Here’s Why It Took Olivia Rodrigo 4 Tries Before She Got Her Driver’s License

Olivia Rodrigo is a rising star. She rose to fame as a Disney actor on the shows Bizardvaark and High School Musical: The Musical: The Series.

Nowadays, Rodrigo is also making her mark as a musician; she recently scored a hit with her song, “Drivers License.” However, her journey to getting a driver’s license took quite a few tries.

Olivia Rodrigo’s first single ‘Drivers License’ has been a big hit

“Drivers License” was released on Jan. 8 and is Rodrigo’s first single.

It tells the story of Rodrigo driving in the suburbs to someone’s house only to not find the person there. The lyrics have her speculating about that person possibly being with “that blonde girl.” Listeners have speculated that the song might be about her HSMTMTS co-star Joshua Bassett and fellow Disney singer Sabrina Carpenter. However, Rodrigo has not confirmed these rumors.

Meanwhile, “Drivers License” has proven itself to be a big hit. It shot to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and is currently in its eighth week at the top spot.

Olivia Rodrigo admitted it took her 4 attempts to get her license

As the song says, Rodrigo did get her driver’s license. However, it took her four tries to finally accomplish the task.

“The first appointment I got, I had to cancel it because of COVID,” she told PopCrush. “The second appointment I got, I had to cancel it because of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, which is the show that I’m on, and I was filming and I couldn’t make it.”

Rodrigo revealed that, for her third attempt, she finally was able to fly to California from Utah, where HSMTMTS is filmed. However, a problem came up before she could even commence the test.

“I’m sitting in the car, and the guy comes by and he’s checking [the car],” Rodrigo recalled. “He’s like, ‘OK, honk your horn now.’”

When Rodrigo did just that, she realized that the car she was using—her mom’s—had a horn that was not working. Rodrigo explained, “She had no idea that the horn didn’t work on her car because she never uses her horn because she’s like the calmest person in the whole world.”

The car was deemed unsafe and could not be used for the test. Rodrigo shared that she “cried in the DMV parking lot” afterwards.

Fortunately, when she finally went to get her license for the fourth time, things went well, and she passed.

Olivia Rodrigo’s drivers license did inspire ‘Drivers License’

In an interview with Apple Music’s Zac Lowe in January, Rodrigo shared that she was inspired to write “Drivers License” after driving around in her car.

“I was driving around my neighborhood, actually listening to really sad songs and crying in the car, and I got home and I was like, ‘Maybe I’ll write a song about this, crying in the car,’” she shared. “So, I just sat down at my piano and plucked out some chords that I liked and it kind of happened that way.”

She also noted, “It was really, really natural and organic. Very much me writing in the depth of my emotion.”