Luke Combs Opens Up About His Struggle with Pure O: “It Can Be All-Consuming”
Country music superstar Luke Combs has bravely shared his decades-long battle with a rare form of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) known as purely obsessional OCD, or Pure O.
In a candid interview on 60 Minutes Australia, Combs, 35, revealed that he has been grappling with the condition since the age of 12. However, his most recent flare-up while on tour was the worst he has experienced in years.
“It’s thoughts, essentially, that you don’t want to have … and then they cause you stress, and then you’re stressed out, and then the stress causes you to have more of the thoughts,” Combs explained. “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.”
Describing the condition as both “tedious” and “debilitating,” Combs admitted that a severe episode can consume nearly every moment of his day, lasting “45 seconds of every minute for weeks.”
Despite the immense challenges, Combs considers himself “lucky” to have learned how to manage Pure O after living with it for more than two decades. “When it hits, man, it can be all-consuming,” he said. But through experience, he has found a way to break free from its grip.
“The way to get out of it is, like, it doesn’t matter what the thoughts even are. You giving any credence to what the thoughts are is, like, irrelevant and only fuels you having more of them,” he shared. “It’s learning to just go, ‘It doesn’t even matter what the thoughts are.’ Like, I just have to accept that they’re happening and then just go, ‘Whatever, dude. It’s happening. It’s whatever.’”
The Forever After All singer, who shares two young sons, Tex and Beau, with his wife Nicole Combs, described Pure O as a particularly cruel disorder, with intrusive thoughts that can sometimes be violent. Yet, he has come to understand that the key to coping is accepting their presence rather than fighting them.
While Pure O is not officially classified as a separate diagnosis in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, many professionals use the term to distinguish it from traditional OCD, which typically involves physical compulsions as well as intrusive thoughts.
By opening up about his struggles, Combs hopes to shed light on a condition that remains widely misunderstood. His honesty is a testament to his strength, and his words serve as a reminder that even those in the spotlight face silent battles. Through it all, he continues to inspire—not just with his music, but with his resilience.