first sight, kind of thing.

And you know, I think that sometimes maybe does a disservice to the seriousness of like a relationship, of like the level that

Me and my wife have.

We have grown together.

You know, we have become adults together.

We've become parents together.

We've lived together.

Like, that's not something that happens overnight.

Like, sure, there are those feelings, like those inherent feelings of like, lust or attraction.

Like I think sometimes that people can confuse that for like this love at first sight thing.

And they're like, this is the person that I have to be with because I'm so attracted to them.

And like sure, the physical connection is really necessary, but the emotional connection I think we forget sometimes in today's day and age is That is like it's like a plant dude.

It's not something that grows up overnight, dude.

Like, it's something that takes nurturing.

It takes, you know, you got to water it.

You got to trim it.

You got to, like, you have to be doing maintenance to this thing.

And when you do that together, you grow better together, you know.

And there is no...

Like.

This is when I knew, like I knew that I was very attracted to her and I knew that she was a great person and I knew that I wanted to spend more and more and more time with her.

Every time I spent time with her.

And so I would say that like it just.

There was never any moment where I was like maybe this isn't the person I should be with.

You know what I mean?

She never gave me that.

There was never this thought of like well, maybe this isn't.

It was like there was never any questioning it.

So maybe I did always know, but maybe I just wasn't smart enough to see that at the time.

But I think the connection that we've grown over the years is... the beautiful part of it you know and it's like it only gets better with time it's like wine or something you know what i mean like it's probably pretty good right out of the barrel but then when it's you know 10 years old it's a whole different story and then 20 years old and 30 and 40 and so on and so forth it's it's a really cool thing man and it's it's a blessing to get to to get to experience life with somebody in that way and have somebody to share your triumphs with and your the peaks and the valleys and all of these difficult things.

Like my OCD stuff, she's very supportive of all that.

And it's like, she's always supporting me.

She's never bringing me down.

You know what I mean?

Like, It shouldn't take no shit for me.

That's important as well.

But it's like, but that's cool to me, man.

Like it's, you know, I don't want somebody that's willing to just do whatever I say all the time.

That's not, I don't want to get it twisted that that's the way it is.

Cause it ain't that.

Like she's the boss, bro.

Like she is the boss and i like that's cool to me man, like i like that, like i like her being like getting her advice on like songs or getting her advice on merch, like she has such an eye for that, so much more so than i do, and like we've done all these cool like merch collections where it's like the luke and nicole thing it's like her deal and she does the photo shoots and like she's doing all the merch and like letting her like I just trust her implicitly with that, like with Not just with me as a man and as a husband, but like even with my brand and like my business.

And like she's not someone that, like I'm ever worried about, like embarrassing me or like you know what I mean.

And not that she ever even could, but, like...

It's just like having this high level of like trust and respect for her.

I like to think that she has that for me too, but it's nice on my end to to have that and feel that it's a very comforting thing to know.

It's like you know when you go home, there's this person that's like regardless of everything else, is like on your team, no matter what you know.

And that's, that's cool.

What did she see in you before you saw it in yourself?

Brother, I got no idea.

No idea, if i knew, i'd be selling it.

How about that?

If i knew what it was man, i would be bottling it up and putting it on the internet.

Um, you could amazon it right now if i knew what it was, because there's some magic, that's the new thing.

Yeah dude, nicole's potion.

Yeah luke's, whatever it was dude, i tell you what it wasn't.

Uh, it wasn't my model like figure, by any chance, by any stretch of the imagination.

Um, I don't know.

You know, I haven't really considered that.

I've thought about it a bunch of times.

Like, I don't know.

Like I remember my dad saying to me one time like I think I had this crush on like a girl in high school or something.

And I was kind of like asking my dad for like advice on it.

And I was like, man, like, I just like, I'm like, this is kind of cool or whatever.

I'm like, why is this going on?

He's like, I'll never forget this.

He was like, Hey, sometimes son, you just don't ask questions.

And it was like, okay.

And so when it was like, when it comes to that stuff, I'm like, Maybe I don't want to know.

You know what I mean?

I'm just like, whatever, you know?

And so I just think sometimes when things are good, you don't really have to know why.

You know, I think you can, you know, then you can, maybe you can ruin something like that.

