Luke Combs is a big-time country music star, but on the flip side, he’s busy being a father of two, which means he has had to shift gears when he’s not selling out arenas, recording music, and winning awards and accolades.
The two-time CMA Entertainer of the Year winner shares two toddler sons with his wife Nicole Hocking Combs — Tex Lawrence Combs and Beau Lee Combs. In a recent interview with PEOPLE, he discussed his role as a dad, saying that he not only desires to be around his kids to watch them grow, he wants them to know that they matter the most in his life.
“I want to be home with my kids, I want to see my kids grow up, and I want them to know that they are important to me,” Combs said. “I want my kids to know that my job is not more important than they are. You know what I mean?”
Luke Combs Prioritizes Fatherhood Over Fame
Luckily, Combs is at a place where he can prioritize his family life over his career, saying he used to have the mentality of “Let’s tour every year as hard as we can while it’s hot.” That work ethic and determination has brought him success on many levels, such as earning nearly 20 No. 1 hits, scoring three Grammy nominations, and having record-breaking attendance at his shows. These days, though, Combs says his perspective on reaching new heights has changed as he juggles work and a normal lifestyle — not just for himself but also for his kids.
“Now, ‘Why can’t you tour hard, build a really great fan base, care about them, support them, give them exclusive things, give them great experiences, and let them understand that you care about them,’ and then, if you do want some time for you, you can tell them, ‘I can’t tour this year.’ I wanted to get to the point where I could do that, and it not be career suicide,” Combs explained.
Thankfully, Combs’ life couldn’t be more normal when he’s outside of the spotlight. In a recent episode of the MeatEater Podcast, he said, “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.”
Taking A Step Back From Touring
For Combs, things look a little different in terms of touring. One look at his website, and fans will see he’s only playing at festivals in 2025. That could change, but he says he isn’t necessarily looking to fill up his calendar with concerts, any more than he already has.
“We’re only doing festivals this year,” Combs acknowledged. “We got 20-something shows this year. I’ve already done 10 of them. I got 14 more shows for the rest of the whole year, I want to be home with my kids [and] I want to see my kids grow up, and I want them to know that they’re important to me.”
“I want my kids’ childhood to feel as normal as it can, given the very strange circumstances it will ultimately become. That’s a choice you have to make,” he previously told the MeatEater Podcast. “And you lose a lot of things with that in the sense of like, there are 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.’ It’s not that [and] 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.”
Combs’ Sons Don’t Know He’s Famous
And while he brought his two sons into the world, Combs adds they don’t yet know or understand their father as a celebrity figure.
“I don’t even think they know what I do. My son Tex is almost 3 now. He’ll recognize my voice on the radio, and he will know ‘That’s Dad,’ but he doesn’t understand all of this,” Combs told PEOPLE, adding that he wouldn’t have it any other way. “He probably just thinks everybody’s dad has a single on the radio, you know what I mean? To him, it’s normal — and I kind of want to keep it like that.”
Combs says he wants to raise his kids to grow up with the understanding that everything is earned and responsibility is important. He does that in several ways, including incorporating simple chores into their routine like cleaning up after themselves, “to the extent that a one-and-a-half-year-old can,” Combs said. “[Beau] will 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 5% dent in the cleanup.”
Hopes His Kids Will Grow Up “Respectful” And As “Good People”
That way of teaching even goes further when it comes to travel.
“My kids, they haven’t been through the regular airport…they haven’t flown a bunch, 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 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.’”
“The goal for me and my wife with our boys is to make them respectful, and we want them to ultimately be good people,” he said. “It’s like you ride that razor’s edge too, you don’t want it to turn into a nepotism thing, but your fatherly instinct is just to do everything you can for your kids.”
