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 fryin' 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 good ole boy

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 feelin' 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'