I don't, I'm not sure, but yeah.

And I don't know.

I mean, I think that, you know, I like to think maybe that she could tell that I'm a good person.

Yeah, I think.

And, you know, I think that, you know, now she knows that, you know, I've got her back.

She's got mine.

You know she, you know her and the kids are number one and like I'm doing stuff for them and everything.

But obviously that wasn't happening when we met.

Like, it wasn't like we had kids together, you know.

But I think, you know, I think she could just tell, like, well, maybe this guy is, like, he's different than other guys that I've, I'm not sure, you know.

Maybe she dated a bunch of losers.

I don't know.

You know what I mean?

I mean, I'm not sure, you know.

But, no, she's rad, dude, but I don't know.

Does she ever roast you?

Oh, bro, all the time.

Yeah, my wife roasts me all the time.

All the time, dude.

All the time.

She rips me apart, and it's like, it's awesome.

What would you say if she was here and she was roasting you?

What would you say?

I'm trying to think.

What would you tell the people?

She's like, she picks on, she's like, she's like, you're nerdy.

She's like, you're like definitely a nerd.

She definitely thinks I'm nerdy.

I like to play video games, and she's like...

Like, you know, she like lets me do it.

She's like, do whatever you want.

But she's like, I'm not going to not call you a nerd while you're playing video games.

It's just that kind of stuff, man.

She just doesn't let me get away with anything, you know, in a good way, a playful way, you know.

For real, though, don't let me get away with nothing either.

But like she also be super playful and she knows herself, man.

She's so confident in herself and she's so confident in like in us and our family.

And like, I think that's really cool.

It's really attractive, man, to like have someone that is so confident in themselves and.

I've learned a ton from her, man.

I've learned a ton about being just proud of who I am and having these kind of strong convictions and not being afraid to speak your mind and not being afraid to say the things that you you know, the things that you believe in and share your opinions.

I mean, you know I was.

I was not as apt to do that until I met her and she helped me.

You know also the thing I one of the this is a this is a sleeper pick for favorite thing about her is like I wasn't a picky eater, as you can probably tell.

I was not a picky eater growing up.

But I was a little bit like if I didn't like something, I was like completely out on it.

Like I'm like, don't like it.

Mushrooms.

Hate it.

Mustard.

Hate it.

Like there was a lot of things that I didn't like.

And she really was like, you know, you want to like try stuff.

You know what I mean?

Like you're just kind of like.

She's like, mushrooms are good and mustard is good.

And I'm like, no, it's terrible.

I've hated it since I was a kid.

And, you know, it's just a little I don't know.

That's such a funny thing to know.

I get out.

But like mushrooms are like probably one of my top five favorite foods ever now.

And like, I would have probably never tried them if it wasn't for her.

And I love mustard now.

All these things like, and it's just.

That's a small example of a bigger picture of like.

She's just helped me become more confident in myself and challenging me and pushing me to do things that are hard.

And pushing me to do and encouraging me to do things that are difficult that normally i would have, you know, faltered at before.

And um, she's just like you know she's.

She's like, she's my homie dude.

You know she's the best.

I love that.

I look forward to meeting her.

Yeah, she sounds awesome.

She is.

She sounds awesome.

Yeah you, you sing in your song the way i am.

I'm sorry baby, i really tried to change.

It's like there's something broken in my brain.

The more i try to fix it, the less i understand.

But you still love me just the way i am and i'm like.

It's like uh yeah, that song rips man.

Yeah i, i didn't write that song and that's why i love it so much is like that statement so perfectly fits.

You know a lot of the themes of my life though, the ocd stuff.

You know, um and that was a friend of mine wrote that with another, another great songwriter in nashville and Um, when I heard it, it was just, it was so sonically different than anything that's going on in town right now.

I mean, there's nothing like that song going out right now.

It's a very stereotypical country sound, but probably from 40 years ago.

And that's kind of what drew me to.

It is like it just felt like this kind of moment that was unexpected, not just from me but from anyone really.

Um, it's very slow, it's way too long.

It's got a just straight up steel guitar solo, like old steel guitar, not like cool steel guitar like that's in, like you know, some like poppy song, like it is like straight up like tears, like something george jones would be singing, you know, and not that i'm that, but it's like Lyrically I resonated with it so much already and then sonically it was just so different.

