Luke Combs Gets Honest About ‘Crippling’ Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Luke Combs previewed his return to his roots and opened up about "crippling" OCD during a new interview with Apple Music Country's Kelleigh Bannen.

The singer's anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder never got between him and the stage, and he indicates he has it under control more than he ever did before. The key for him, he says, was becoming a family man and spending time at home because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I look at things now in ways that I never would've been able to before," Combs says ahead of his Apple Music Live performance from Coyote Joe's in Charlotte, N.C., on Wednesday (Aug. 24, 10PM ET). The venue is where the North Carolina singer cut his teeth years ago.

Bannen and Combs' conversation turned to the birth of his baby boy, Tex, before "The Kind of Love We Make" (No. 7 on Taste of Country's Top 10 Songs of 2022 list) singer opened up about "really bad OCD."

"There's stuff that used to matter as far as the things that you worry about, you just don't really worry about that stuff anymore," he says. "I mean, and almost instantly. You're just kind of like, 'Don't care about that. Don't care.'"

"Crippling is the word I would use," he adds to describe it. "It's really stuff that's out of my control, whether it's my health ... Stuff you could never get an answer to. So you have to learn to live with the uncertainty of, never knowing becomes the only way to get over it."

The Apple Music Live performance at Coyote Joe's comes nine days before his Middle of Somewhere Tour kicks off with two shows in Bangor, Maine (find tickets here). Jordan Davis, Morgan Wade and Lainey Wilson are the openers for Combs' 2022 fall tour. "The Kind of Love We Make" appears on his just-released Growin' Up album.