Whoo Hoo!!! It’s Friday!!! Throwing out a little Sammy Hagar this morning… “I Can’t Drive 55” was the lead single for Hagar’s eighth studio album, VOA. It became a concert staple and continued to be used during the tours Sammy performed with Van Halen. The song was released in 1984 and it references the National Maximum Speed Laws set in the US at the time. Sammy had explained in a 1994 interview that he was in a rental car that wouldn’t go much faster than 55 mph. He said… “I was on my way back from Africa. I did a safari for three months throughout Africa. A really great vacation after Three Lock Box. I was traveling for 24 hours, I got to New York City, changed planes, Albany, New York. Got in a rent-a-car. Had a place in Lake Placid at the time, a little log cabin, I used to go there and write with my little boy. Aaron, at that time, went to North Country school when I was on tour. I would go there and see him. It was a really cool getaway. But it took two and a half hours to drive there from Albany. And I was driving from Albany, New York at 2:00 in the morning, burnt from all the travel. Cop stopped me for doing 62 on a four lane road when there was no one else in sight. Then the guy gave me a ticket. I was doing 62. And he said, We give tickets around here for over-60. and I said, I cant drive 55. I grabbed a paper and a pen, and I swear the guy was writing the ticket and I was writing the lyrics. I got to Lake Placid, I had a guitar set-up there. And I wrote that song there on the spot. Burnt. The song came in at #26 on the US Billboard Hot 100, #9 on the US Billboard US Mainstream Rock chart, and place at #100 on VH1’s 100 Greatest Hard Rock Songs.
Posted on: Fri, 23 Jan 2015 13:55:58 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015