{"id":324898,"date":"2025-12-19T15:58:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T15:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/324898\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T15:58:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T15:58:07","slug":"chris-rea-had-just-been-banned-from-driving-when-he-wrote-driving-home-for-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/324898\/","title":{"rendered":"Chris Rea had “just been banned from driving” when he wrote ‘Driving Home For Christmas’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chris Rea<\/a> has said he was under a driving ban when he wrote his classic single \u2018Driving Home For Christmas\u2019.<\/p>\n

The singer-songwriter first released the festive track in 1986 as the B-side to \u2018Hello Friend\u2019. A re-recorded version arrived two years later, and appeared on his compilation \u2018New Light Through Old Windows\u2019.<\/p>\n

In 2022, \u2018Driving Home For Christmas\u2019 entered the top 10 of the UK singles chart for the first time, peaking at Number 10 (via Official Charts<\/a>).<\/p>\n

During a new interview with the Daily Express<\/a>, Rea \u2013 who originally wrote the tune for Van Morrison<\/a> \u2013 said: \u201cIt\u2019s a frustrating song, but it\u2019s also hopeful and comforting.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s funny, because I\u2019d just been banned from driving when I wrote it. But I was feeling good at the time too, and people say they can hear that infectious feel-good mood when they hear it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rea explained: \u201cI still sing it at other drivers when I\u2019m stuck on the motorway.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The musician called \u2018Driving Home For Christmas\u2019 \u201ca story everyone can relate to\u201d, which is about being \u201cstuck in traffic\u201d on the way to spend the festive period with loved ones: \u201cEveryone in the country is doing the same thing at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also spoke about the single being featured in the\u00a02008 Gavin & Stacey<\/a> Christmas special, and how it \u201cstarted going into the top 40 year after year\u201d due to the rise in streaming.<\/p>\n

In 2020, \u2018Driving Home For Christmas\u2019 began trending online as the UK introduced new COVID restrictions for the festive period<\/a>. The song reached Number 11 at the end of that year.<\/p>\n

Rea suffered a stroke in 2016, resulting in reduced movement in his arms and fingers. It also left him with slurred speech. In 2017, the singer returned to the stage, but later collapsed during a show in Oxford<\/a>. He hasn\u2019t performed live publicly since.<\/p>\n

He has previously been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The treatment left him with diabetes, meaning he needs daily injections.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chris Rea has said he was under a driving ban when he wrote his classic single \u2018Driving Home…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324899,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[96,128,1581,3584,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-324898","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-music","10":"tag-pop","11":"tag-rock","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}