It felt like an absolute layup of a song to do.

I feel like it's going to be a big moment for people, and I think that that's why ultimately, I chose that song as the title for this record.

It really does.

I'm so okay with the way that I am now, honestly, at risk of sounding ironic.

At 35.

I obviously don't have life all the way figured out, but I'm as comfortable, if not more comfortable in my skin than I've ever been.

I feel like my mental health is way higher than it's ever been.

My mindset, my outlook... is all so great.

And I just, you know, I have so many people to thank for that.

You know, my wife, obviously my kids have helped a ton and just great friends, great teammates, great band members great, you know, collaborators and great, you know everybody just does so much for me, you know and, and that's kind of, you know, that's made me into the way that I am, you know, and that's just that title in and of itself.

Really I felt like encapsulated.

You know, the message I was trying to say with this album is you know, this is, this is where I am now, whether that's musically or as a person.

And I'm just excited.

I'm excited for people to hear this record.

I haven't done like a commercial project in like almost four years now.

And it's time.

And I, I just, I, I hope it's as received as I want it to be.

And if it's not, it's okay.

But you just have to put what you feel like is your best foot forward and you just have to be willing to live with the results of that, no matter what.

Absolutely.

And I'm more okay with that now than I've ever been.

Yeah, and that going away for four years was important.

It was.

Yeah.

And it was like you know, it's not like I retired, but it was like we really backed the touring stuff down.

Like last year, I didn't have my own tour for the first time in ever since I started.

And that was weird.

It was really fun.

Because all we did was these big festivals, you know, and so the festivals are fun.

They're a different challenge than especially the stuff we did this year.

You know we did Bonnaroo, La Palooza, Newport Folk Festival, Austin City Limits like crowds that we would normally never step in front of.

And so I was.

I really looked forward to that challenge.

You know, getting with my band leader and making set lists that were different for every one of these shows and going well, how do we, how do we meet this crowd in the middle?

You know what I mean.

Like as much as I there was to half the set, I wanted to come out and kick the door down and play honky tonk shit, like country stuff, like I wanted to do that and we did that.

But I also wanted to say I'm also willing to meet you where you're at a little bit and like, help you understand not just me, but that our genre in general is not just this stereotype of, It's not some caricature of, like this thing.

It's like... It's something that you can love, too.

And maybe you don't know that.

And maybe tonight is not the night that you fully understand that.

But hopefully tonight makes you even be at the inception of maybe i could love country music and maybe in 20 years we're finally where i think we need to be, not not exclusively because of me, but that moment helps a couple people have that epiphany or experience and, and you know, the betterment of the genre is something that is really important to me, you know, and and letting people know it's like hey man, like we're here.

Like we're like, we're more popular than we've ever been now.

And it ain't stopping anytime soon.

Yeah.

And I want to do my part to be a part of that future and help out the genre.

Like And regardless of what that means for me personally or my success.

You know I mean a lot of those shows.

I lost money doing those shows.

I took a lot less money than I usually would to get the slot, because I wanted to be able to go and do that.

I hope some people felt that on those nights.

But they were a lot of fun.

We sure enjoyed them.

And the crowds were just... amazingly like welcoming and warm, um, which was really cool, man.

Cause I was nervous, you know, like not nervous.

Like I don't want to go out there, but just like gosh man, like Man like you could really fall on your face out here and it would be tough night if like, it doesn't go well.

You know, like if you're not well received, headline and also city limits, like that'd be tough.

Or like you come out in Bonnaroo and you're headlining and it's like people aren't into it.

It'd be pretty crushing night.

It could be like a pretty crushing night if it doesn't go well.

Yeah.

But at least everyone made me feel like they went well and maybe they didn't.

But I felt like my perception was that they went really well and I enjoyed it.

Yeah.

Dude, I can relate because I get asked to teach meditation in all these places.

Like random places that you wouldn't expect.

I did a meditational main stage at Bonnaroo a few years back.

Yeah.

And everyone was just like wanting the main act to come out.

And it's like you're having to get everyone into a zone before they experience the thing they want to experience.

And it's like the pressure of that.

And thankfully it went okay.

It wasn't, you know, everyone was surprisingly quiet.

It was impressive.

Wow.

But it was.

