Luke Combs is fast cementing himself as a country music icon, and while fans love his music, they are also drawn to who he is as a person. Someone honest and humble.
During the “Back in the Saddle” singer’s appearance on “Armchair Expert” with actor Dax Shepard on Monday, August 18, Combs made an honest confession about living with obsessive–compulsive disorder, often referred to as OCD. It is a mental disorder that Combs was diagnosed with at 21, Us Weekly reports.
Luke Combs Gives Update on OCD Diagnosis
Combs discussed in detail how he suffers from “purely obsessional” OCD, which does not manifest in “outward compulsions.” He continued. “The behaviors are all mental. Mental rituals.”
“There’s a lot of themes that are very recurrent for people that have this. Religion is one,” he shared. “It essentially preys on the antithesis of who you are at your core, but it focuses on questions that are unanswerable. Which is like, ‘Do I really love God? Do I really believe in God?’ And then you spend over 90 percent of your day thinking about that. And that can happen for months on end.”
Combs used another example, this time about seeing a bird flying, and how a simple thing like this can result in him questioning things and starting to worry. “It’s like a bird flying by. You just go, ‘Oh, there’s a bird,’ and then you’re like, ‘What was that bird? Why did that bird fly by?’ And then the more you wonder why the flew by, the more it starts flying by,” he said. “Your brain’s like, ‘I need to send that thought again, because you’re worried about it and you being worried about it must mean something.’ Really, it doesn’t mean anything. Then the more you think about it, the more it starts showing up.”
Luke Combs on OCD’s Impact on His Career
Combs is an incredible musician who has already been nominated for and won a slew of awards, including Billboard Music Award for Top Country Artist, Country Music Association Award for Entertainer of the Year, and iHeartRadio Music Award for Country Album of the Year.
Shepard was curious about whether having OCD had ever impacted his life, or more specifically, his career, in a positive way. The singer was quick to reveal that there were no positives. “There’s no good parts of it other than when you don’t have it,” he said. “I would say definitely the course of my life has been dictated by that at certain times.”
Fans Praise Luke Combs for His Relatability
A video of the chat between Shepard and Combs was posted on YouTube. This allowed fans to respond, and many comments praised Combs for his willingness to discuss such a personal topic.
“I can’t really put into words how much it means to hear someone talk about this type of OCD so openly,” a fan wrote. “I’ve struggled with it my whole life but never knew what it was until a few years ago. It’s a scary thing to try to explain and he did it perfectly. Thank you Luke Combs for being so open and honest!”
Another fan shared, “OCD is much different than what people see on TV. It has been ranked in the top 10 disabling disorders. I appreciate you bringing light to this disorder. Sending much love!”
Fans feel seen hearing Combs discuss OCD, and the interview is empowering. “I have the same type of OCD and it’s brutal,” a fellow OCD sufferer wrote. “I know celebrities are just people but it’s still comforting knowing that someone who seemingly has a ‘perfect’ life experiences the same thing.”
There has also been praise for Shepard and the way he conducted the interview. Fans have said it was an “awesome job” and the podcast was an “amazing show.”
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Luke Combs’ Fans Applaud His Honesty & Vulnerability as He Discusses OCD: VIDEO