Luke Combs talks about what he calls “one of the best and one of the worst days of my life” during an interview with Apple Music 1's Zane Lowe that aired Thursday (June 20).
In August 2023, Combs and wife Nicole celebrated the birth of their second son, Beau (the couple are also parents to 2-year-old son Tex), but the two-time CMA Entertainer of the Year winner couldn't be there for the birth of his second child due to his tour of Australia.
“I'll never forget the craziest day, probably, of my life, close to that,” Combs told Lowe. “One of the best and one of the worst days of my life at the same time was, interestingly enough, and it's so hard to wrap my head around it,” Combs said, before detailing the day his son Beau was born.
“So it's August 16th. I wake up in the morning, I'm in Sydney, Australia, in a hotel room and we're on tour in Australia. I probably woke up around 8am or something – Australian time – and I got a text from my wife saying, “I'm so sorry, I've really tried not to have the baby while you're gone.” And God, man, it was a mess.”
Combs got emotional as he added: “It was a bummer because he was born on the 15th of August in the United States. I have to I see to be born, which was awesome,” apparently implying that he watched via video call. “He hadn't been born yet but my wife went and texted me on the way to the hospital and it was two and a half weeks early and I was supposed to be home and I wasn't. It was very difficult to do that and I haven't told anyone.”
He added that two of his close friends also work as his guitar technician and personal assistant, so he had a support system. “God, it was a tough day, but I was so lucky that many of my closest friends now work for me. And so I had a really great support system. “I was able to be with them through this whole thing.”
While Combs couldn't be there in person, he said his wife also had “a really great support system” by her side back home in the United States.
“Luckily, my mother-in-law came up for the month I was away because, obviously, we have a 1-year-old [Tex turned 2 on June 19] and my wife is basically nine months pregnant at the time, so thank god she was there. My sister-in-law also lives in Nashville. So my wife had a really great support system with her through this experience, which I'm very grateful for. This made it much easier. I had people with me, everything went perfectly. No hiccups in the process or anything.”
He called the day “a defining moment in my life, for sure,” and said the day highlights some of the less rosy aspects of being in the music industry. “Your departure and schedule is crazy and you travel everywhere. It's not like I can drop everything I'm doing and fly 18 hours home.”
While his new record Fathers & Sons features songs that look at fatherhood from different angles, he said, “I didn't have too much fun with this album because it's really hard for me to deal with.”
The twelve song project includes the songs “The Man He Sees in Me” and “Remember Him That Way”.
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/music/country/luke-combs-missing-sons-birth-1235715261/
