Back When He Was Hungry

He came to town with a lot of dreams swapped BMG for KFC

And four strings on his Gibson and now he's frying chicken

He swore someday the world of country music but he held on to his faded dreams

Would be his'n his jeans and cowboy hat

He drove a beat up Chevy truck he still leans in that microphone

And he didn't have no money says you want some fries with that

But he was such a god ole boy

Chorus: The last time that I saw him

Back when he was hungry he was singin' down at Tootsie's

He wrote some songs and walked the streets a big tattoo on both his arms

Beggin' folks to listen and his earring was a beauty

Sometimes he crawled just like a snake he said I'm goin' rock'n roll

Without a pit to hiss in those guys make all the money

He looked like Garth and sang like Hank from now on you can call me

And everybody loved him the Artist Formerly Known As Hungry

He swore he'd never change a thing back when he was hungry

Back when BMI and CMA were only letters

And R&R was what you took to get to feeling better

And Billboard was a road sign not a chart that came on Monday

Life was oh so simple back then back when he was hungry

And then one day he wrote a song that got someone's attention

The A&R at BMG got J-O-E to listen

Then Joe called James and James called Don

Don called Mrs Hilley and Oermann wrote he's gonna be

The next big hot hillbilly well his record went to Number One

And the good ole boy went crazy he hired a band then fired a band

He toured and then got lazy suddenly he knew it all

The rest of us were dummies he scarcely could remember

Back when he was hungry

Well he married and then he got divorced and met this cute young honey

He thought she craved his body but she only craved his money

She cleaned out his bank account then ran off with his drummer

Left him where he started from back when he was hungry

Well he lost his deal and life got real and he had to give up pickin'