Nick Hexum, 50, the Los Angeles-based singer, songwriter and guitarist for the band 311, on his family’s Tesla Model 3s, as told to AJ Baime.
Growing up, my dad told me a lot about rock and roll culture. My first love for music was his collection of 45 – Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis. Cars have always been part of the visual language. You know, “Nice, nice, nice, until her daddy takes the T-Bird away.” We went on car trips in the summer, and it had to be so that I could tell the difference between a 1955, 1956, or 1957 Chevy from just one look.
Later, when I had some success with my band, I saw this 1955 T-Bird parked across the street from my manager’s office and it had a sign for sale. I bought that car for my dad and surprised him on his 60th birthday. It was this tearful moment when I could show my gratitude for the love and support of my father, as well as instilling a love for cars and rock and roll in me.
Over the years, I’ve had just about every souped-up sports sedan from all German automakers. A Mercedes E55 AMG, a BMW M5, an Audi S6. It wasn’t about looking cool in an expensive car. I wanted a great performance.
The bassist in my band, P-Nut, was a super-early adopter of Tesla, and he actually bought serial number 311 of the Tesla Roadster, the brand’s first model. He told me to buy one. I decided to wait for the Model 3 to come out because it was the size I wanted and it was cheaper than some of the cars I drove.
When I got my Model 3 performance version [Tesla’s highest performance edition of this model] two years ago I thought this was the best performing car I had driven, and to have a $ 60,000 car that smoked some of the more expensive cars I had was a win-win situation. Being fully electric, there is smooth acceleration – the car has no gears, it just drives – that feels like jumping into hyperspace. You go from zero to 100 km / h in about 3.5 seconds. At the same time it is completely silent.
There are certain things in a car that, once you have them, you don’t want to be without them. I had grown to love four-wheel drive cars after getting my Audi S6 because you could accelerate into a corner and the car would be very confident. I had come to love adaptive cruise control because there is so much starting and stopping while driving on the freeway in LA. Adaptive cruise control does that for you. The Tesla had all this technology. And the autopilot is huge; it steers for you, so all you have to do is keep your hands on the wheel.
Now my wife also has a Model 3. We installed a huge solar panel and two Tesla Powerwalls so that the sun not only powers our cars, but also our house. When I was a kid and first fell in love with cars, I never thought I would be driving a car powered by the sun.
Ultimately the thing that made me an Elon Musk fanboy [Musk is the co-founder and CEO of Tesla] is this: most people will not do their best to save the environment. He created a car with a better driving experience than what was on the market, in my opinion, at a cheaper price. And you get to save the environment to boot.
Nick Hexum bought this 1955 Ford Thunderbird for his father, Terry Hexum. Both are in the car in elderly Mr. Hexum’s driveway in Omaha, Nebraska, circa 2014. Look for the license plate: “From Son.”
Photo:
Deanna Hexum
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