Like a big ol' 18-wheeler barreling down across the border, The Road Hammer… Read Full Bio ↴Like a big ol' 18-wheeler barreling down across the border, The Road Hammers are an
unstoppable musical force, bound and determined to deliver a trailer load of the toughest, coolest, real-est country music to come down that southbound pike in a long, long time.
Conceived as a side project by Canadian country star Jason McCoy and forged under the unforgiving reality-TV lights of CMT Canada's "Making the Band," The Road Hammers took on a life of its own from the very beginning.
"It was an unplanned pregnancy, and it was an experiment on camera," McCoy says with a laugh. "But we're all real happy with the baby. The thing with the TV series was this; if it flies, you've got a successful band to launch off of this thing, and if it flops, well,
everybody likes to see somebody fall."
Needless to say, The Road Hammers flew, a lot higher than anyone, even the band
members themselves, ever expected. Those band members guitarist/vocalist Clayton
Bellamy and the world class, kickass rhythm section of bassist/vocalist Chris Byrne and drummer Corbett Frasz may have come together on camera, but onstage and in the studio the Road Hammers quickly formed the kind of greater-than-the-sum-of-its-parts bond that every musican dreams of.
"The first time I saw Clayton Bellamy, he was playing in a beer tent at a Cowboy
Stampede," McCoy recalls. "I thought he was a real good player with a good stage
presence, and he was obviously a fantastic singer. Exactly what he was doing was exactly what I wanted."
With the exhilarating musical and vocal tension between Bellamy's go-for-broke, rock 'n'
roll heart and McCoy's deep-fried country soul providing the creative fuel, and the
Bryne/Frasz rhythm section hammering it all home, the band's self-titled debut album
quickly ascended to the upper reaches of the Canadian country charts, with four songs
"East Bound and Down," "Nashville Bound," "Girl On the Billboard" and "I'm a Road
Hammer" hitting the Top 10.
The latter track, a sweat-drenched, blue-collar anthem with a countrified "We Will Rock
You" groove, serves as the band's theme song and begs the musical question, "Just what is a road hammer?" It's a question for which McCoy has a ready reply.
"We always say, if you drive 18 wheels, four wheels, two wheels or a unicycle; if you
make your living on or near the highway, or if you've just got a restless spirit in your
heart, then you're a road hammer," he says. "All of a sudden we've got 20 rows deep
standing at the stage and we're going, 'Whoa, I guess we're not the only ones.'"
In 2005, the band was nominated for six CCMA awards and walked away with the trophy for Group or Duo of the Year. Road Hammers also picked up a Juno Award for Country Recording of the Year. The following year, the band received two CCMA awards
Group or Duo of the Year and Best Video for "Girl On the Billboard," their high-octane
remake of Del Reeves' #1 single from 1961. The video for the song also shot to # 1 at
CMT Canada.
"I loved Del Reeves and 'Girl on the Billboard' when I was a kid, and I knew that all it
needed was a modern twist from this band," McCoy says. "It's such a great song, and it's early rap, it really is."
Songs just don't get much more country than "Girl On the Billboard" but onstage and
on record the Road Hammers rock, and the band has quickly evolved into one of the
most respected outfits on the road. At the recent Canadian Country Music Awards in
Regina, Saskatchewan, Byrne and Fras were tapped for the CCMA's All Star Band on
bass and drums respectively, along with The Road Hammer sidemen Mike Little
(keyboards) and Kenny Greer (steel guitar).
Mixing steady-rolling standbys from Reeves and Jerry Reed and contemporary trucking
classics from artists like Paul Thorn ("Heart With Four Wheel Drive") and Lowell
George ("Willin'") with freewheeling originals like "Nashville Bound," "Overdrive" and
"I've Got the Scars to Prove It," The Road Hammers is a wild ride that covers a lot of
musical ground.
While his own decade-long career which has already produced six hit albums, 10 Top-
10 singles, and a slew of awards including Male Vocalist of the Year at the 2001
Canadian Country Music Awards and three SOCAN Song of the Year awards was
running on plenty of momentum, McCoy's restless creative spirit moved him to take to a
sharp left turn at the end of 2005, and The Road Hammers was born.
"I wasn't ready to make another solo record, and I'd had this idea in my head for a long
time," he says. "And I always thought The Road Hammers would be such a cool band
name."
When McCoy mentioned his cool band name and concept to a friend at CMT Canada and the network caught wind of what he was up to, things got real crazy real fast, with
cameras filming the fledgling bands every move, from meetings to rehearsals to
recording studio to songwriting sessions.
