I Never Picked Cotton

(album: Unchained - 1996)

[Chorus]
I never picked cotton
But my mother did
And my brother did
And my sister did
And my daddy died young
Working in the coal mine

When I was just a baby
Too little for a cotton sack
I played in the dirt
While the others worked
'Til they couldn't straighten up their backs
I made myself a promise
When I was big enough to run
That I'd never stay a single day
In that Oklahoma sun

[Chorus]
Folks said I grew up early
And that the farm couldn't hold me then so
I stole ten bucks and a pickup truck
And I never went back again
Then it was fast cars and whiskey
Long haired girls and fun
I had everything that money could bring
And I took it all with a gun

[Chorus]
It was Saturday night in Memphis
When a redneck grabbed my shirt
When he said go back to your cotton sack
I left him dying in the dirt
They'll take me in the morning
To the gallos just outside
And in the time I got
There ain't a hell of alot
That I can look back on with pride

[Chorus]