You know, my world's very different to yours, but it's that same pressure of just like how do you get people at this music festival?

Right.

To be quiet, that's like literally the opposite.

It's like the antithesis of why they're there.

Totally.

But when people do it, what's fascinating when it's worked, is the music that comes after it.

Everyone's senses are like ready for it because they've gone, so It almost gives them a moment to like reset.

Totally.

It's like sniffing the coffee beans at Yankee Candle before you smell the other candle.

You know what I mean?

You're like I've smelled all these great candles and now I don't even know what this candle smells like.

So you're the coffee beans.

Yeah, I'm the coffee beans.

No one knows they need.

And then they smell them and they're like I'm glad I smelled those coffee beans.

That's how I'm going to explain it next time I'm on stage.

That's what I'm going to say.

Dude, here comes your coffee endorsement right here.

Yeah, I'm the coffee beans.

I love that.

It's coming, dude.

That's awesome.

It's coming.

That's awesome because everyone said how much fun you were.

We were like we'll put together a fun game for you.

We do this for special guests.

So this one was done for you.

This game is called the everyday guy test.

So we're going to see whether you fail or pass the test.

Obviously it's all for fun.

Uh, I'm just putting it out there right now that I would fail this test.

So yeah.

So here we go.

The everyday guy test at a restaurant.

Do you order tap or filter water?

Let me tell you what.

I didn't grow up going to restaurants where they even asked what kind of – there was no water choice.

To me, that's a whole new world for me.

But they're like – they'll come up and they're like, is tap okay or bottled or still?

I'm like, how many choices are there?

How many waters do you have, you know?

It's like, would you like it boxed or bottled or decanted and like –

Like just water would be great.

I usually, my answer to that question is whatever's easiest for you.

Whatever's the easiest.

Because to me, it's just all water.

I'm not a guy that's of the belief that, like 95 pH, water is going to make a difference.

To be quite honest,

And it probably does.

And that may be my downfall at some point.

But I'm like, hey, whatever makes your night less of a hassle for me.

I love that.

Just, just give me that.

I'm fine with, I'm fine with that.

First thing you can grab, get it and I'll drink it.

I love it.

Uh, regular milk or almond milk?

Uh, regular milk.

I do like, I do like an almond milk.

I have no beef with an almond milk.

Um, but I do, I do.

I would say probably uh, if I had to choose regular milk and you're not going to beat the creaminess of it,

All right.

This one I was cracking up at when the team put it in there.

Do you tip based on math or vibes?

Uh, oh, vibes for sure, dude.

Vibes for sure.

I'm an over-tipper.

I'm like an over-tipper.

I'm one of those.

I'm like, I'm like, yeah, like we go to a nice meal, a hundred bucks, like great.

Like, you know, depending upon the place, of course, but it's like, I always try to over-tip, man.

I'm just grateful for anybody. you know, that works in the service industry.

You know, I know how difficult it is.

You know, dealing with the public, and not everybody's so great.

Not that I'm so great, but I try to just be.

You know, it's just another version of like passing along the blessings that you have to someone else and being grateful.

You're winning right now, man.

This is amazing.

You're beating this game.

This game is losing, guys.

Let's do a few more.

Last time you went to the grocery store.

Last week.

Okay.

I go every week, at least twice a week.

Choice of grocery store.

Is there a specific one?

Okay.

You're going to like this one.

I like Publix.

It's the closest one to me.

In the same shopping center, I got a Sprouts.

Nice.

So if I'm going strictly food, I'm probably going to Sprouts. paper goods diet coke yeah i'm going to public's you know what i mean i love a public's i love a pub sub uh but i love a sprouts man it's like a i love sprouts it's like a less stressful whole foods you know what i mean like you go in and you're not like feeling like you're in the way you know and i went to this air one place yeah oh yeah yeah you want to spend 60 on something going to that I mean, it's nice in there.

It is like if you had a different variant of OCD.

You would love that place because everything is like.

There's not a speck of dust in that place.

You know what I mean?

But if there was, you would have to pay for it probably because it is not cheap.

I'll tell you that much.

But great.

So good.

Do you pack your own clothes or does someone pack for you?

Bro, I pack my own stuff, dude.

I might pack them for me, dude.

I'm a grown-ass man, dude.

