Luke Combs wanted to “crawl into a hole” after this gaffe

If you go to Luke Combs show this year, you may have noticed that he made changes to one of the lines he sings in his hit cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast car“

In the recording, in one verse, Combs sings:Still gotta make a decision/Leave tonight or live and die this way“

But now he has changed the words to “We have to make a decision”—a slight change he said he made because he initially misunderstood the words.

On stage at a recent concert, Combs explained the lyric change, admitting he was upset when Chapman herself corrected his lyrics.

“She said, ‘So when you recorded the song, you said’Still need to make a decision‘ instead of ‘We have to make a decision.’ And that was the first time I realized that I had recorded the song incorrectly,” the singer told the audience.

“I remember when she said that, I wanted to crawl into a hole,” he admits.

Chapman was “amazing” about Combs’ mistake, but he says he still feels embarrassed about misspelling the lyrics to a song he loves and wanted to faithfully cover.

“I think about it every time I sing this song, and I’ll think about it every time I sing it for the rest of my life,” he says, laughing. “…A version, you know… and not words. These are simply not words. I came up with it in my head.”

“…so I’ll probably sing tonight”We have to make a decision’cause Tracy Chapman told me to, and damn it, I’ll do it,” he concludes.

Combs fans already have a pretty good idea of ​​why spelling the words in “Fast Car” is so important to the country star.

Read more: Why Luke Combs Stayed True to the Original Lyrics of “Fast Car”

He said he decided to cover the song out of complete admiration and wanted to be “mega respectfully» to the original version. Combs’ love of “Fast Car” dates back to his childhood, when he would listen to Chapman’s original recording while riding in the back of his father’s truck.

With this in mind, he kept Chapman’s original lyrics in his recording, including keeping some of the female pronouns in the song.