The show ran for two successful seasons with Hollywood actor/Vancouver native/The Road Hammers fan Jason Priestley stepping in as director for season two. The Road Hammers were pretty much conceived and born on TV. "In Canada the show certainly helped us," McCoy says. "Everybody in the country scene kind of knew who I was, but the marketing strategy was like a three-headed monster. We had a good radio campaign, we had good TV and we had good print, and it just worked."
Word of the band's success at home quickly drifted south to Nashville, and The Road
Hammers eventually signed with indie upstart Montage Music Group and headed into the studio with Jason Aldean producer Michael Knox to record some additional tracks and fine-tune their debut for American release. Those tracks, "Working Hard and Loving
You," "I Don't Know When to Quit," and "I've Got the Tracks to Prove It," perfectly
round out the project with the one-two punch of Nashville-sized hooks and that
trademark The Road Hammers intensity.
With the bulk of the album recorded in Nashville by McCoy and his longtime
co/producer/collaborator Scott Baggett, The Road Hammers put a new coat of paint on a neglected corner of country music's foundation. From Red Sovine's "Phantom 309" to
Dave Dudley's "Six Days on the Road" to Kathy Mattea's "18 Wheels and a Dozen
Roses," all the way to Garth Brooks' "Calllin' Baton Rouge," trucking songs have been a
country music constant. And this band of road hammers know from experience that
hard-touring musicians and long-haul truckers have long been kindred spirits.
unstoppable musical force, bound and determined to deliver a trailer load of the toughest, coolest, real-est country music to come down that southbound pike in a long, long time.
Conceived as a side project by Canadian country star Jason McCoy and forged under the unforgiving reality-TV lights of CMT Canada's "Making the Band," The Road Hammers took on a life of its own from the very beginning.
"It was an unplanned pregnancy, and it was an experiment on camera," McCoy says with a laugh. "But we're all real happy with the baby. The thing with the TV series was this; if it flies, you've got a successful band to launch off of this thing, and if it flops, well,
everybody likes to see somebody fall."
Needless to say, The Road Hammers flew, a lot higher than anyone, even the band
members themselves, ever expected. Those band members guitarist/vocalist Clayton
Bellamy and the world class, kickass rhythm section of bassist/vocalist Chris Byrne and drummer Corbett Frasz may have come together on camera, but onstage and in the studio the Road Hammers quickly formed the kind of greater-than-the-sum-of-its-parts bond that every musican dreams of.
"The first time I saw Clayton Bellamy, he was playing in a beer tent at a Cowboy
Stampede," McCoy recalls. "I thought he was a real good player with a good stage
presence, and he was obviously a fantastic singer. Exactly what he was doing was exactly what I wanted."
With the exhilarating musical and vocal tension between Bellamy's go-for-broke, rock 'n'
roll heart and McCoy's deep-fried country soul providing the creative fuel, and the
Bryne/Frasz rhythm section hammering it all home, the band's self-titled debut album
quickly ascended to the upper reaches of the Canadian country charts, with four songs
"East Bound and Down," "Nashville Bound," "Girl On the Billboard" and "I'm a Road
Hammer" hitting the Top 10.
The latter track, a sweat-drenched, blue-collar anthem with a countrified "We Will Rock
You" groove, serves as the band's theme song and begs the musical question, "Just what is a road hammer?" It's a question for which McCoy has a ready reply.
"We always say, if you drive 18 wheels, four wheels, two wheels or a unicycle; if you
make your living on or near the highway, or if you've just got a restless spirit in your
heart, then you're a road hammer," he says. "All of a sudden we've got 20 rows deep
standing at the stage and we're going, 'Whoa, I guess we're not the only ones.'"
In 2005, the band was nominated for six CCMA awards and walked away with the trophy for Group or Duo of the Year. Road Hammers also picked up a Juno Award for Country Recording of the Year. The following year, the band received two CCMA awards
Group or Duo of the Year and Best Video for "Girl On the Billboard," their high-octane
remake of Del Reeves' #1 single from 1961. The video for the song also shot to # 1 at
CMT Canada.
"I loved Del Reeves and 'Girl on the Billboard' when I was a kid, and I knew that all it
needed was a modern twist from this band," McCoy says. "It's such a great song, and it's early rap, it really is."
