Sammy Hagar Will Not Get To Meet NYS Trooper Who Gave Him ‘I Can’t Drive 55′ Ticket

Here's why a reunion between Sammy Hagar and the New York State Trooper who inspired one of his biggest hits won't get to happen.

Sammy Hagar will be performing at SPAC on Monday July  22, 2024. He has some serious history with Upstate New York and our area. However it appears he was going a little too fast and ended up with a now famous speeding ticket.

"I Can't Drive Drive 55" was inspired by this moment driving near Albany back in 1984. It's a local legend and it's gotten so big that Sammy himself wanted to track down the Trooper who gave him that ticket.

However records from 1984 are a bit different than they are now in 2024. Traffic tickets were paper, and that makes tracking this particular trooper a little difficult. We tried our best to try and find someone who might be connected over on our Facebook page but came up empty.

I was lucky enough to remember that a friend of mine (thanks Phoebe!) had a father who was a former Senior Investigator with the New York State Troopers. So I decided to give it a shot and reach out and see if he might be able to help.

HUGE shoutout the Mike Wells, a now retired NYS Trooper, who works directly with all the retired troopers in New York State. He used his network to try and track down the trooper, or troopers, that gave Sammy that ticket 40 years ago. Unfortunately the meeting won't be able to happen.

After narrowing it down to four potential State Troopers they found that all the candidates who could have given Sammy the ticket are now deceased.

Listen to my full interview with Mike here.