Luke Combs is a proud father of two boys, two-year-old Tex and one-year-old Beau. Although young, Combs and his wife Nicole are already determined to give their sons as normal of a childhood as possible, in spite of Combs’ superstar status. It’s also why Combs says no to a lot of things, things he once dreamed about, in order to be more present as a father.
“I want my kids’ childhood to feel as normal as it can, given the very strange circumstances that it will ultimately become,” Combs shares on the MeatEater podcast (via Country Now). “That’s a choice you have to make. And you lose a lot of things with that in the sense of like, there’s so many cool opportunities that I have that maybe would be really, not really beneficial, but cool experiences or beneficial to my career that I pass on to do that for my kids.”
“It’s not something I’m bragging [about], like ‘I’m such a good dad,'” he adds. “It’s not that. It’s just, I say this all the time, but my kids didn’t ask to be born. It was my choice to bring them into the world. So to me, it’s my duty.”
With numerous No. 1 singles, multi-platinum selling albums, sold-out international tours and more, Combs could easily be living in a fully-staffed mansion. But the 35-year-old says that is hardly the case.
“We live in a 2000 square foot house,” Combs reveals. “It’s me. It has two bedrooms. Me and my wife have a room, and then the kids, the boys, share a room. So we’re always close together.”
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Not only does Combs live in a decidedly normal home, but he lives a very normal lifestyle as well, at least when he isn’t on the road.
“My life is so normal,” Combs shares. “Outside of when I’m playing shows, I really don’t do a whole lot of anything other than I go play my shows, and I come home, and I spend time with my wife and my kids. And I do whatever work stuff I have to do when I’m home, whether that’s writing songs, which most of the time I’m doing at my house with my friends and stuff. I’m just there, dude.”
Not all about Combs’s young sons’ lives is normal. But even when they do enjoy a costly perk, the “Ain’t No Love in Oklahoma” singer makes sure they understand how privileged they are.
“My kids, they haven’t been through the regular airport…They haven’t flown a bunch,” Combs says. “But we’ve chartered a plane to go down to Florida or something, and it’s like that to them is normal. And so it’s my job to explain to them that, ‘Hey man, this is not a normal thing, and it’s super privileged to get to do this, but it’s not something that you are necessarily entitled to. It’s not something that you should feel like this is the standard and it’s beneath me to go to the airport.'”
Combs and Nicole made the decision early on not to use a nanny for their children. But neither do they hire a staff to clean up after them, preferring that their young songs learn those skills themselves.
“Every night it’s like, ‘Alright, we’re all cleaning up now and mom and dad are cleaning up,” Combs says, adding that even Beau is expected to help. “To the extent that a one-and-a-half-year-old can, he’ll get a block and bring it over and he might only pick up two things, but my two and a half year old now, he can make a five percent dent in the cleanup. But he understands.We make it a point to go, ‘Hey man, you need to help us with this stuff. This is your job. You make a mess. You got to clean it up.’”
Combs is hard at work on a new album. Find all of his music and upcoming shows at LukeCombs.com.
Photo Credit: Zack Massey