Johnny Two Skies

Every morning ‘round 6:15 Coffee in the cup, diesel humming under me Same two-lane road, same worn-out sky Then that little graveyard catches my eye A handful of stones on a patch of grass Names and dates from a lifetime past Nothing moves but the morning air Still feels like somebody’s there And when that sunrise breaks the trees Gold light falls so soft and clean Hits those stones like heaven’s flame Makes me wonder if they hear their names When the light still lands on the marble and the dust I think about time and what becomes of us All the love we carry All the pain we hide Everybody’s just a story Waiting on the other side Buenos días... To the souls beneath that ground Every morning on that backroad The lost feel somehow found Some stones weathered, cracked and worn Some too new for the weeds this morning Fresh-cut flowers by a rusted cross Proof somebody’s still counting loss I don’t know their prayers or wars Who they loved or what they lived for But something in that rising sun Makes strangers feel like blood Like somewhere past the hurt and fear The ones we miss ain’t far from here Just beyond what eyes can see Still riding with ghosts and memory When the light still lands on the marble and the dust I think about time and what becomes of us All the love we carry All the pain we hide Everybody’s just a story Waiting on the other side Buenos días... To the souls beneath that ground Every morning on that backroad The lost feel somehow found Red and gold across the headstones Soft as mercy, bright as grace Like the sky itself remembers Every name and every face Maybe goodbye ain’t forever Maybe love don’t leave, it stays Maybe heaven sends reminders In a sunrise every day When the light still lands on the marble and the dust I think about grace and what becomes of us Maybe we keep living In the love we leave behind Maybe every sunrise Is a holy kind of sign That little graveyard keeps reminding me We’re all borrowed ground Buenos días...

If you want to know a man Don't wait 'til he's laid to rest Read the ground beneath his boots It never learned to lie Some sank deeper than I meant 'em Some I wish I'd walked again The footprints speak for me now Long before they speak my name When they speak my name Say he believed in me Saw a little more inside me Than I could ever see Say he showed me who I was Before I ever dreamed I'd be When they speak my name... His footsteps live through me Missed a little sleep So that others could dream Wore these hands down thin So theirs stayed clean Kept my word when it hurt Even when nobody knew Carried more than they could see That's what good men do Don't build a statue in my name Or carve it into stone If I left this world a little better... Then I was never gone When they speak my name Say he believed in me Saw a little more inside me Than I could ever see Say he showed me who I was Before I ever dreamed I'd be When they speak my name... His footsteps live through me

You ever notice how every road starts somewhere? Some are paved... some are gravel... some are nothing more than two tire tracks through a field... I don't think God created all this beauty for us to spend our lives staring out a window. He gave us feet for walking... Hands for building... Hearts for dreaming... And a road... He painted just for us. He painted frost on an old barbed wire Before the world was awake Hung a little gold on the horizon As the night gave way Sent a red-tail drifting on the wind Above a field of green Like He was signing His name in cursive On a canvas most folks never see And every day He leaves another brushstroke For anybody looking up He painted the sunrise on the edge of the morning Hung the stars where the black sky fades Put the rivers in motion and the wind in the pines Then gave us a front-row seat to the whole thing He didn't give us feet to watch the dust build up Didn't give us dreams just to leave 'em untouched He gave us this world, every color and wonder And the road He painted Was meant to be walked He painted lightning bugs in July Like lanterns floating through the dark And a blanket of snow on a quiet night That turns the whole world soft Painted laughter on a grandchild's face And rain on a tin roof Little reminders every single day That beauty still breaks through And every day He leaves another brushstroke For anybody looking up He painted the sunrise on the edge of the morning Hung the stars where the black sky fades Put the rivers in motion and the wind in the pines Then gave us a front-row seat to the whole thing He didn't give us feet to watch the dust build up Didn't give us dreams just to leave 'em untouched He gave us this world, every color and wonder And the road He painted Was meant to be walked Some folks spend their whole lives searching For a miracle to arrive While Heaven keeps painting masterpieces Right before their eyes Maybe the blessing ain't finding something Maybe it's learning to see The fingerprints of the Creator In the smallest things we need He painted the sunrise on the edge of the morning Hung the stars where the black sky fades Put the rivers in motion and the wind in the pines Then gave us a front-row seat to the whole thing He didn't give us feet to watch the dust build up Didn't give us dreams just to leave 'em untouched He gave us this world, every color and wonder And the road He painted Was meant to be walked Yeah, the road He painted Was meant to be walked

I used to think the loudest answer Was the one I oughta trust Chased a lot of shiny promises That eventually turned to dust Some looked just like opportunity Some felt heaven-sent at first Funny how the things that feed your ego Usually leave you worse I wore confidence like armor 'Til life showed me the cracks Some lessons don't come easy And some roads don't lead you back Is that heat or just a mirage? Is that hunger or desire? I've spent years mistaking one for the other Trying to satisfy the fire Funny how the things you want most Ain't always what you really need Sometimes what looks like salvation Ain't the freedom that it seems I've spent years mistaking one for the other Feeding a Different Fire I've seen pride dressed up as purpose And fear dressed up as control Watched good intentions lose their footing Trying to satisfy the soul I've stood close enough to feel the warmth Of things I thought would set me free But every flame ain't meant to guide you Some just blind you while you see These days I listen harder To the voice beneath the noise 'Cause wisdom usually whispers While temptation makes a choice Is that heat or just a mirage? Is that hunger or desire? I've spent years mistaking one for the other Trying to satisfy the fire Funny how the things you want most Ain't always what you really need Sometimes what looks like salvation Ain't the freedom that it seems I've spent years mistaking one for the other Feeding a Different Fire Now I don't run toward every flicker Don't mistake sparks for the sun And I don't need every answer To know which battles should be won Some fires warm a weary spirit Some burn everything you've built The hardest part is learning Which one you're standing with Is that heat or just a mirage? Is that hunger or desire? I've spent years mistaking one for the other Trying to satisfy the fire Funny how the things you want most Ain't always what you really need Sometimes what looks like salvation Ain't the freedom that it seems I've spent years mistaking one for the other Feeding a Different Fire Is that heat or just a mirage? Is that hunger or desire? I've spent years mistaking one for the other... Feeding a Different Fire

