Luke Combs on Body Image, Politics, ‘Fast Car’ and Staying on Top

The country superstar Luke Combs sat down for an in-depth interview with Popcast's Jon Caramanica and Joe Coscarelli of The New York Times, ahead of the release of his sixth album, “The Way I Am,” out March 20. Combs, best known for stadium-filling country hits like “When It Rains It Pours,” “Beer Never Broke My Heart” and his cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car,” opened up about his journey to Nashville success (alongside starts like Morgan Wallen and Zach Bryan) and wanting to make huge hits again. He also got candid about struggling with his body image throughout his career, navigating politics in country music and staying grounded on his road to the top — outside of buying a few fancy watches. 1:54 Performing “Fast Car” with Tracy Chapman 6:06 Country music in the mainstream 8:03 Competing with Morgan Wallen and Zach Bryan and what it means for the genre 10:34 Early musical influences, from Vince Gill to Backstreet Boys to Lil Wayne 19:55 Vocal approach and career beginnings 22:25 How Chris Stapleton paved the way 26:52 Staying grounded after becoming famous 30:09 Wrist check + getting “Pretty Woman”-ed at the Rolex store 40:00 His relationship to drinking at 35 42:10 Politics in country music 53:29 A wild story about Ed Sheeran and the dawn of COVID 58:19 Popcast Lightning Round! 59:20 Self-doubt, O.C.D., and struggling with his weight 1:09:25 Snack time! Follow Jon: https://twitter.com/joncaramanica https://www.instagram.com/joncaramanica Follow Joe: https://twitter.com/joecoscarelli https://www.instagram.com/joecoscarelli/ Listen to every Popcast ever https://www.nytimes.com/popcast Every episode of Popcast (Deluxe) on YouTube https://tinyurl.com/PopcastDeluxe Popcast Discord! https://tinyurl.com/PopcastDiscord Popcast Facebook! https://tinyurl.com/PopcastFacebook Popcast t-shirts & stickers http://itsthepopcast.myshopify.com Subscribe: http://bit.ly/U8Ys7n More from The New York Times Video: http://nytimes.com/video