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Luke Combs admitted he accidentally recorded a lyric incorrectly in his award-winning cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car.”
Combs pointed out the mistaken line in the song while speaking with the crowd during a recent show. A concertgoer captured that moment and recently shared the clip on TikTok. Combs also recalled how Chapman reacted when she told him about the inadvertent lyric change. Combs said he “wanted to crawl in a hole,” when it happened.
Rather than singing Chapman’s original, “We gotta make a decision/ Leave tonight or live and die this way,” Combs sang, “Still gotta make a decision/ Leave tonight, or live and die this way.”
“That was the first time that I knew that I recorded the song incorrectly,” Combs said. “I remember when she [Chapman] said it, I wanted to crawl in a hole. And luckily, she was awesome about it. And I think about it every single time that I sing this, and I will think about it every time I sing this song for the rest of my whole life. But she was so cool about it. So, the version you know is ‘Still gotta make a decision.’ Not the words. It’s just not the words. I made that up in my head, and it’s ‘We gotta make a decision.’ So, tonight, I will probably sing ‘We gotta make a decision,’ because Tracy Chapman told me to, and damn it, I’m gonna do it.”
Combs recorded his version of “Fast Car” on Gettin’ Old, his 18-track album that released in March 2023. It was the award-winning country star’s follow-up to his 12-track record that released in 2022, Growin’ Up. Collectively, they included “Doin’ This,” “The Kind of Love We Make,” “Going, Going, Gone,” “Growin’ Up and Gettin’ Old,” “5 Leaf Clover” and more. Combs’ rendition of “Fast Car” won Song of the Year and Single of the Year at the CMA Awards in November 2023. Chapman became the first Black woman to win a CMA Award, the Country Music Association confirmed at that time.
“It’s been a long journey. That song’s been a huge part of my life for a long time, and all credit to Tracy for writing one of the best songs ever written. It’s insane to be holding this, for sure,” Combs said backstage at the 2023 CMA Awards in Nashville. “I’ve never met Tracy…but that’s something that I hope to do one day in the future. I think she was a trendsetting, barrier-breaking artist when she came out, and she continues to be that to this day. I think tonight is point-proven in that, so I’m super, super humbled to just be a super small part of that. …The song that I’ll play for my son, and a song that ultimately will go down in my history, too. It’ll be synonymous with me now, as well, which is insane to think about because it’s meant so much to me. I would just tell her thank you and congratulations.”
Combs hadn’t met Chapman in person at that time. The pair spoke over the phone ahead of the 66th Annual Grammy Awards, which took place earlier this year in Los Angeles, California. Chapman joined Combs on stage and they performed “Fast Car” together for the first time, earning a standing ovation and an eruption of applause. Watch the performance again here: