Inspired to write ‘The Way’

The single ” The Way ” stayed on top of Billboard’s Modern Rock Tracks chart for seven weeks, and was a top-five hit on Billboard’s Top 40 Mainstream chart. Scalzo was inspired to write the song in 1997 after reading a news article about Lela and Raymond Howard, an elderly couple who had disappeared in Texas. Though Lela had Alzheimer’s and Raymond was recovering from brain surgery, the couple had been driving to a local festival. They were discovered two weeks later, dead, at the bottom of a ravine near Hot Springs, Arkansas , hundreds of miles off their intended route. Scalzo chose to imagine that they began reminiscing and decided to become ethereal beings on a permanent romantic trip, the answer to the song’s question, “Where were they going without ever knowing the way?”