Olivia Rodrigo 's new Disney+ documentary "Driving Home 2 U" premiered on Friday.- In one scene, she reads aloud the real diary entry that inspired her debut single "Drivers License."
Olivia Rodrigo has unveiled the real diary entry that eventually became her hit debut single, "Drivers License."
Rodrigo previously told the New York Times' Joe Coscarelli that "Drivers License" was inspired by a true story, in which she drove around her suburban town, listening to
In one scene of the teenager's new Disney+ documentary "Driving Home 2 U," out Friday, she reads aloud the passage in question.
Dated July 13, 2020, the entry begins, "I got my drivers license today, a very highly anticipated achievement."
"All my relatives called to congratulate me. I realized part of the reason I wanted to get my license so bad was because of… this boy," Rodrigo reads, pausing to omit the person's actual name.
"I always felt bad about being too young to drive over to see him, too young to have any real freedom. I always thought he should be with a girl who had those liberties," she continues. "I feel his hold on me loosen more and more lately. That's a lovely feeling. I'm still very much not able to fall for anyone else though. Like I can't even fathom it at the moment."
"Drivers License" was apparently inspired by Joshua Bassett, Rodrigo's costar on the Disney+ series "High School Musical: The Musical: The Series," who has all but confirmed this speculation.
"People don't realize how long ago that was," Bassett told GQ, seemingly referring to a romantic relationship with Rodrigo. "It's not as recent as it seems. I'm a completely different person now."
Before Rodrigo's music career took off, many "High School Musical" fans had speculated that she and Bassett were dating in real life throughout 2019. She was 16 years old, while Bassett turned 19 at the end of that year.
Rumors of their breakup swirled in the summer of 2020, when Rodrigo teased a rough draft of "Drivers License" on Instagram.
"I remember knowing that it might be something special, if not to anyone else, just to me," Rodrigo explains in the documentary, which is named after a lyric in the song's second verse. "I felt like that song just really captured devastation in a way that I hadn't been able to capture before."
She sent the song to her producer Daniel Nigro, who cowrote the bridge and encouraged Rodrigo to "belt" the chorus, he told the New York Times.
"Drivers License" was officially released in January 2021 and became an overnight sensation, debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and remaining there for eight straight weeks. It was ranked No. 2 on Insider's list of the best songs of the year and No. 20 on Insider's list of the best breakup songs of the 21st century.