Luke Combs apologizes, says 'there is no excuse' for past use of the Confederate flag

• The country singer apologized after images of him with the flag recently resurfaced.
• "Hate is not a part of my core values," he said.

Country star Luke Combs responded to criticism about his past use of the Confederate flag on Wednesday, and apologized saying: "there is no excuse for those images."

Footage of Combs with symbols of the Confederacy, including a 2015 music video where he performs in front of several Confederate battle flags, recently resurfaced online.

Combs' apology comes as country music has begun an industry-wide examination of racism and the continued lack of diversity in the genre after footage of rising country star Morgan Wallen using a racist slur was published by TMZ.

During a conversation for the annual Country Radio Seminar, Combs said: "I apologize for being associated with that. 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."

Combs continued to say that he previously did not understand the racist underpinnings of the Confederate flag. "As a younger man, that was an image that I associated to mean something else," he said. "And as I've grown in my time as an artist, and as the world has changed drastically in the last five to seven years, I am now aware how painful that image can be to someone else."

He later added that he would use his influence as one of the country scene's most prominent stars to push change, starting with refusing to play country music festivals and events that still display the confederate flag.

"I don't want to play those festivals anymore," Morris said. "If you were a Black person, would you ever feel safe going to a show with those flying in the parking lot? No. I feel like the most powerful thing, as artists in our position right now, is to make those demands on large organizations, festivals, promoters. ... That's one of the things we can do is say, 'No. I'm not doing this. Get rid of them.'"

Last week, Morgan Wallen apologized after footage of him using the N-word was published by TMZ. Wallen has been dropped by his label and radio stations across the country have pulled his music from their playlists.

"The video you saw was me on hour 72 of a 72-hour bender, and that's not something I'm proud of either," Wallen said in the apology video.