From 1997 Headlines to 2026 Charts: the Evolution of Fastball's 'The Way'

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The real story ended far more grimly than Scalzo's romanticized verses suggested. On July 12, 1997, two weeks after they disappeared, local law enforcement discovered the Howards' Oldsmobile at the bottom of a 25-foot ravine near Arkadelphia, Arkansas, roughly 20 miles south of Hot Springs. Both Raymond and Lela had died upon impact when their car veered off the road.

Scalzo had finished writing the lyrics before search teams found the wreckage. When news reached Austin that the Howards were dead, the songwriter grappled with whether releasing the track was ethical. Ultimately, the Howard family embraced the tribute. Interviews with the couple's surviving relatives confirmed that they viewed the song not as an exploitative novelty, but as a sympathetic celebration of two people who had spent more than five decades together and left this world side-by-side.