Country artist Luke Combs is shedding insight as to why he prefers to keep his political beliefs under wraps.
While appearing on the New York Times’ “Popcast” during the Tuesday, February 24, episode, Combs, 35, was asked if he regretted speaking out amid the current political climate. (Combs previously addressed racism during the Black Lives Matter movement and apologized for his past use of Confederate flag imagery.)
“No, I don’t think it would make me do anything different, right?” he replied. “There’s always someone in one of my videos like, ‘Luke Combs, well he’s a liberal.’ Or whatever it is. It’s like, one, I’ve never said what I am. That’s the thing that blows me away the most about it is like basically seven or whatever years ago, five, six years ago now, me saying that I was not a racist was then people saying, ‘Then you must be a liberal.’”
Combs continued, “I have been accused of a million things, man. I would consider myself heavily moderate in everything. That’s to the point, where I’m not liberal enough for liberals and I’m not conservative enough for conservatives. I kind of like it that way. I also kind of like people not really knowing what I have going on politically. Why do we all care what everyone else is? Like, what does it signify?”
Combs went on to explain that he has friends “all across the board” when it comes to political beliefs.
“The word apology is so interesting to me. Basically, I’m coming out and saying, like, ‘Hey man I’m not a racist.’ I don’t have any problem saying that. That’s not something that I’m worried about addressing at any point,” he said.
Combs went on to recall a time when people were attempting to “actively cancel” him for saying that he was a “liberal.”
“It’s like [I] never said that. Never said I was liberal … how is it hard to say you’re not like a racist?” Combs said, noting that he’s someone that doesn’t feel the need to “push any agenda.”
He continued, “I’m a musician, like no one’s calling Donald Trump and asking him how to write a song. No one’s calling AOC and saying, ‘Well, how do I make my album better?’ Why do we care what Chris Stapleton thinks about or whatever it is about politics?”
Combs explained that everyone tries to “fit you in this box,” noting that there’s “no middle ground” or “gray area.”
“There’s no headlines, there’s no clickbait in being a moderate. There’s no story there,” he said, noting that he “didn’t set out” to become a political activist. “I want to come sing country music. People come to my shows, I want them to feel welcome, I want them to have a good time. We came here to forget all the bulls*** that’s going on everywhere else.”
He continued, “I feel like we just need more spaces, man, where we can all be people and just be like, we’re all different, man. That’s the beauty of the world. Obviously, there are things that are not OK. To me, being a racist is not OK. That’s not something that I’m in support of.”
Combs made headlines in 2021 when he apologized after photos resurfaced of him with symbols of the confederacy. At the time, Combs shared that there was “no excuse” for those pictures.
“I apologize for being associated with that,” Combs said. “Hate is not a part of my core values, and it’s not something that I consider a part of myself at all. I’m just looking … not to say, ‘I’m so sorry, please forgive me.’ I’m here to say, ‘I’m trying to learn. I’m trying to get better.’ I know that I’m a very highly visible member of the country music community right now, and I want to use that position for good and to say that people can change, and people do want to change, and I’m one of those people trying.”
