About The Song
John Scott Sherrill began writing “Nothin’ but the Wheel” on a long night drive after the woman he still called the “Wild and Blue” girl ended their relationship. Years earlier that same relationship had given him the song that became a number-one hit for John Anderson. This time he simply got in the car and left. Somewhere past the city lights the central image arrived: he was holding on to nothing but the steering wheel. He did not finish the song that night. He kept driving until he reached Montgomery Bell State Park in Tennessee and slept in the car.
Patty Loveless cut the completed track for her album Only What I Feel, released by Epic Records in April 1993. The single followed in July as the second release from the project, coming after the chart-topping “Blame It on Your Heart.” Emory Gordy Jr. produced the session. The song climbed to number 20 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart and number 23 on the Canadian RPM Country Singles list. Its music video was directed by Randee St. Nicholas.
The story stays close to the road that inspired it. The singer has left the boulevards behind and is moving under the stars, flying past houses, farms, and open fields. She avoids the interstate and sticks to the older two-lane roads while she tries to make sense of how she feels. By half past three the highway belongs to the trucks and her. Highway 41 keeps rolling. At dawn the sky takes on the color of polished steel. The only thing she knows for certain is that if he no longer wants her, the wheel is all she has left to hold.
Background voices on the recording include Vince Gill, Joe Diffie, and Alison Krauss. The album itself reached number 9 on the Top Country Albums chart and later earned platinum certification for shipments of more than one million copies in the United States. Of the four singles drawn from *Only What I Feel*, “Nothin’ but the Wheel” was the only one that stopped short of the top ten. Many listeners still rank it among Loveless’s strongest performances.
In 2002 Peter Wolf recorded his own version for the album Sleepless. Mick Jagger added harmonica and harmony vocals. The song also closed the 2005 film The Ice Harvest. Sherrill has said the Loveless recording remains one of his favorite cuts of anything he has written. The personal origin is plain in the miles the lyric covers and in the quiet acceptance that arrives with daylight.
Video
Lyric
Way on past the boulevards out here underneath the stars
I’ve been flyin’ past the houses, farms, and fields
Leavin’ all I know back there, rushin’ through the cold night air
And holdin’ on to nothin’ but the wheel
Stayin’ clear of the interstate, I’m seekin’ out those old two lanes
Tryin’ to explain the way I feel
‘Til all at once it’s half past three, and it’s down to just the trucks and me
And I’m holdin’ on to nothin’ but the wheel
I’ve been tryin’ to drive you off my mind
Maybe that way, baby, I can leave it all behind
And 41 goes on and on, and the lights go windin’ in the dawn
And the sky’s the color now of polished steel
And the only thing I know for sure is if you don’t want me anymore
Then I’m holdin’ on to nothin’ but the wheel
And the only thing I know for sure is if you don’t want me anymore
Then I’m holdin’ on to nothin’ but the wheel
I’m holdin’ on to nothin’ but the wheel