Luke Bryan Considers Scaling Back Career to Save 18-Year Marriage: ‘Family Is My No. 1 Priority’

Country mainstay Luke Bryan is ready to put the brakes on his massive music and TV careers to save his 18-year marriage to wife Caroline, say sources.

“Luke has always said his family is his No. 1 priority, but even he admits he sometimes can’t see the forest for the trees,” reveals a friend. “And it’s worn Caroline down that Luke can’t pass up a big career opportunity!”

The 48-year-old One Margarita singer has built a $150 million fortune through 30 No. 1 hits, sold-out concerts, and his high paying gig as a judge on American Idol. But his pal says that doesn’t mean a hill of beans if it costs him his marriage to Caroline.

The two were college sweethearts and tied the knot in 2006. They have two sons together, Bo, 16, and Tate, 14, and also raised his three now-adult nieces and nephew after Luke’s sister Kelly and her husband Ben both tragically passed away.

But his red-hot career never seems to cool down, short-circuiting any chances of having more family time!

“Heck, he figured he would stay with American Idol for two or three seasons and now he’s starting his eighth!” notes the friend. “But eventually something’s got to give, and Luke has been worried sick it will be his marriage.

“So he’s getting an attitude adjustment about his future.”

Bryan sounded positively wistful talking about retirement in a recent interview.

“You know, you’ve heard the stories of becoming an old curmudgeon as you get older,” he said. “I don’t wanna be that. I wanna have fun … with this career and look back and say, ‘Damn, that was fun!’”

But Caroline has apparently heard that song before! In 2018, Bryan talked about cutting back, saying he needed to start looking at his kids’ baseball schedules and recognizing that they were “old enough to know that Dad’s halfway across the world.”

Still, he never throttled back, and our source says Caroline finally put her foot down.

“To his credit, Luke will fly all night from a concert or American Idol taping just to spend a few hours with Caroline and the boys,” shares the friend. “But she says he’s so worn out that they don’t get the best of him when he’s at home.

“She told Luke that if he’s still out there trying to conquer the world at 50, he’ll be doing it alone. He has taken that message to heart!”