Saturday, June 18, 2016

Eddie Van Halen Gets Out of Traffic Ticket Because He's Eddie Van Halen

 
 
You read that right. I kid you not. No, this is not from The Onion. Van Halen guitarist and founder Eddie Van Halen actually managed to get out of a ticket purely on the merit that he is Eddie Van Halen.

Van Halen and his wife Julie were doing a test drive when he decided it would be more fun and would take them less time to get where they were going if he put the pedal to the metal like the true rock n' roller he is. In an interview with Car and Driver Van Halen describes the incident, saying:
 
“Since I bought the V-8 R8, Audi contacted me and offered for us to go up to Infineon [Sonoma Raceway] to test-drive the V-10 on the track. You know, just go crazy. So [my wife] Janie and I drove up in her Mercedes-Benz ML63 AMG. It’s a long drive and we’re doing about 90, 95 in a 65, and I get pulled over and the guy writes me up for a ticket.
 
I’m going, ‘The last thing I need is a speeding ticket for that much over the speed limit.’ We get home and I get a letter from my office; the patrol guy who gave me the ticket, his captain voided it. He said, ‘You don’t give Eddie Van Halen a ticket,’ and I had a letter to prove it. The letter came straight from the captain.”
 
As big of a fan of Van Halen as I am, I still am a bit flabbergasted that he actually managed to get away with speeding just for being who he is. I guess when you're a rock star though the world really does treat you a lot differently than if you were just a regular joe-shmo. Must be nice to be able to get away with anything just for being able to play guitar well. Maybe that's just my bitter side talking, though.

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