NASHVILLE, Tennessee (AP) – Country star Luke Combs has apologized for appearing with Confederate flags, saying he is now aware of how painful that flag is.
Combs addressed the footage during a conversation with singer Maren Morris on Wednesday during a panel for radio stations on accountability in country music. It came weeks after another star in the country, Morgan Wallen, was eliminated of radio stations and suspended for his tag after being caught in a video with a racial insult.
Ann Powers, NPR board moderator and music critic, asked Combs about these images during questions and answers from the country radio seminar, an annual conference of country broadcasters, held online this year.
“There’s no excuse for these images,” said Combs, a 30-year-old North Carolina singer-songwriter who has had two cross-country albums and several hit country songs.
Combs said the images were from seven or eight years ago and, as a young man, he didn’t understand what that flag meant.
“And as I have grown as an artist and as the world has changed drastically in the last five to seven years, I am now aware of how painful this image can be for another person,” Combs said. “I would never want to be associated with something that would cause so much harm to another person.”
He said he was now turning to old images because he wanted to demonstrate as a highly visible country artist that people can change and learn from their mistakes. I also wanted to encourage more people in the country’s music industry to hold such tough conversations.
Gender has had a racial calculation even before Wallen’s actions, but the best artists have often been reluctant to talk about race, both in the present and in their past.
“I try to learn. I’m trying to improve, “said Combs.
Morris also spoke of the Confederate flag, saying that as a native Texan, he also did not fully understand the history and context of the flag outside of “southern pride” until he was a teenager.
He said seeing flags made at country music festivals makes him unwilling to play those festivals and urged artists in the country to demand that these flags be removed.
She is also one of the few artists in the country criticize publicly Wallen’s actions on social media said he had some reactions, but it was minimal compared to what blacks regularly face.
“I appreciate Morgan saying ‘stop defending me’ to his fans, because he’s indefensible. He knows it. We know it,” Morris said. “All we can do, so that there is no elephant in the room, is to say, out loud, take responsibility for our colleagues. I don’t care if it’s uncomfortable to stand in line with you at the next awards ceremony. “