"Life in the Fast Lane" is a song written by Joe Walsh, Glenn Frey and Don Henley and recorded by the American rock band Eagles for their 1976 studio album Hotel California. It was the third single released from this album, and peaked at #11 at the Billboard Hot 100.
The track tells of a couple that takes their excessive lifestyle to the edge and destroys it. On In the Studio with Redbeard, Glenn Frey revealed that the title came to him one day when he was driving on the freeway with a drug dealer, whom they called "The Count" (because his count was always wrong). Frey told him to to slow down and the response was, "What do you mean? It's life in the fast lane!" In that same interview, the riff came from Walsh while warming up in rehearsals and Walsh was told to "keep that, it's a song". The song's title was the inspiration for Life on the Fast Lane, an episode from the first season of the TV series The Simpsons.
In 2007, Jill Johnson covered the song on her album "Music Row".
The track Livin' It Up on Limp Bizkit's album Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water samples the phrase life in the fast lane throughout. Frey, Henley, and Walsh are credited in the "lyrics by" portion of the liner notes.