I'm packing my bag.

No.

Oh, good.

All right.

Last one.

This one's the last time you Venmo requested someone.

Oh, gosh.

Let me look.

It's probably been a while.

Venmo request.

Yeah, it's probably been quite some time, I would say.

Let me see.

I can pop it up here.

Now I'm genuinely curious.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I don't know that I've requested Venmo.

I've paid people on Venmo a lot.

But actually requesting, I don't even know that I would even have one, to be quite honest.

I love that.

I've got Venmoed.

My buddy sent me a Venmo for some deer stands, as redneck as that is.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's my last Venmo thing.

But I can't even find a time that I Venmo'd someone else for something.

Nice.

Because I feel like a lot of the times, like I'm not a guy, like listen dude, if you're going out to eat with me, like I'm paying.

Like, I'm paying.

Like I'm not a guy that's like, well you know, just send me Venmo me 20 for the check or whatever.

Like, so, yeah, not any Venmo requests from me.

You passed the test.

The everyday guy test.

I survived.

You're the everyday guy.

I survived.

Yeah.

You killed that.

Your answers are amazing.

I was like, we need to test a few more people on that.

So you should have been like, what kind of ranch would you need?

A spanning ranch?

You know what I mean?

I thought it was going to be like, what kind of diameter?

I'm like, oh, boy.

I wouldn't know the answer.

Yeah.

Trust me.

I wouldn't either.

I wish I was handier than I am.

Yeah.

My dad is very handy, but I did not get that gene.

My dad was not handy, so I'm not handy.

You missed out there.

I can do it a little bit, but not to the level I would like to.

I would love to be able to take an engine apart and just be like, yeah, we'll just build.

Wouldn't that be amazing?

Dude, people that do that are geniuses, man.

I don't care what anybody says, dude.

That stuff is so hard, man.

My mind is not.

Like math is not great for me.

It just takes me a lot of time to do.

I know how to do it, the basic stuff, obviously.

But like, dude, anything past division and multiplication, I'm like, oh, you're speaking Chinese.

I have no idea.

You know, we got people for that.

Yeah.

And I'm glad that's the way the world is.

Yes.

You get somebody that's good at that.

I do the thing I'm good at.

You do the thing you're good at.

Totally.

Community.

Bing, bang.

Right there.

And everyone wins.

Yeah.

And everybody wins.

Everybody's happy.

All right.

Finish the sentence on these ones as first thing that comes to your mind.

The thing I take way too seriously is uh, video games, which games?

Uh, battlefield six recently has been kind of my uh, that's kind of been my thing recently.

Uh, like NCAA football.

I love my big football guy.

Take that way too seriously.

Um, Yeah, definitely video games.

Are you playing online or are you playing?

I play online.

I'm not playing NCAA online.

It's too sweaty.

Like, everybody's too good, you know.

Obviously, I don't take it seriously enough because I'm god-awful online.

But I just really play against my buddies.

But, like, man, you were talking about, like, I'm bent out of shape.

Like, I lose.

It's, like, affecting my day to some extent.

And I lose a lot.

So I'm not very good.

So maybe I probably shouldn't take it too seriously.

But I do.

I love it.

The pettiest thing I've done recently.

Oh, it's all going to be practical joke, like joke related.

Like me and my buddies are just, we just shred each other all the time.

I mean it's hard to pick a particular one, but like the jokes, like the jokes can be, like sometimes, like when we have, like me and my friends, we're so comfortable around each other and like we all kind of have a similar sense of humor and we all like know how it operates.

Sometimes i have to forget, like when we're around people that don't know us at all or that have just met us and we're in like full friendship, like joking mode, that i'm like maybe these people don't, Maybe we should just a little bit dial it back, because people are going to think we're weird.

Yeah.

We're going to be like, these guys are complete assholes to each other.

So then it's like, it's all love.

Yes.

If you didn't know us, you might be like, man, these guys are ruthless.

You know what I mean?

Me and my boys are the same.

Sometimes I just got to back it off.

Forget that not everyone has known us for 20 years.

My wife has to be like, no personal jokes.

When your guy friends are around, don't make him around other people.

If it's not just close friends, let's avoid all the jokes about each other.

That's my pettiness right there.

My guilty pleasure artist or song is...

