Luke Combs shares lifelong battle with OCD thoughts

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Country music star Luke Combs has opened up about his lifelong struggle with a specific form of obsessive-compulsive disorder during a revealing interview with “60 Minutes Australia.”

The 35-year-old performer shared details about his experience with purely obsessional OCD, commonly known as “pure O.” This lesser-known variant differs from traditional OCD in that its manifestations are primarily mental rather than physical, with sufferers experiencing internal rather than external compulsions.

“It’s thoughts, essentially, that you don’t want to have,” Combs said during the interview, per NBC News. “And then they cause you stress, and then you’re stressed out, and then the stress causes you to have more of the thoughts, and then you don’t understand why you’re having them, and you’re trying to get rid of them, but trying to get rid of them makes you have more of them.”

Luke Combs Speaks Out About Personal STRUGGLE Since Childhood #LukeCombs pic.twitter.com/eExvUSqKt3

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The award-winning artist described these intrusive thoughts as “wicked,” noting that they can sometimes take on violent characteristics.

“I just have to accept that they’re happening and then just go, ‘Whatever, dude. It’s happening. It’s whatever,'” he said. “It’s weird, sucks, hate it, drives me crazy, but … the less that you worry about why you’re having the thoughts, eventually they go away.”

While Combs has developed coping mechanisms, he acknowledges the overwhelming nature of these episodes.

“When it hits, man, it can be all-consuming,” the singer said. “If you have a flare-up of it … you could think about it 45 seconds of every minute for weeks.”

The Grammy nominee expressed his desire to raise awareness about pure O and support others facing similar challenges.

Country music superstar Luke Combs is sharing details about his struggle with obsessive-compulsive disorder, or OCD, a struggle that he says can be "all consuming." https://t.co/xKjpL4YNh4

— World News Tonight (@ABCWorldNews) March 11, 2025

“I definitely want to spend some time at some point in my life doing some outreach to kids that deal with this,” he told “60 Minutes Australia.”

“Because it held me back so many times in my life, where you’re trying to accomplish something, you’re doing really great and then you have a flare-up and it just ruins your whole life for six months … and then you’re back to where you started.”

“The message is if there’s someone out there that’s struggling with it, it’s possible to continue to live your life, and be really successful, and have a great family, and achieve your dreams, while also dealing with things that you don’t want to be dealing with,” Combs said.