[Intro — Distant Scottish Highland Bagpipes] [Bagpipes play a slow, mournful outlaw melody alone, distant and weathered] [Lonely Appalachian fiddle gradually enters, answering the bagpipe melody] [Sparse fingerpicked acoustic guitar enters] [Bagpipes fade into the distance as the vocal begins] [Verse 1 — Low, Intimate Vocal] I learned young that a good man’s name Can hang from a lie like a noose Folks’ll swear they know the whole damn story Before they ever hear the truth Spent my whole life being treated like a horse thief While I was busy trying to prove I was a gunslinger They said it long enough, I hated the man in the glass Till I didn’t need a mirror To see their reflection looking back [Instrumental — Lonely Appalachian Fiddle] [Faint bagpipe drone underneath] [Verse 2] Some wounds quit bleeding Long before they ever heal And some things a man carries Get too damn heavy to reveal There’s a difference between being alone And learning how to ride alone One means nobody came looking The other means you still made it home There’s roads I’d never ride again There’s nights I’d never live twice But I wouldn’t burn the map behind me Just to say I lived a cleaner life [Pre-Chorus] I wouldn’t call those years a blessing Hell, some still haunt me to this day But every scar they left upon me Made the man they’ll lay away [Chorus] If you find me, I pray my boots are still on And I’m lying somewhere underneath those pines Don’t you cry for me, boys, ‘cause I didn’t When I finally reached the end of my ride Don’t dress me up like something that I wasn’t Don’t make my wrongs sound right Just play them outlaw tunes On those outlaw pipes [Instrumental Break — Scottish Highland Bagpipes] [Bagpipes return with the mournful outlaw melody from the intro] [Appalachian fiddle answers the pipes] [No drums — acoustic guitar remains sparse] [Verse 3] I ain’t saying I got no regrets I’ve got enough to fill these hills I’ve said some things I can’t take back And carry some I always will But every wrong turn left a mile behind me Every fall put dirt upon my hands And somewhere between that horse thief And the gunslinger I tried to be I became the man I am [Pre-Chorus] So don’t clean me up for Heaven God already knows where I’ve been He knows every mile I’ve wandered Every fight I couldn’t win If He asks me if I’d change it Lord, there’s plenty that I might But I wouldn’t trade this life He gave me For another man’s tonight [Final Chorus — Vocal Rougher, Emotional but Restrained] If you find me, I pray my boots are still on And I’m lying somewhere underneath those pines Don’t you cry for me, boys, ‘cause I didn’t When I finally reached the end of my ride Don’t tell ’em that I beat this life Just tell ’em I held on tight Then play them outlaw tunes On those outlaw pipes [Instrumental — Bagpipes Take the Main Melody] [Appalachian fiddle harmonizes underneath] [Acoustic guitar slowly fades] [Bagpipes remain] [Bridge — Nearly Spoken, Low and Weathered] I never went looking for death And I never asked him to come But I won’t waste the life I’ve got Being scared of when he does When that last trail disappears And there ain’t another mile to roam I just pray I’ve got my boots on When the Good Lord calls me home [Instrumental — Fiddle and Bagpipes] [Same outlaw melody from the intro] [Music falls almost completely silent] [Long Pause] [Spoken Outro — Natural Speaking Voice, Intimate, Unaccompanied at First] When your time comes to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song, and die like a hero going home. [After Final Spoken Line — Distant Bagpipes Return] [Bagpipes play the original outlaw melody one final time] [Lonely Appalachian fiddle slowly joins] [No Vocals] [Slow Fade to Silence]