Ooh, um, right now it's Olivia Dean is my, oh gosh, her voice is so good, man.

That's not like something people probably think I'm listening to, but the melodies are so good, man.

It's like.

There's some Amy Winehouse stuff going on there, which I loved her, man.

Unbelievable.

There's some early John Legend stuff going on, like female John Legend vibes, like when he was really rocking the piano.

The albums were real piano-centric.

The album Another Again was a soundtrack to probably my junior year of high school album and when i heard the olivia dean record for the first time my wife put me onto that i was like this is like, like i felt like i was listening to another again, like all over, like for the first time, and i loved that vibe of that album like, i think, her record.

It also came out at such a great time like and by time i mean like winter fall, like it's that kind of like, it's like holiday adjacent, like feeling like that piano, like good, like it just feels good to listen to.

Um, so I'm, I'm really, I'm really, really vibing on that hard lately.

I love that.

Uh, two more of these, which fellow country star would you call to help you bury a dead body?

Oh man.

Uh, probably Craig Morgan.

Okay.

Craig is like ex military.

Uh, he's like one of the most wild dudes I know.

Uh, and he'd be so happy to like help you.

He's like the sweetest guy in the world.

But like, if you crossed him, I would be so afraid of like what potentially could happen.

Um, and like, he's a guy to call him like, Hey man, like, I need you to come over here.

And he'd be like, well, heck, buddy, I'll be right over there, you know?

And he'd get over and just, he'd be like, what do I, what do we do with that?

And he's like, oh man, I've done that tons of times.

You know what I'm like?

He's just like, he's done everything.

Like he's like, he knows how to do everything.

Like he's like the perfect, like man's man guy.

Like he's the sweetest dude ever.

And I thought you just wouldn't ask any questions.

He'd be like, well, let's get it done, buddy.

You know, he's awesome.

So good.

All right.

First artist you'd want next to you on a long tour bus ride.

Um, okay.

Um, probably like Jordan Davis.

He has been on tour with me a couple of times.

And I feel like we're just really, we have like a similar vibe.

Like our crews are similar.

Like his relationship with, like his team and his buddies, I feel like is very similar to mine.

Um, and I, he's, I mean, he's a family guy, like great dad, uh, Another guy that I feel like is like that is not a country artist.

Ed Sheeran is like that, man.

Me and him kind of connected on that level of we kind of have the same outlook on life a little bit.

I feel like.

And not that we're identical.

Obviously, we're very different as artists.

But you just pick up on that vibe of, well, I get that this guy's like me, right?

The Good Charlotte guys are like that.

Benji and Joel Madden, to me, are like two of my favorites.

I had dinner with them last night.

I have dinner with them every time I'm in LA.

And they're like, I mean, two of the best guys I've ever met, dude.

And I just like I love finding those people you have that kind of like just connection with.

That kind of goes beyond like words sometimes.

Like, this guy gets me, I get this guy, we get each other.

Like, we're just...

We're just vibing, dude.

Like, we're just bros, like, from the second we met.

And Jordan was like that.

Ed was like that.

And Benji and Joel have been like that.

Those would be, like, my picks for guys.

Like, if I had to spend a long time with, then it would just be, like, easy, man.

Like, there would be no, like, nothing weird, nothing difficult.

Like, they're going to just be easy to deal with.

Like, those would be my guys.

That sounds like a great tool, by the way.

Yeah, it would be fun.

Yeah oh luke, you've been so much fun man, like i felt, like i've learned about you.

You've been so thoughtful profound, hilarious.

Appreciate that uh, you're good energy like, i've had such a good time getting to know you and i appreciate that we we end every interview, the final five.

These have to be answered in one sentence maximum.

We ask these to every guest uh.

So, luke combs, these are your final five.

Question one what is the best advice you've ever heard or received?

Wow, what a profound question.

Don't ask questions.

Back to my dad.

Don't ask questions.

Second question what is the worst advice you've ever heard or received?

Don't ask questions.

That's a good one.

Yeah yeah, that's good.

Yeah, that's good.

Question number three describe what it felt like performing Fast Car with Tracy Chapman.

Mount Everest, like undeniable, like just, it's like almost like out of body.

Yeah, I love that.

In the future, when your kids are asked about you, how would you hope the first sentence goes?

