Luke Combs' 2023 cover of Tracy Chapman's 1998 hit "Fast Car" was a smash — but it turns out that Luke's version contains an incorrect lyric. How did he find out? Chapman called him out on it, much to his embarrassment.
A fan who attended Luke's recent concert captured him on video telling the story: In his version, he sings "Still gotta make a decision/ Leave tonight or live and die this way." But he says when he talked to Tracy, she told him that the lyric is actually "We 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 who told me that. Because I remember, when she said that, 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 the song, and I will think about it every single time I sing this song for the rest of my whole life,” he continued. “But she was so cool about it.”
He then announced that he was going to sing the correct version, "Because Tracy Chapman told me to, and dammit, I’m gonna do it.”
Luke's version of "Fast Car" reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100. It also topped Billboard's Country Airplay chart, making Tracy the first Black woman ever to write a #1 country hit solo.
Luke and Tracy performed the song together at the Grammy Awards in February.