Luke Combs Breaks Down In Tears At Folk Festival
on Jul 29, 2025
The singer shed tears singing one of his recent hits about fatherhood.
@emmaslicklen 🫶🏼
♬ original sound – Emma Slicklen
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Why Did Luke Combs Cry?
In 2024, Luke Combs released his deeply personal album Fathers & Sons.
Combs shared with PEOPLE that he knew the new album was not going to be one of his best-selling albums, but he did not care because of the subject matter.
“At its core, it was probably more of a selfish endeavor for me. It was something that I felt like I wanted to do and something that I wanted to say. And it’s my favorite thing that I’ve done because it so personal to me, but commercially, it’s easily my least successful album that I’ve had. It’s not really something that bothers me, though, because of the reason that I did it.”
The album contained many songs about fatherhood, but the one that brought him to tears was “Whoever You Turn Out To Be.”
The story is about how he does not care who his sons turn out to be but he will love them anyway.
So what if you don’t stick around this little town that raised ya?
So what if you don’t cut your teeth on Jr., Jones, and Waylon?
Now it might work out that you don’t turn out anything like me
But I’ll love whoever you turn out to be
The moving lyrics continue,
You might choose a simple life, raise some kids and settle down
But you ain’t gotta change the world to make your daddy proud
Combs shed tears at a small folk festival.
While performing at the Newport Folk Festival at Fort Adams State Park in Newport, Rhode Island, Combs performed the moving song.
Once he finished singing the line, “But you ain’t gotta change the world to make your daddy proud,” he shed tears.
He began to weep on stage but quickly composed himself and began to sing the final verse.
Once he finished singing the last few lines of the song, he quickly said, “Sorry. That got me a little bit.”
The crowd went wild, cheering for him and encouraging him.
Then he took a drink of water and got himself together. He apologized to the audience again but quickly retracted his apology, saying he was in the “moment.”
“I remember why we don’t play that one very much… I apologize. I don’t apologize, because I was in the moment there…”
Watch the full video below.
@lukecombshq “But you ain’t gotta change the world to make your daddy proud” 💙😭 @Luke Combs @Newport Folk Fest ♬ Whoever You Turn Out to Be – Luke Combs
