Car Tunes

Cab driver keeps the party going

From the outside, it's a regular taxi cab—bright yellow with a light on top. But when you enter Billy Rivera's cab, you quickly realize that your trip will be anything but average.

"Hello. Welcome to the Kabby-Oke-Kab," Rivera will say as you get in. "Are you ready to sing?"

"People always say, ‘Are we on TV? Where are the cameras?' " he says. Rivera's previous stint as a karaoke DJ led him to create this jukebox on wheels—a laptop up front and two video screens attached to the back of the headrests.

In the Kabby-Oke-Kab, passengers have the chance to sing their way to their next destination with thousands of popular songs on file, from rock and hip-hop to country and '80s music. And the best part is it doesn't cost any more than regular cab fare.

Since last spring, the Kabby-Oke-Cab has been ferrying passengers in and around Charlotte, but Rivera has been providing taxi service here for twenty years. "I can get anywhere in the city in fifteen minutes," he says as he cranks out Toby Keith's "I Love this Bar," except he sings, "I love my car."

When NASCAR came in mid-October, his phone never stopped ringing. "It was the funniest thing," he says. "I picked up these three elderly gentlemen and took them back to the race. And they were singing 'The Dance,' the Garth Brooks song."

If you want to rock and roll, call Rivera at 704-661-6873.