Songs just don't get much more country than "Girl On the Billboard" but onstage and
on record the Road Hammers rock, and the band has quickly evolved into one of the
most respected outfits on the road. At the recent Canadian Country Music Awards in
Regina, Saskatchewan, Byrne and Fras were tapped for the CCMA's All Star Band on
bass and drums respectively, along with The Road Hammer sidemen Mike Little
(keyboards) and Kenny Greer (steel guitar).
Mixing steady-rolling standbys from Reeves and Jerry Reed and contemporary trucking
classics from artists like Paul Thorn ("Heart With Four Wheel Drive") and Lowell
George ("Willin'") with freewheeling originals like "Nashville Bound," "Overdrive" and
"I've Got the Scars to Prove It," The Road Hammers is a wild ride that covers a lot of
musical ground.
While his own decade-long career which has already produced six hit albums, 10 Top-
10 singles, and a slew of awards including Male Vocalist of the Year at the 2001
Canadian Country Music Awards and three SOCAN Song of the Year awards was
running on plenty of momentum, McCoy's restless creative spirit moved him to take to a
sharp left turn at the end of 2005, and The Road Hammers was born.
"I wasn't ready to make another solo record, and I'd had this idea in my head for a long
time," he says. "And I always thought The Road Hammers would be such a cool band
name."
When McCoy mentioned his cool band name and concept to a friend at CMT Canada and the network caught wind of what he was up to, things got real crazy real fast, with
cameras filming the fledgling bands every move, from meetings to rehearsals to
recording studio to songwriting sessions.
The show ran for two successful seasons with Hollywood actor/Vancouver native/The Road Hammers fan Jason Priestley stepping in as director for season two. The Road Hammers were pretty much conceived and born on TV. "In Canada the show certainly helped us," McCoy says. "Everybody in the country scene kind of knew who I was, but the marketing strategy was like a three-headed monster. We had a good radio campaign, we had good TV and we had good print, and it just worked."
Word of the band's success at home quickly drifted south to Nashville, and The Road
Hammers eventually signed with indie upstart Montage Music Group and headed into the studio with Jason Aldean producer Michael Knox to record some additional tracks and fine-tune their debut for American release. Those tracks, "Working Hard and Loving
You," "I Don't Know When to Quit," and "I've Got the Tracks to Prove It," perfectly
round out the project with the one-two punch of Nashville-sized hooks and that
trademark The Road Hammers intensity.
With the bulk of the album recorded in Nashville by McCoy and his longtime
co/producer/collaborator Scott Baggett, The Road Hammers put a new coat of paint on a neglected corner of country music's foundation. From Red Sovine's "Phantom 309" to
Dave Dudley's "Six Days on the Road" to Kathy Mattea's "18 Wheels and a Dozen
Roses," all the way to Garth Brooks' "Calllin' Baton Rouge," trucking songs have been a
country music constant. And this band of road hammers know from experience that
hard-touring musicians and long-haul truckers have long been kindred spirits.
wheels
The Road Hammers Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴
Cave man workinu0027 til the break of dawn
All night chippinu0027 on a block of stone
Gettinu0027 all fired up about gettinu0027 gone
Lord thereu0027s just somethinu0027 bout wheels
Took a little while til the road got paved
started layinu0027 down that interstate
Wrapped 4 of them beauties round a big v8
Lord thereu0027s just somethinu0027 bout wheels
Somethinu0027 bout wheels, somethinu0027 bout a highway
Somethinu0027 bout a big ole stretch of nothinu0027 round
Just puttinu0027 that hammer down
Somethinu0027 ‘bout gettinu0027 off, gettinu0027 lost
Shotgun honey in a pink tank top
Steel belts humminu0027 on the black top lord
Thatu0027s how freedom feels
Somethinu0027 bout wheels
Hot rod Lincoln or a GTO
Born to be wild on the radio
Chromed up stripped down giddy up go
Lord thereu0027s just somethinu0027 bout wheels
Strap me in to that mean machine
Jack me up on gasoline
Make ya feel ‘round 17
Lord thereu0027s just somethinu0027 bout wheels
Somethinu0027 bout wheels, somethinu0027 bout a highway
Somethinu0027 bout a big ole stretch of nothinu0027 round
