Luke Combs has a mixture of emotions about the birth of his second son, Beau Lee, who was born on August 15, 2023. Combs and his wife, Nicole, waited more than two weeks to announce his arrival, which Combs now reveals is because he was in Australia on his World Tour, and missed the delivery of his second son.
“I’ll never forget the craziest day, probably, in my life, close to it,” Combs tells Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1. “One of the best and one of the worst days in my life at the same time [it] was, interestingly enough, and it’s so hard to wrap my mind around it, if you really think about it. 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 at around 8:00 AM or something like that, Australia time, and I had a text from my wife and it said, ‘I’m so sorry, I really tried to not have the baby while you’re gone.’ And God, it sucked. It sucked because he was born on August 15th in the States.”
Thanks to technology, Combs was able to see his son be born, but it wasn’t the same as if he had been physically present for the birth, a loss he still deeply regrets. Both Beau and Combs’ oldest son, Tex, were the inspiration for his Father & Sons album, out now, although the Grand Ole Opry member says he wasn’t quite ready to write a song about not being there when he was born.
“I got to see him be born, which was awesome. He wasn’t born yet, but my wife, she texted me on the way to the hospital,” Combs shares. “He was two and a half weeks early, and I was supposed to be home and I wasn’t. That was real hard to do, and I haven’t really told anybody that, but I didn’t cover that too much in this album because it’s really hard for me to deal with.”
By his own admission, coping with the reality of what he missed by being on the road was heartbreaking. Fortunately, Combs was surrounded by plenty of people who helped him work through his myriad of emotions.
“It was a hard day, but I was so lucky that a lot of my closest friends now work for me,” Combs says. “And so, I had a really great support system. I’m never on an island on the road because I have so many people that are so close to me. And two of my best, best friends were out with me on that trip and my best friend from high school was my personal assistant, and he was there.
“He’s a father of two boys, and one of my best friends who I write songs with all the time was my guitar tech actually at that time,” Combs continues. “He was there and he’s got two kids. And so I was able to be with them through that whole thing. It was wild. It really was. It was such a surreal thing.”
Photo Credit: Courtesy of the CMA
Combs’ had already planned out all of the dates for his World Tour when they found out Nicole was pregnant. Fortunately, his wife also had a great support system in place, which made Combs feel a bit better about missing the monumental moment.
“We knew there was a chance that he would come early,” the 34-year-old says. “Luckily, my mother-in-law, she came up for the month while I was gone. Because obviously, we have a one-year-old and my wife is essentially nine months pregnant at the time, so thank goodness she was there. My sister-in-law lives in Nashville as well. 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. I had people with me, everything went great. No hiccups in the process or anything.”
Father & Sons is 12 songs all about Combs’ love of being a parent, and the lessons he learned from his own dad. Combs also has a Top 15 single with “Ain’t No Love in Oklahoma,” part of a star-studded soundtrack from the upcoming Twisters film, which also includes music by Jelly Roll with Alexandra Kay, Kane Brown, Shania Twain, Thomas Rhett, Megan Moroney and more. Both the film and the soundtrack will be out on July 19.
Combs is also the subject of a new exhibit, Luke Combs: The Man I Am at the Country Music Hall of Fame, scheduled to open on July 11. He is currently headlining his Growin’ Up and Gettin’ Old Tour. Find Fathers & Sons, and all of Combs’ music and upcoming shows at LukeCombs.com.
Read ‘Luke Combs: 11 Things To Know About the Singer’s Life and Career’ here.