1998 Alternative Rock Hit Crafted a Romantic Fantasy Out of a Couple's Tragic Final Journey
When you listen to "The Way" by Fastball, you'll hear a romantic tale of two elderly people escaping the life that they see ahead for them. However, it has a much darker true story.
Released in 1998, "The Way" is a story of an elderly couple who pack their bags and leave everything behind. The feel-good anthem is one of carefree love, with the couple having no destination in mind, but ready to escape the painful realities of aging.
When Fastball bassist and frontman, Tony Scalzo, was reading the paper in 1997, he came across a story of an elderly couple who had gone missing. As the search happened, which took two weeks, Scalzo wanted to create a hopeful tale for the two of them, giving them a happy ending as he romanticized the decision to pack their bags.
In reality, Lela and Raymond Howard had packed their car to head out to a festival just 15 miles from their house. It was a yearly tradition they had, and when they didn't show up, the search began. People didn't realize that Lela was suffering from advanced Alzheimer's disease, while Raymond had recently recovered from a stroke.
What was supposed to be a simple drive turned into a disoriented nightmare. Eventually, their car was found hundreds of miles from their intended destination, with both dying from the impact of a crash. Lela was said to be driving, and many believe that she had headed on a destination to a place she had vacationed in the past. However, the full truth could never be told.
Fastball had a choice. They could either release the track "The Way" as planned or decide not to romanticize the trip that took their lives. They chose to release it, with Scalzo defending the story he was telling as one about two people simply trying to return to their youth together.
The 1998 track would end up becoming a hit, charting at No. 4 in the U.S. Billboard Adult Top 40 year-end chart and No. 5 in the Billboard U.S. Radio Songs weekly charts. In fact, it reached No. 1 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks, sitting there for seven weeks. Internationally, it reached the No. 1 spot in Canada, both in the Top Singles and Rock/Alternative charts, and No. 21 in the UK Singles charts.
Miles Zuniga said in a 2018 interview that "The Way" ended up becoming a "gumbo" of a song "where everyone threw ideas in." Each band member had a different idea of how the song should be recorded and played, and he finished with, "It led us down this path, and it was really fun to work on. I think that if we'd tried to make it this massive hit song, we would've f–ked it all up."
When it came to the success of the track, Scalzo didn't focus on the real story behind it all. Instead, he shared that it was due to the way it was recorded, "It takes you from a minor verse into what Leonard Cohen described as the major lift. It makes your senses wake up."
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This story was originally published June 18, 2026 at 11:48 AM.