My dad was also a heavy drinker, so I was driving at the age of 9. He would get really wasted and give me the keys to the car, and I would drive him home. [Laughs] We had this Model A Ford that he got in a scrapyard. It’s like the old Ford that had a rumble seat, and it had a hand clutch. It was like a tractor, basically. You had to squeeze a hand grip to change gears and ratchet it back, kind of like you would drive a tractor. There were four pedals on the floor, different braking systems.
My Dad was drunk, and I was driving this Model A back home. And, you know, we were in farmer world. There’s no stop signs or anything like that, so it was totally safe. [Laughs] No problem. But the cops pulled us over, and I was terrified. When I was a kid I wouldn’t talk to strangers at all; I was super, super shy. My Dad was just like, ‘Yeah, I’m really wasted. It’s safer if he drives.’ And the cop was like, ‘No! What is he, 10?!’ So the cop says ‘Move over, I’m gonna drive; we’re gonna get you home.’ And he couldn’t drive the Model A. There were too many complications. So one of my early, early childhood memories of driving was me driving a model A with the cop sitting next to me and my dad passed out in the rumble seat in the back. And just having a conversation with this guy who’s like, ‘So…how’s school?’ [Laughs]