THE COST OF THE SHOW

VERSE 1 I gave the stage everything I had And everything I had was never mine I gave the dream my twenties and my thirties And the better part of time There are people I have loved Who deserved more than what the stage can give But the dream kept on calling And I chose the way I'd live PRE-CHORUS I don't say this for your pity I don't say it for your tears I say it cause the truth of it Has taken seventy years CHORUS This is the cost of the dream The beds you didn't sleep in The tables you sat wrong The children of the missed years The lovers left too long This is what the stage costs This is the cost of the show VERSE 2 There were mornings I would rather Have been anyone but me A man with a mortgage and a schedule And a Sunday set aside for sleep But then somebody in the audience Would catch it in the eyes And everything I traded Felt almost like the right price PRE-CHORUS Almost — that's the word that lives Between regret and grace Almost is the feeling On every actors face CHORUS This is the cost of the stage The beds you didn't sleep in The tables you sat wrong The children of the missed years The lovers left too long This is what the stage costs This is the cost of the show BRIDGE (piano alone, then fiddle enters like a question) If I could do it over God, I don't know what I'd do I'd probably make the same mistakes Just maybe more of them with you And maybe that's the answer That the broken actors find The stage doesn't take from you What wasn't yours to mind FINAL CHORUS This is the cost of the show And I would pay it again And I would pay it again And I would pay it Every broken beautiful Lonesome Worth it Cost of the show OUTRO (piano alone, single notes) I don't regret a single stage. I only wish I'd told you sooner.