Writing Harley, David's Son

Several years ago a friend who was in the middle of a tough divorce gave me a call. "Can you help me unload my pickup? All my stuff is in it." I told him I would and headed over. When I got there I was surprised to see his new Harley Softail in the bed of the truck. "I think we can handle it," my friend said. We gently lifted the bike to the ground. Then he made his first mistake. "You wanna' ride it?" he asked. Hesitating, I responded, "No, that's all right," even though I still had "motorcycle" stamped on my drivers license from when I was in high school. Then he made his second mistake. "You sure?" he asked. I told him the truth... I really did want to ride it. He handed me the keys and I didn't come back until hours later. How could I? I was having too much fun!

A week later, my family and I were driving to our cabin in northern Minnesota. My son was driving our van. I sat behind him when I started writing this song... "I met him on the highway, many years ago. I just can't recall if he was going fast or slow..." I finished the song, then took it to a recording studio and produced the CD.

I then sent the song to the U.S. Copyright Office and was granted the copyright several months later.

Along the way, I had heard that the Harley Davidson Corporation was very restrictive with their copyrights and patents. Several major recording artists had been pursued legally for using the company name or designs. The company even had a patent on the sound of their motorcycles! Undeterred, I pursued them anyway! Six years later, The Harley Davidson Trademark Department gave me permission to release the song.

— Tom Prouty