A new book about The Cars has revealed that the three living members — Greg Hawkes, Elliot Easton and David Robinson — have been working on unreleased demos from the late Ric Ocasek the past few years.
Author Bill Janovitz writes in The Cars: Let the Stories Be Told that back in 2020 the band’s manager, Jeff Kramer, and Ocasek’s “right-hand man” David “Heg” Heglmeier sent Hawkes eighteen or so songs that Ric had recorded to see if the keyboardist could do something with them. (Ocasek died in 2019.)
After some initial work by Hawkes, Heglmeier sent over more songs. One track, “I Just Can’t Stay,” was sung by their late bassist Ben Orr and pre-dates The Cars. (Orr died in 2000.) Hawkes called it “the most ‘Free as a Bird’,” a reference to the John Lennon demo that the three surviving Beatles finished.
Hawkes told Janovitz that he wanted to get Easton and Robinson involved in the project and that “it took a while to even get David to do it,” and that Easton didn’t start adding guitar parts until the summer of 2024.
As for when these recordings might come out, Janovitz writes, “David, Elliot, and Greg — and the estates of Ric and Ben — have remained a business partnership for nearly 50 years. They were all optimistic that disagreements about Cars business would not get in the way of giving their fans unheard Cars music.”
The Cars: Let the Stories Be Told will be published on September 30th.
