[Verse 1: Heartland-rock female lead, raw over the driving drums] Twenty-two, a black eye, and a bus at nine Hocked my only guitar at the shop on Pine Old man with the glasses counted out the cash Wrote it on a ticket, said "Don't make me sell it fast" Said "Ninety days, honey, that's the rule of the store" I said "Mister, I'll be back," and I ran out the door Had a bus ticket west and an empty case Kept the pawn slip folded in my wallet in its place [Chorus: Heartland-rock female lead, full band] Here's the ticket and the money, here's the girl you knew Twenty years of rent and ruin, and I finally made it through Take it off the wall, mister, set it in my hands Call it redeemed, 'cause tonight that's what I am [Verse 2: Heartland-rock female lead, the guitars chiming bigger] Waited tables in Tucson, scrubbed motels in Reno Sang to the vacuum cleaner where the guests would never know Left a man who hit, then a man who drank, then a man who lied Got sober in a church basement on a Thursday in July Kept the pawn slip through it all in a wallet gone to thread Every year I read the number like a prayer before bed Twenty years and nine hundred dollars in a coffee can Drove two thousand miles back to the old shop and the man [Chorus: Heartland-rock female lead, full band] Here's the ticket and the money, here's the girl you knew Twenty years of rent and ruin, and I finally made it through Take it off the wall, mister, set it in my hands Call it redeemed, 'cause tonight that's what I am [Verse 3: Heartland-rock female lead, pounding] Same little bell on the door, and he's older, so am I Glasses on a chain and that same squint in his eye Didn't even look at the ticket, didn't check the date Reached behind the counter and said "I figured you'd be late" Hanging on the wall with a little tag that said "Hold" Twenty years of buyers, and he never once sold [Bridge: Heartland-rock female lead, tuning up, each string she tunes brings in one more instrument] Low E for the bus ride A for the rooms in Reno D for the men I left G for the coffee can B for the basement Thursday High E for the girl at twenty-two [Final Chorus: Heartland-rock female lead, raw heartland-rock vocal, everything at once] Here's the ticket and the money, here's the girl you knew Twenty years of rent and ruin, and I finally made it through Take it off the wall, mister, set it in my hands Call it redeemed, 'cause tonight that's what I am [End]
