Luke Combs Admits He Sang the Wrong Lyrics in His ‘Fast Car’ Cover

Luke Combs performs on stage during CMA Fest in Nashville, Tenn., on June 08, 2023. Jason Kempin/Getty Images

Country singer Luke Combs revealed he had been incorrectly singing the lyrics to an award-winning song.

During one of his recent concerts, the 34-year-old musician shared that his Grammy-nominated cover of “Fast Car,” originally sung by Tracy Chapman, has an error. Combs said that through a conversation with Chapman, he realized that he mistakenly recorded the lyric “We gotta make a decision” as “Still gotta make a decision.”

“That was the first time that I knew that I recorded the song incorrectly,” a TikTok video shows him telling fans. “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. But she was so cool about it.”

Instead of performing his recorded version, Combs announced that he would sing Chapman’s original lyrics to rectify his mistake.

“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.”

‘Fast Car’

In 1988, Chapman released “Fast Car,” a song about escaping poverty and homelessness, which peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song earned the Ohio native a Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance the following year, as well as nominations for Record of the Year and Song of the Year.

Combs covered the song as a single for his 2023 studio album “Gettin’ Old.” It rose to the No. 2 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 and reached the top of the Country Airplay chart.

In July 2023, Chapman told Billboard that she was delighted to see the song was still enjoyed by fans more than three decades later and congratulated Combs on his cover release.

“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.’”

At the 2024 Grammy Awards, Combs and Chapman performed a rendition of the song together.

“It was my favorite song before I even knew what a ‘favorite song’ was,” Combs said while introducing his performance, according to the Grammy’s website. “It can be felt and related to by all kinds of people around the world. Tracy is such an icon and, I mean, one of the best songwriters that I think any of us will ever be around to see. It’s just such a cool full-circle moment for me, just to be associated with her, in any way, is super humbling for me.”

In December 2023, Combs told People that his recording of “Fast Car” was inspired by early childhood memories he had of listening to the song with his dad.

“When I was 5 years old, my dad and I would be in his truck, and he would always play music for me. He had a Tracy Chapman cassette tape, and ‘Fast Car’ is one of the first songs I remember,“ he said. ”I’ve always been a huge fan of it and think of my dad and our time together when I hear it.”

“I always thought it was one of the best songs of all time, so I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised,” Combs said about the cover’s success, “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.”