Luke Combs‘ cover of “Fast Car” was undoubtedly one of the most surprising and successful songs of 2023. Netting a #1 and #2 hit on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs and 100 charts respectively, scoring a Single and Song of the Year award at the ACMs, a Grammy nomination for Best Solo Country Solo Performance and racking up a staggering 642 million streams on Spotify alone, the cover has been nothing short of a smash hit for Combs.
Due to the cover’s success, Combs developed a special relationship with Chapman, most notably performing the song with her this past February at the Grammys. Before the performance aired, a promo video was shown and detailed Combs’ thoughts on the song.
He opened by explaining how his dad introduced him to her self-titled album which contains the song, “I had a cassette player, and my dad would play me that Tracy Chapman self-titled album. That song, “Fast Car,” it was my favorite song before I even knew what a favorite song it was.”
He noted that Chapman has written one of the greatest songs ever recorded and the worldwide impact it has had on so many people, “Tracy’s obviously written one of the best songs for a few generations… You get to see people have the experience that you have with it. It can be felt and related to by all kinds of people around the world.”
He closed the intro video by saying, “Tracy is such an icon and one of the best songwriters that 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.”
Fast-forward to today and the song still remains a staple in the “Hurricane” singer’s discography and live shows. However, he revealed during a recent show that his cover contains a minor lyric mistake during the fourth verse which also repeats to close the song.
In Chapman’s version, she sings, “We’ve gotta make a decision. Leave tonight or live and die this way.” However, in Combs’ version, he sings, “Still gotta make a decision. Leave tonight or live and die this way.”
During his show, he noted that Chapman pointed out the small lyrical error with her saying, “When you recorded the song, you said ‘Still gotta make a decision’ instead of ‘We’ve gotta make a decision.”
This was the first time Combs had realized he sang the lyrics wrong which understandably made him mortified, “I remember when she said it, I wanted to crawl in a hole.”
Luckily for Combs, Chapman was incredibly gracious and didn’t mind the error at all, “She was awesome about it, and I think about it every single time I sing this song… The version you know is just not the words. I made that up in my head.”
He proceeded to perform the song, not without saying, “Tonight I will probably sing, ‘We’ve gotta make a decision’ because Tracy Chapman told me to, and damn it, I’m gonna do it.”