Where Are They Now: “Cars” Singer Gary Numan

In our Where Are They Now series, we catch up with “Cars” singer Gary Numan. No, Not the singer for the Cars, that is Ric Ocasek. We mean the guy who is best known for his 1979 International hit, “Cars”. Many consider Numan to be a one hit wonder, with good reason. We tracked Gary down to his home in California to find out what he is up to now.

Gary Anthony James Webb aka Gary Numan is an English musician and pioneer of Electronic music. “Cars” is the first solo single by Numan. It was released on 21 August 1979 and is from his debut studio album The Pleasure Principle. The song reached the top of the charts in several countries, and is Numan’s most successful single.

“Cars” by Gary Numan

It is not widely known outside of the Numan family but Gary has released 21 albums following the Pleasure Principle. However not one person can name another song besides “Cars”. Numan had some success in Europe but they will buy any crap. Over the years He has become an official one hit wonder and answer to a trivia question.

Where Are They Now: “Cars” Singer Gary Numan

Numan kicked around the music business for many years and still records albums in his basement. Gary ended up penniless after some bad investments in NFT’s, Beanie Babies and a glow in the dark wallpaper business. In order to make ends meet, Gary now works as an Uber driver in California.

“It’s not a bad gig” said Numan. “I am my own boss and make my own hours. You meet a lot of nice interesting people but a major challenge is dealing with drunks, weirdos and freaks. Cleaning up vomit is not fun either but it is part of the job. I have been held up at gun point 3 times so far this week as well.”

Numan continued, “All that considered, the worst part is music fans that recognize me. They will say the same thing like my Mom loves you. Or they will say you had that one hit wonder ‘Cars’ and now you are driving in cars for Uber. It takes everything I have sometimes not to drive into a pole. However it is still better than opening for Jerry Lewis in France or David Hasselhoff in Germany.”