Page 15 - March 2019 IWMA News Interactive

“After he passed, I sat down and just start- ed writing. I started writing lyrics of things he would tell us. When I was flipping through a notebook last January, I found that song and I thought, you know, I think I want to do something with this one. And that is when I decided to go ahead and record it.”
The song, which later became a music vid- eo, tells the story of a young racer and his successes on the drag strip, only to become the memories that would shape his future after he gave it all up for his family.
With lyrics such as, “that car didn’t make my daddy, my daddy made the car” and “that quarter-mile took seconds, but the memo- ries they last,” is very personal for Black, but one she felt she had to make. And she made the record- ing upbeat for a reason. It is a cel- ebration of her father’s life, while also touching the hearts of those who have a similar bond brought
about by the sport of drag racing.
“I just want people to know how amazing my
dad was. He was such a protective father and he had such a pride for his racing,” Black said. “He was so respected and well-liked. A lot of times racers might not be very well-liked by their peers, but my dad was. They respected him and liked him. He was just a great
person.”To add to the fun, Black recorded a music vid- eo to go along with the song last year at Bonne Terre Drag Strip where Black works part-time on the week- ends. The video features Black behind the wheel on the drag strip for the very first time in the last car her
father would ever purchase, a Road Runner he bought five months before his death.
“That was so much fun. I raced my brother in the video, he was in my uncle’s GTX and I was in the Road Runner,” Black said. “Whenever you watch the video, you can see me back off of it be- cause I could feel the tires start to spin and all I am thinking is, ‘oh my gosh, don’t wreck dad’s car.’”
Today, Black is an elementary music teacher in Missouri. And while music is and always has been her passion, her life is fueled by those very same life lessons her father taught her as a child that are now forever captured in song.
“The last line in the chorus, ‘you can get back in the driver’s seat but you can’t relive the past,’ my dad always had people ask him why he never raced again. He would always say, ‘I can get back behind that steering wheel, but it’s not going to be the same. I can’t go back and relieve those days.’
“That was his way of telling us he’d moved on, he was raising his family and focusing on us. He didn’t have the money to do both so he gave that up. And that shows me just how much he loved us.” https://youtu.be/KViIzmTlpDw
15