Appalachian Nightmare Lyrics

Justin Townes Earle

I was born in Cincinnati
My daddy worked on the river
The work dried up back around that time
And he took us down to West Virginia

See my night trouble started early
I was stealing and gettin' in fights
Smoking and drinking by age thirteen
Skipping class and getting high

When I quit school at fifteen
My daddy put me out
My mama cried, waved goodbye
Never heard such a lonesome sound

I went to staying with my best friend's brother
Made his living cooking speed
Says a man can always get by
Who can cook it up nice and clean

So I stuck around for a couple years
'Til he was busted in '89
Was eighteen years old, out on my own
Out to get what I saw as mine

By '92 I was twenty-one
I was back out on the street
Two whole years of county time
Charged with manufacturing

Now I was aware [there'd come a new thing?]
Took like wildfire to the hills
Speed was no longer king
Now everybody was wantin' pills

Now you might say that I'm just the type
To seek his honey at the source
So me and this cat that I met back in county
We started robbin' drugstores

Lord, we was reckless
We was high as a Tennessee pine
You gotta know a junkie's gonna let you down
It's just a matter of time

And when our time come, it was midnight
Two weeks ago in Morgantown
Was knocking off a little local
Just when the clock run out

We were all packed up
Turned out to be quite a score
Had the car waitin' in the alley
Was walking out the door

Well my partner takes two steps outside
He stops and he hollers, "Police!"
A voice that I didn't recognize
Said, "Son don't you so much as breathe"

And then I come out over my partner's shoulder
And I squeezed off a couple shots
First time I ever pointed a gun at a man
And I done killed a cop

Now it's a fact, you can't get a bullet back
Once you've pulled the trigger
And there's no way in hell
They was ever gonna stop looking for a cop-killer

Looking back, I knew it all along
Knew we never had a chance
Right now I know it makes no difference
That I never meant to kill that man

But now I'm held up in a hotel in Canton
Surrounded by police
No way I'm gettin' out alive
There's no way I'm going free

So I'm twenty-four years old
I was trouble most of my days
But I must say that I never thought
It was gonna end this way

And of all of my regrets
The two that trouble me most
I wish I could've been better to my mama
And wish I'd never took a shot of dope

So Lord, if you're listening
I never asked much of you
And I already know I ain't going to heaven
If what they say is true

Then you'll forgive me
What I'm 'bout to do

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