He was the best dad.

And fifth and final question, we ask this to every guest who's ever been on the show.

If you could create one law that everyone in the world had to follow, what would it be?

I hadn't as well.

I hadn't considered that.

I'm sure you get some funny answers.

I'm sure you get some serious answers.

I would feel like it would be like, don't pee on the seat.

Like, the airport, like, it already sucks enough, dude.

Like and then when I sit down and you're old, piss on the toilet like it's just.

That's the end for me.

Like...

Just come on, dude.

Like, don't pee on the seat, and I won't pee on the seat, and we all just, we're adults.

It's not that hard to not piss on the seat at the airport.

It's already gross to be in there, you know?

And don't, like, it's like, why are we audibly farting and, like, at the urinal?

Like, in the, like...

You don't have to, you know, it's, listen, if my buddies fart in front of me, it's funny, dude.

I think it's really funny.

My kids fart.

It's really funny.

When a stranger farts next to me, like just pulls the Jake break at the urinal beside me.

I'm like, this guy's an animal and I respect him.

But I'm also almost afraid of what he will do.

And if he's willing to do this, he's willing to do anything.

Yeah.

That has to be one of my favorite answers of all time.

That is amazing.

It is practical.

It's important.

I fully stand behind it.

I fully agree.

I didn't realize how bad it was until I went to other countries and I was like the bathrooms are so clean.

Totally.

Why are all of our bathrooms disgusting?

What does that say about us?

And now I can't unsee it.

I can't unsee how clean public bathrooms are in the rest of the world.

And I'm not okay with it.

We got to stop.

I love it.

Luke comes the way I am.

Luke, I'm so excited for everything that you have coming.

Thanks, Jay.

I love getting to know you.

You're awesome.

Likewise, man.

And wishing you all the best, all the success, all the joy.

Thanks for having me, man.

Love that you're bringing so much abundance into the world and for others as well.

I appreciate that.

Yes, sir.

Thank you, man.

Thank you.

All right.

If this is the year that you're trying to get creative, you're trying to build more, I need you to listen to this episode with Rick Rubin.

Follow your own inner guide.

It directs us.

It might not make sense to us.

It might not make sense to anyone else.

It certainly won't make sense to anyone else.

And that's okay.

It's fine.

What if mind control is real?

If you could control the behavior of anybody around you, what kind of life would you have?

Can you hypnotically persuade someone to buy a car?

Can you hypnotize someone into sleeping with you?

Can you get someone to join your cult?

Mind Games, a new podcast exploring NLP, a.k.a.

Neurolinguistic Programming.

Is it a self-help miracle, a shady hypnosis scam, or both?

Listen to Mind Games on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

When you feel uncomfortable, what do you put on?

Biggie.

You put on Biggie when you feel uncomfortable?

Because I want to get confident.

This is DJ Hester Prynne's Music is Therapy, a new podcast from me, a DJ and licensed therapist.

12 months, 12 areas of your life.

Money, love, career, confidence.

This isn't just a podcast.

It's unconventional therapy for your entire year.

Listen to DJ Hester Prynne's Music is Therapy on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

This is an iHeart Podcast.

Guaranteed human.

[Luke Combs: On Fatherhood, Mental Health, and Staying Grounded in the Spotlight]-[LUKE COMBS: The Man Behind The Success (Marriage, Fatherhood & Life With OCD)]

📋 Summary

Navigating Fame and Authenticity: A Conversation with Luke Combs

The Burden of "Pure O" OCD

Redefining Success and Sacrifice

The Philosophy of the "Rich Life"

Conclusion: Being the "Coffee Beans"

🎯Key Sentences

📝Key Phrases

📖 Transcript

[Luke Combs: On Fatherhood, Mental Health, and Staying Grounded in the Spotlight]-[LUKE COMBS: The Man Behind The Success (Marriage, Fatherhood & Life With OCD)]

📋 Summary

Navigating Fame and Authenticity: A Conversation with Luke Combs

The Burden of "Pure O" OCD

Redefining Success and Sacrifice

The Philosophy of the "Rich Life"

Conclusion: Being the "Coffee Beans"

Deep Learning with ListenLeap

🎯Key Sentences

📝Key Phrases

📖 Transcript

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