Gary Numan Hates, Loves His 'Cars'

May 31, 2001 -- Though on these shores he's known for just one hit, 1980's pulsating "Cars," British electronic rocker Gary Numan finds that he still enjoys some name recognition. And he credits some high-profile protégés for that development.

"It helps if you have people like [Nine Inch Nails'] Trent Reznor and Marilyn Manson saying you were an influence on them," says Numan, 43, who was Gary Webb in Hammersmith, England. "Some of their fans, through curiosity alone, will want to check it out, and I'm much keener to see those kind of people coming along to the shows and getting into what I'm doing now. My job when that happens is to have an album there and a whole performance to keep that interest and keep that curiosity and maybe take it forward."

Numan, whose songs have also been covered by groups such as Foo Fighters and Fear Factory, does find one interesting phenomenon with his young fans, though. "A lot of them think I'm a new artist," he says with a laugh.

"People will buy the Nine Inch Nails album, Marilyn Manson things, and just assume I'm some new man — no pun intended. I get people fairly regularly saying, 'What have you done?', and I tell them, 'Well, I'm quite old for a start. I've done quite a lot.' I tell them, 'That Fear Factory track (a cover of 'Cars'), I wrote that 22 years ago.' They'll go, 'Oh, man …'"

Numan did put out a new album, Pure, last fall, and he's working on material for his next record. But he always plays "Cars," despite an acknowledged love-hate relationship with the Top 20 hit that also became an American Express TV ad. "The way I see it, it's like a cloud with a silver lining — but it's a cloud nonetheless," he says. "It's become a very, very famous song, and I really am proud of it. But sometimes you want to go 'It's 20 year's old and there's all this new stuff I've got …' It puts me in a very peculiar position, because depending on what country we're talking about, my reputation and background is different. In America, I'm a one-hit wonder, which is kind of the kiss of death to most people. In Britain, I've had 35 chart singles, so it's a very different story over there, and in Europe I'm somewhere in between. But 'Cars' remains the constant through all of it. Everybody knows it. In England it's been a hit in four different decades, which is really bizarre."