Sammy Hagar seeks out police officer whose ticket inspired ‘I Can’t Drive 55’: ‘Would be treated like a king’
A speeding ticket Sammy Hagar received in 1983 inspired one of his biggest solo hits, "I Can't Drive 55." Now, the former Van Halen rocker wants to meet with the trooper who gave it to him.
Decades ago, Sammy Hagar was pulled over by a New York state trooper for going seven miles over the speed limit.
Now, the former Van Halen rocker wants to reconnect with the trooper whose ticket inspired his 1984 song "I Can’t Drive 55."
"This man would be backstage with his family and he would be treated like a king," the 76-year-old told the Times-Union this week. "I would do a shot with him, I’ll take pictures, I’ll give him a swag bag. I might bring him out on stage and introduce him."
Driving home from the Albany, New York, airport after a "wonderful family vacation" to Greece, Italy, Egypt and Kenya in 1983, Hagar said he absentmindedly started driving his rental car 62 mph, when the national speed limit at the time on highways was 55 mph.
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"I had been traveling for 24 hours with a young boy, 9 or 10 years old, and my wife, and I was cooked," Hagar said of his son Aaron, now 54, and his first wife Betsy Berardi. "I was driving 62 by accident. I was unconsciously driving 62 miles per hour, not even trying to disobey the speed limit."
He added, "I’m the only car on the damn highway. I think the (trooper) is bored so he thought ‘I’ll just pull this guy over.' Middle of the night; got nothing to do."
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While the real incident was not quite as dramatic as the music video for "I Can’t Drive 55," which showed Hagar playing electric guitar on top of the judge’s bench before breaking out of prison and taking police on a high-speed chase, the songwriter said that the hit just started to write itself after he was given the speeding ticket.
"I was telling my wife to write down lyrics on a piece of paper," he said of the last part of the drive home. "I just sang the whole damn song. It was just like automatic writing. It was just coming out of me."
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Hagar said the ticket came two years before he joined Van Halen, and while he was still known at the time, the trooper who stopped him did not recognize him.
"I Can’t Drive 55" was the lead single on Hagar’s 1984 album "VOA."
A rep for Hagar told Fox News Digital that they have not found the trooper yet, despite a New York State Police spokesperson telling the Times-Union that they have put out a "ton of feelers."
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"If he remembers giving some long-haired, rock-and-roll-looking guy a ticket in a rent-a-car at 2 o’clock in the morning, that was me," Hagar added.