Country Singer Luke Combs Tearfully Recalls Missing Birth of Second Son While on Tour

Country singer Luke Combs has opened up about some of the sacrifices he has made as a working father.

At the time, Mr. Combs was on tour in Sydney, Australia, about a 20-hour flight from his home in Nashville, Tennessee, where he lived with his wife, Nicole Hocking.

The “Fast Car” singer said he woke up in his hotel room to a text from his wife, who was on her way to the hospital. “It said, ‘I’m so sorry, I really tried to not have the baby while you’re gone,’” Mr. Combs recalled as he choked up.

Mr. Combs noted that his son was two and a half weeks early.

“I was supposed to be home, and I wasn’t. And that was really hard,” he said, adding that his mother- and sister-in-law were able to be there for his wife during labor. “So my wife had a really great support system with her for that experience, which I’m very thankful for. That made it a lot easier,” he shared.

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Although the country star wasn’t able to be by his wife’s side, Mr. Combs said he was still able to virtually watch the birth of his son, who arrived on Aug. 15.

The couple wed in the summer of 2020, and welcomed their first son, Tex, in June 2022.

‘Fathers & Sons’

After releasing his first EP, “The Way She Rides,” in 2014, Mr. Combs went on to release his debut studio album, “This One’s for You,” three years later, soaring to fame with his breakthrough single, “Hurricane.”

Since then, the singer has released a handful of hit albums, including 2019’s “What You See Is What You Get,” 2022’s “Growin‘ Up,” and 2023’s “Gettin’ Old.” His most recent album, “Fathers & Sons,” debuted on June 14, two days before Father’s Day. The cover art features a picture of Mr. Combs and his father seated in chairs beside a body of water, fishing with his two sons.

Speaking with Mr. Lowe, Mr. Combs discussed his latest album, which explores the unique bond between fathers and sons, calling the record “soul food.” Acknowledging that father-son relationships can vary greatly from one family to the next, the North Carolina native said he wanted to create an album that all listeners could relate to.

“There’s a few different perspectives on there, right? I didn’t want it to all just be—it’s all happiness, it’s all good,” he explained. “I have friends that come from divorced homes. I have friends that, you know, didn’t have a dad around. There are those experiences.”

Mr. Combs, an only child, also reflected on his own upbringing, sharing that his father was often absent due to his busy work schedule. “My parents both worked hard. … I would say me and my dad weren’t like buddies,” he said.

“There wasn’t a ton of like, you know, throwing the baseball in the front yard,” he added. “And that’s not because he didn’t want to. It was because he was doing what he thought was the best version of what I needed,” Mr. Combs said, referring to his father’s efforts to provide for his family.

“Your experience with that as a child is, well, my dad’s not around,” he continued. “All he does is go and work, he doesn’t care about me, he doesn’t want to spend time with me, he doesn’t want to do this—as a child, that is your understanding of what’s going on.”

However, the country singer said that once he had children of his own, the way he viewed his childhood and the feelings he harbored about his father shifted dramatically.

“Once I had kids … it made me realize so many things about growing up and about my parents, you know, my mom and my dad,” he admitted. “You know, as you’re [in] the process of evolving as a person, you realize that not every feeling that you had or not everything that you thought was going on is necessarily the truth.”

“When I became a dad, you’re realizing, well I go out and do all this stuff so my kids can have a better [life],” he shared, adding that being a parent has allowed him to better understand the ways in which his father showed him love.

“Having kids for me was a huge a perspective change on everything,” Mr. Combs said.