Even Luke Combs flubs the lyrics to his favorite songs.
The 34-year-old country musician, who was recently nominated for a Grammy for best country solo performance for his cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car,” admitted one of his most embarrassing moments came from that track.
During the middle of a recent concert, he recalled a particular mistake that still follows him. In a concertgoer’s TikTok, he can be heard telling the crowd that one conversation with Chapman, 60, led him to realize he incorrectly sang the lyric, “We gotta make a decision.” He recorded it as “Still gotta make a decision.”
“That was the first time that I knew that I recorded the song incorrectly,” he told the crowd. “It was her telling me that. Because I remember, when she said that, I wanted to crawl into a hole.”
“Luckily, she was awesome about it. And I think about it every single time that I sing the song, and I will think about it every single time I sing this song for the rest of my whole life,” he said. “But she was so cool about it.”
Combs told the crowd he was going to sing Chapman’s original lyrics and ditch his recorded version.
“So the version you know is, ‘Still gotta make a decision.’ Not the words,” he said. “It’s just not the words. I made that up in my head.”
“So tonight, I’m going to sing ‘We gotta make a decision.’ Because Tracy Chapman told me to, and dammit, I’m gonna do it.”
Combs covered the 1988 track in April 2023, and it quickly became a fan-favorite. After reaching No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topping the country music charts, Combs’ recording was nominated for a Grammy. And at the 66th annual Grammy Awards in February, Combs was joined by Chapman for a moving rendition of the song.
Before their performance, Chapman told Billboard in July 2023 she was happy to see that people are still enjoying the track over 30 years later.
“I never expected to find myself on the country charts, but I’m honored to be there,” she said. “I’m happy for Luke and his success and grateful that new fans have found and embraced ‘Fast Car.’ ”
Combs told PEOPLE in December 2023 he always thought it was “one of the best songs of all time.”
“But there’s nothing like Tracy’s version, so I thought it would just be a nice complement to the original but never really expected mine to take off quite the way it did,” he said.
