During a new conversation with TODAY's Willie Geist in Nashville, Luke Combs reflects on the moving phone-call he had with Tracy Chapman ahead of their GRAMMY duet of ‘Fast Car’.

Chapman, who keeps herself to herself and rarely makes public appearances, came out for a blockbuster performance of her iconic 1988 hit, ‘Fast Car’, at the 2024 GRAMMYs.

Combs begins by recalling how he recorded the cover, which he included on his 2023 album, Gettin’ Old, almost as an afterthought, due to having an hour left of studio time.

Combs underlines that it's been a song that has followed him around throughout his career, with the North Carolina native regularly citing it as his favourite song of all time.

The ‘Beautiful Crazy’ hitmaker shares how surprised he and his team were at how popular his cover became, with the song storming up the Country Radio charts and reaching No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, “All of a sudden, all these stations start playing it. The song was Top Ten at Radio, and we weren't promoting it at all”.

He goes on to share how, off the back of how big the song was becoming, the Recording Academy got in touch about performing it with Chapman, “The GRAMMYs had reached out to me and my team, and said, ‘Hey, would Luke be open to doing this?’ And I'm like, ‘No...Of course I'll do it!’ They knew I was gonna say yes. And so then it was like nobody knows where [Tracy] lives, nobody knows anything about her, dude, which is intentional. Like, she's doing that on purpose”.

Combs fondly recalls the moment Chapman called him when she was still deciding whether to do the show or not, “I'm in a tree-stand at my house - this is real - the woman that does PR for me called me, and she said, ‘Hey, Tracy's gonna call you tomorrow at night, at 7pm’. And it was like at 7pm on the dot, dude, my phone rang, and it was like ‘Unknown Caller’. And I was like, ‘Oh boy, I know who it is’”.

He continues, “She was like the sweetest, most gracious person on the call, and was like so appreciative of me doing the song. And it was like everything a fan could ever want”.

Combs reveals that he made it clear to Chapman that he would always cherish this conversation with one of his idols, regardless of whether she decided to agree to the GRAMMYs duet or not, “At the end of the phone-call, as we're getting down to it. I was like, ‘Hey, you know, the GRAMMYs are wanting us to do this thing’. I said, ‘Tracy, listen’, I said, ‘Just so you know, I would love to do this with you’. And I was like, ‘If you don't want to do this, and this phone-call is all I get from that, that's more than enough, it's more than I expected. I respect, you know, your life, your privacy’. And she was like, ‘I really appreciate you saying that’”.

He adds, “About a week later, I got a call, and they were like, ‘She's in. She's gonna do it’”, before reflecting on how brief her role in the GRAMMYs ceremony was, “She might have been in the Staples Center for like five minutes. In, right to the stage, right out”.

He stresses that, while it was a fleeting moment, it was still a career highlight, “And we do the performance, and...I can't believe it. I didn't think it would be the moment that it was right afterwards, but I knew it was really special for me...It was awesome. It was everything I wanted it [to be]. It ended up being the most special night”.

Combs’ rendition of ‘Fast Car’ continues to give the iconic track a new lease of life, with his cover recently becoming only the 19th country song to enter Spotify's Billions Club, with Chapman also becoming the first Black songwriter to win CMA Song of the Year.

It's incredible to see it cement itself as a crucial part of the country music canon, with Combs’ love for the song - and for Chapman's songwriting - radiating through every performance. We hope we one day get to see these two joining forces again for another performance, but we wouldn't count on it. And in a way, the fact that Chapman almost never agrees to these kinds of shows makes this duet all the more meaningful both for fans, and - of course - for Combs himself.

Elsewhere during his conversation with Willie Geist for TODAY, Combs touches on the creative process behind his latest album, The Way I Am, with the ‘Beer Never Broke My Heart’ singer-songwriter revealing that he wrote around 40 songs for the project. The ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ chart-topper also opens up about how intentional he has to be about dividing his time between working on music and parenting.

While not eschewing the spotlight to the same extent as Chapman, you can't help but feel that her dedication to prioritising her personal life has rubbed off on Combs, who makes a point of ensuring he is as present as possible for all three of his children.