Luke Combs’ latest album release of Gettin’ Old back in March has had tremendous staying power on the charts, and a lot of that is thanks to his cover of Tracy Chapman’s 1988 hit “Fast Car.”
The song has been an incredible, record-breaking success for Combs, peaking higher on the Billboard Top 200 than the original recording of the song and acting as the country singer’s 16th number one song on country radio.
Combs’ version of “Fast Car” also gifted Tracy Chapman with the honor of being the first black woman to top the country charts as a sole writer, even though there was some controversy as to whether or not Chapman appreciated that her song was becoming more successful with Combs as the singer.
But all of those rumors eventually stopped swirling when she congratulated Luke for the cover, and all that was left was Combs’ cover of the popular song, which he finally covered after it had long been in his life from a very young age.
The country star told ABC:
“That song’s just been a huge part of my life for a really long time. It’s one of the first songs I remember hearing. It’s probably my first favorite song that I ever had.
(I) spent tons of time listening to it with my dad in his pickup truck when I was a kid. It just caught my attention.”
Combs’ connection to the song made it feel like he was destined to release his cover one day, and when it came time to include it on Gettin’ Old, the country star was very familiar with it:
“Ever since I could play guitar, it was one of the first songs I wanted to learn … I never forgot it. It never came out of rotation.”
But if you think Luke is gonna go pop, think again.
He told ABC that it’s not gonna happen, even though he’s been asked a handful of times:
“That’s something I haven’t really entertained. I’ve been approached about it more than a few times, and I don’t know. It’s just that I feel to me, country music is enough.
I don’t want to be a pop star. I love our genre and I love writing country songs with my songwriting buddies and singing them with the guys that I like to make records with.
I’m not chasing anything. I’m not chasing fame or notoriety or money.”
That being said, he’s not opposed to a crossover collab, but it would have to be a country song:
“If a really amazing collaboration came along, I would want it to be on a country song. I would want somebody to do a country song with me.
I wouldn’t want to go do a pop song with somebody else just because it would be good for my career. I’ve never made decisions based on that. I’ve always let the music lead where we go and what we do because that’s why we’re all here, right?”
We all love music at the end of the day. I’m in the music business. I don’t love business, but I do love music.”
Amen, Luke.
