Song origin
Hagar wrote the song in response to receiving a speeding ticket in New York State outside Albany, [2] for driving 62 mph (100 km/h) on the Northway, which at that location had a 55 mph (89 km/h) speed limit, the highest permissible speed limit in the United States at the time due to the National Maximum Speed Law enacted in 1974. Hagar explained in an interview: [3]
Two o'clock in the morning, I'm driving a rental car to Albany, from Albany to Lake Placid. Four-lane Highway, not a soul, I'm going about 62 miles an hour exactly. Cop pulls me, a little wet I didn't even know while I was going the speed limit changed. I'm sitting there, I was so burnt, I was just exhausted. I just handed my driver's license, hand him the Rent-A-Car stuff. He starts to write it up and the guy said how fast is 62. I said like 'I thought it was 65', you know, and he's going […] 'We give tickets around here for 62!'. You know like ‘Where have you been?’. I went 55, get to my house, wrote the song. Oh man, I mean, four o'clock in the morning. I picked up my guitar. I just wrote that damn song. It came that quick.
Hagar has expressed interest in meeting the trooper who issued the ticket. [2]
Music video
The song's music video was directed by Gil Bettman. [4] The video was shot on location at the Saugus Speedway in Santa Clarita, California.
The song's video includes Hagar and his band being chased and jailed by the California Highway Patrol for traffic violations. The video shows Hagar driving a black Ferrari 512 BBi which is later tuned up by Hagar's mechanic, Claudio Zampolli. Zampolli was driving the Ferrari during the video's opening shot, where the Ferrari fish-tails across the speedway. Hagar claims in the commentary for the video on the DVD, The Long Road to Cabo that he burned out his clutch during the video. Hagar drove a 512, but a 308 was also used. Hagar claims it cost him $5800 to fix.
A trial scene is presided over by a judge played in a cameo appearance by John Kalodner. The judge's props were borrowed from director Robert Zemeckis, director of the 1980 film Used Cars . Sets were built and the video was shot during the summer. There was no air conditioning in the jailhouse set, so the cast and crew were hot.
The yellow jumpsuit, worn by Hagar in the video, can be seen at the New Orleans Hard Rock Cafe. A stuntman was used for Hagar's stunts. An exploding ramp was used to throw Hagar across the courtroom.
This page is based on this
Wikipedia article Text is available under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
