the title of "road rage" was based on the murder of lee harvey by his girlfriend tracie andrews in december 1996. she stabbed him more than 30 times with a penknife, claiming originally that this had been committed by a stranger in a road rage-type attack. as a result of the song's release, lee's mother maureen said that "it is disgusting that people are trying to make money from such a tragedy. my son did not die in a road rage attack, he was killed by tracie andrews. we simply do not need songs like this". catatonia's lead singer cerys matthews said that while the title of the song was based on the case, the lyrics were about advances in technology. in her book "pure evil", maureen harvey stated " . . . at least the group's singer cerys matthews had the decency to return my call and explain that she hadn't intended to cause any offence. she tried to convince me that the song showed how tracie had gone crazy and that it didn't actually do her any favours."