Fear Factory DIDN'T WANT To Ride Limp Bizkit's Coattails

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He was a synth-pop legend, terrified of being trapped by his past. They were a futuristic metal band, hell-bent on pushing the boundaries of heavy music. So when Fear Factory decided to cover Gary Numan's classic, ‘Cars,’ Numan himself was hesitant, worried the collaboration would just sound dated.

But this unlikely pairing didn’t just work—it created a genre-bending hit. It became Fear Factory's biggest single, helped propel their album Obsolete to Gold status, and introduced a music icon to a whole new generation. This is the story of how two artists from completely different worlds collided to create one of the most unexpected and powerful hits of the late ‘90s.

Section 1: The Two Worlds

So, why was this team-up so out of left field? You have to understand where each artist was in the late 1990s.

On one side, you have Gary Numan. An icon. A pioneer of electronic music. In 1979, his song "Cars" was a global phenomenon. It was a synth-pop anthem that felt both futuristic and personal, inspired by a road rage incident that made him see his car as a protective metal box—an "empire with four wheels on it." The track’s minimalist synth riff and Numan's robotic vocals defined a genre and influenced everyone from Nine Inch Nails to Marilyn Manson. But with a hit that big, you risk being typecast. By the late ‘90s, Numan was actively avoiding '80s nostalgia tours, fearing he'd be seen only as the "Cars" guy, even as his own music was growing darker and heavier.

On the other side, you had Fear Factory. Hailing from Los Angeles, they were an absolute force in the industrial metal scene. Their sound was a brutal, calculated assault: Dino Cazares' machine-gun guitar riffs, Raymond Herrera's inhumanly precise drumming, and Burton C. Bell's revolutionary vocals that shifted from guttural growls to soaring, clean melodies. Their albums, like the classic *Demanufacture*, were dystopian concept records about humanity's war with machines. They were heavy, aggressive, and sonically dense. To put it mildly, they weren't a band you'd expect to hear on mainstream radio.

These were two artists separated by genre, an ocean, and a generation of musical evolution. And yet, a strange series of events was about to bring their worlds together in a way nobody saw coming.

Section 2: The Collision of Worlds

The whole thing started pretty innocently. Around 1996, while touring in Europe, Fear Factory started playing "Cars" as a fun, unexpected encore. The crowd loved it, and the band—all Numan fans—enjoyed it so much they decided to record a studio version, maybe for a B-side.

Somehow, word got back to Gary Numan's camp that this heavy industrial band was covering his signature song. Fear Factory decided to roll the dice and invite the man himself to join them, never actually thinking he'd say yes.

Numan’s first reaction? Apprehension. As a rule, he avoided anything that felt like cashing in on '80s nostalgia. He was worried that joining a cover of his biggest hit would just reinforce the one-hit-wonder image he was trying to escape.

But this wasn't some retro act asking. This was Fear Factory—a modern, respected band from a totally different scene. Numan realized there was a huge potential upside. In his words, "there was a chance that it could introduce me to a new generation of people who didn't know my history." He saw that his own music had become heavier, so this collaboration could be the perfect bridge to an audience that might appreciate his new direction. So, he said yes.

Numan was flown to Vancouver for a three-day session. Any worries he had about working with a metal band dissolved almost immediately. He found them "brilliant" and "really easy to work with," impressed by their passion and positive attitude. The collaboration was a success, both on tape and in spirit. Numan not only laid down his iconic vocals for "Cars" but also recorded a chilling spoken-word intr