Just puttinu0027 that hammer down
Somethinu0027 ‘bout gettinu0027 off, gettinu0027 lost
Shotgun honey in a pink tank top
Steel belts humminu0027 on the black top lord
Thatu0027s how freedom feels
Somethinu0027 bout wheels
Rockinu0027, rollinu0027, leavinu0027, goinu0027
Smokinu0027 burninu0027 squealinu0027 turninu0027
Gotta feed the need for speed
Somethinu0027 bout wheels, somethinu0027 bout a highway
Somethinu0027 bout a big ole stretch of nothinu0027 round
Just puttinu0027 that hammer down
Somethinu0027 ‘bout gettinu0027 off, gettinu0027 lost
Shotgun honey in a pink tank top
Steel belts humminu0027 on the black top lord
Thatu0027s how freedom feels
Somethinu0027 bout wheels
Somethinu0027 bout wheels, somethinu0027 bout a highway
Somethinu0027 bout a big ole stretch of nothinu0027 round
Just puttinu0027 that hammer down
Somethinu0027 ‘bout gettinu0027 off, gettinu0027 lost
Shotgun honey in a pink tank top
Not knowinu0027 where weu0027re goinu0027 baby
Thatu0027s how freedom feels
Thatu0027s how freedom feels
Somethinu0027 bout wheels
Somethinu0027 bout wheels
All night chippinu0027 on a block of stone
Gettinu0027 all fired up about gettinu0027 gone
Lord thereu0027s just somethinu0027 bout wheels
Took a little while til the road got paved
started layinu0027 down that interstate
Wrapped 4 of them beauties round a big v8
Somethinu0027 bout wheels, somethinu0027 bout a highway
Somethinu0027 bout a big ole stretch of nothinu0027 round
Just puttinu0027 that hammer down
Somethinu0027 ‘bout gettinu0027 off, gettinu0027 lost
Shotgun honey in a pink tank top
Steel belts humminu0027 on the black top lord
Thatu0027s how freedom feels
Somethinu0027 bout wheels
Hot rod Lincoln or a GTO
Born to be wild on the radio
Chromed up stripped down giddy up go
Lord thereu0027s just somethinu0027 bout wheels
Strap me in to that mean machine
Jack me up on gasoline
Make ya feel ‘round 17
Lord thereu0027s just somethinu0027 bout wheels
Somethinu0027 bout wheels, somethinu0027 bout a highway
Somethinu0027 bout a big ole stretch of nothinu0027 round
Just puttinu0027 that hammer down
Somethinu0027 ‘bout gettinu0027 off, gettinu0027 lost
Shotgun honey in a pink tank top
Steel belts humminu0027 on the black top lord
Thatu0027s how freedom feels
Somethinu0027 bout wheels
Rockinu0027, rollinu0027, leavinu0027, goinu0027
Smokinu0027 burninu0027 squealinu0027 turninu0027
Gotta feed the need for speed
Somethinu0027 bout wheels, somethinu0027 bout a highway
Somethinu0027 bout a big ole stretch of nothinu0027 round
Just puttinu0027 that hammer down
Somethinu0027 ‘bout gettinu0027 off, gettinu0027 lost
Shotgun honey in a pink tank top
Steel belts humminu0027 on the black top lord
Thatu0027s how freedom feels
Somethinu0027 bout wheels
Somethinu0027 bout wheels, somethinu0027 bout a highway
Somethinu0027 bout a big ole stretch of nothinu0027 round
Just puttinu0027 that hammer down
Somethinu0027 ‘bout gettinu0027 off, gettinu0027 lost
Shotgun honey in a pink tank top
Not knowinu0027 where weu0027re goinu0027 baby
Thatu0027s how freedom feels
Thatu0027s how freedom feels
Somethinu0027 bout wheels
Somethinu0027 bout wheels
The Road Hammers' song "Wheels" is an ode to the freedom and thrill of hitting the open road with the wheels on a vehicle. The lyrics reflect on the history of transportation, from the cave man chipping away on a block of stone to the interstate highway system, all leading up to the present-day love of automobiles and the freedom they represent.
The artist describes the feeling of being on the highway, with nothing but a big stretch of road and the hum of the engine. The chorus repeats the phrase "Somethin' bout wheels," emphasizing the charm and excitement that vehicles offer. The song goes on to describe different types of cars, from a "Hot Rod Lincoln" to a "GTO" and the thrill and experience it brings to the person behind the wheel.
Overall, the song is a celebration of the sense of freedom that comes with wheels and the allure of the open road. The lyrics recognize that different types of vehicles might bring up a different feeling but the sense of freedom stays constant throughout.
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: David Eric Grohl, Taylor Hawkins, Nate Mendel, Chris Shiflett
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
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