If you fancy yourself as a writer, then you know that the next idea for any given project can come from quite literally anywhere or anyone. More often than not, it seems inspiration comes from a random moment or person rather than a prescribed and romantic bout of isolation in the woods. Though people, of course, find it that way as well. Regardless, arbitrary moments breed monumental inspiration, and one artist who would have seemingly attested to that is The Eagles‘ founding member, Glenn Frey.
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Given that Frey helped write a large portion of The Eagles’ material, he is no stranger to the blank page. Consequently, he is no stranger to the strange means that it takes to fill it. Well, when it came to creating the hit song, “Life In The Fast Lane”, those strange means came into play for Frey, as he discovered the title of the song in the passenger seat of his drug dealer’s car.
A Scared Glenn Frey Just Wanted to Slow Down
In an interview with the storied music journalist, Cameron Crowe, Glenn Frey divulged the origin story of “Life In The Fast Lane”. Talking to Crowe, Frey stated, “The true story is: I was riding in a car with a drug dealer — a guy we used to call ‘The Count,’ because his count was never very good.” “We were driving out to an Eagles poker game. I was in the passenger seat. He moved over to the left lane and started driving 75-80 miles per hour. I said, ‘Hey, man, slow down.’”
Subsequently, Frey recalled the drug dealer simply saying, “Hey, man, it’s life in the fast lane.” “And I thought, ‘Oh, my God, what a title.’ I didn’t write it down. I didn’t have to,” concluded Frey, per The Uncool. Not only did “The Count” deliver a song title to Frey, but he also pointed Frey in the right direction concerning the story the lyrics would tell. Which, according to Frey, was a story about a “couple that had everything and did everything — and lost the meaning of everything.”
While Frey and the band certainly put in a lot of work to create “Life In The Fast Lane”, it seems that their drug dealer did a lot of the heavy lifting without even knowing it. So, thanks to “The Count” and Joe Walsh’s guitar riff, Glenn Frey and The Eagles notched one of their 21 hit songs to appear on the Billboard Hot 100.
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