Luke Combs tearfully reveals why he missed the birth of his youngest son

Country star Luke Combs is opening up for the first time about missing the birth of his son Beau.

In August 2023, Combs, 34, was on tour in Sydney, Australia, — a 20-hour flight away his home in Nashville, Tennessee — when he woke up to a text from his then-pregnant wife, Nicole. She was in labor and on her way to the hospital.

“It said, ‘I’m so sorry, I really tried to not have the baby while you’re gone,’” Combs told Apple Music 1 host Zane Lowe.

“And God, dude, it sucked,” the singer added.

Through tears, Combs revealed that Beau arrived two and a half weeks early, and he stills blames himself for not being there.

“I was supposed to be home and I wasn’t,” he said. “That was real hard.”

Combs said he didn’t sing about Beau’s birth “too much” in his new album, “Fathers & Sons,” because “it’s really hard for me to deal with.” He described Beau’s birth as “one of the best and worst days” in his life.

Nicole wasn’t alone in the delivery room. Combs shared that she was joined by her mother and sister.

“My wife had a really great support system with her for that experience, which I’m very thankful for,” he said. “That made it a lot easier. I had people with me, everything went great. No hiccups in the process or anything.”

Combs noted that he got to “see him be born (on video), which was awesome.” The singer did not say if he watched in real time.

“It’s a defining moment in my life for sure. It sums up, in a lot of ways, some of the bad parts of the music business — the leaving, and your schedule’s crazy and you’re traveling all over the place,” he said. “It’s not like I can drop everything I’m doing and fly 18 hours home.”

Combs and Nicole are also parents of 2-year-old son, Tex.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com