|
Billy Austin
|
(Steve Earle)
|
My name is Billy Austin
|
I'm Twenty-Nine years old
|
I was born in Oklahoma
|
Quarter Cherokee I'm told
|
Don't remember Oklahoma
|
Been so long since I left home
|
Seems like I've always been in prison
|
Like I've always been alone
|
Didn't mean to hurt nobody
|
Never thought I'd cross that line
|
I held up a filling station
|
Like I'd done a hundred times
|
The kid done like I told him
|
He lay face down on the floor
|
guess I'll never know what made me
|
Turn and walk back through that door
|
The shot rang out like thunder
|
My ears rang like a bell
|
No one came runnin'
|
So I called the cops myself
|
Took their time to get there
|
And I guess I could'a run
|
I knew I should be feeling something
|
But I never shed tear one
|
I didn't even make the papers
|
'Cause I only killed one man
|
but my trial was over quickly
|
And then the long hard wait began
|
Court appointed lawyer
|
Couldn't look me in the eye
|
He just stood up and closed his briefcase
|
When they sentenced me to die
|
Now my waitin's over
|
As the final hour drags by
|
I ain't about to tell you
|
That I don't deserve to die
|
But there's twenty-seven men here
|
Mostly black, brown and poor
|
Most of em are guilty
|
Who are you to say for sure?
|
So when the preacher comes to get me
|
And they shave off all my hair
|
Could you take that long walk with me
|
Knowing hell is waitin' there
|
Could you pull that switch yourself sir
|
With a sure and steady hand
|
Could you still tell youself
|
That you're better than I am
|
My name is Billy Austin
|
I'm twenty-nine years old
|
I was born in Oklahoma
|
Quarter Cherokee I'm told
|
|
|
-----------------
|
Billy Austin
|
| Steve Earle |