Yeah… World still loud. I just quit carrying all of it. Used to think peace was somewhere far away Other side of money, better days Thought if I ran hard enough I’d arrive Some place where the weight got lighter at night But the bills still came and the hurt still hurt And the world still turned like the world does first One day I got tired of fighting the rain That’s when everything started to change Peace ain’t found It’s chosen Somewhere between letting go and holding World stays wild Storms roll in But you learn what’s worth carrying Ain’t about silence Ain’t about running It’s waking up and deciding Nothing’s gonna steal your soul today Still got scars and stress on my mind Still got long nights every now and then But I quit trying to outrun life And started sitting still inside it Funny how the quiet showed up slow Right when I stopped needing control Now I let some things fall where they fall And sleep a little better through it all Peace ain’t found It’s chosen Somewhere between letting go and holding World stays wild Storms roll in But you learn what’s worth carrying Ain’t about silence Ain’t about running It’s waking up and deciding Nothing’s gonna steal your soul today Yeah… Peace ain’t a place. It’s a decision.

I wore my pride like armor 'Til life showed me the cost Turns out I fought some battles That never should've been fought Thought the hill was worth dying on 'Til the setting of the sun Life has a way of sanding edges One hard lesson at a time After the dust settles... I finally found my way Stopped chasing who I thought I should be And let go of yesterday The older that I'm getting The less I have to prove Turns out real strength ain't raising hell... It's knowing when to move The hardest man I ever had to outgrow... Was the one I used to be Turns out I wasn't losing pieces of myself... I was dusting off who I'd always been After the dust settles... I finally found my way Stopped chasing who I thought I should be And let go of yesterday The hardest man I ever had to outgrow... Was the one I used to be I smiled at the man staring back at me Like an old friend I'd forgotten to see Like wiping years of dust off an old Chevrolet Turns out it was worth saving anyway I quit measuring my worth by yesterday... And finally believed what I saw today After the dust settles... I finally found my way Stopped chasing who I thought I should be And let go of yesterday

You know... The older I get, the more I realize... The devil don't always show up looking like the devil. Sometimes he looks like the thing you wanted most. And that's the problem. First time that I met him I was young and ten feet tall Thought I knew where I was headed Thought I knew it all He didn't come with smoke and shadows Didn't wear a dark disguise He just showed up looking like Every dream in my eyes There's a devil at my door And I've heard that knock before He don't show up with horns and fire He shows up as what you're looking for I've opened up that door before Thought I knew what I was doing Funny how the devil never tells you What you're really losing Sometimes he sounds like pride Telling you you're never wrong Sometimes he sounds like one more drink When you should've just gone home Sometimes he wears a dollar sign Sometimes he wears a smile Sometimes he says, "Just this once" And stays with you awhile There's a devil at my door And I've heard that knock before He don't show up with horns and fire He shows up as what you're looking for I've opened up that door before Thought I knew what I was doing Funny how the devil never tells you What you're really losing Looking back, I see the pattern Every scar and every stain Started with me listening When I should've walked away Funny how the hardest lessons Ain't the ones you choose They're the ones that leave you standing there With something left to lose There's a devil at my door And I've heard that knock before He don't show up with horns and fire He shows up as what you're looking for I've opened up that door before Thought I knew what I was doing Funny how the devil never tells you What you're really losing Some of us answered that knock. Some of us answered it more than once. But if you're hearing this... You still got another chance not to.

Funny thing about life... You spend years trying to figure out the right grip. How to hold it. How to throw it. How to control it. Then one day you look around... The kids are grown. Your knees ain't what they used to be. Some of the boys are gone. And you realize... It was never about the grip. It was about everything it was teaching you along the way. Life got busy like it always does Work boots, bills, and little league signs Every spring I'd load up the truck Watching those kids chase dreams through mine Tied their cleats and packed the cooler Third-base line for all those years Teaching lessons through the game While trying to hide a few proud tears Spent my whole life chasing the right grip Leather in my hand, dirt on my fingertips Thought I was teaching lessons Turns out I was learning them How to stand back up when life gets hard How to lose and still come back again How some of the best friends you'll ever have Start out as strangers and become your kin Some things fade away With age and time But the best parts of us Stay stitched inside Then an old friend gave me a call Said, "We're short a guy, you wanna play?" I laughed and said, "It's been a while" Still showed up anyway Thought I'd help out for a season Maybe relive a memory or two Funny how one summer turned to seventeen And a band of brothers grew Long rides home and dugout laughs Stories told a hundred times Somewhere between those summer nights Those boys became family of mine Spent my whole life chasing the right grip Leather in my hand, dirt on my fingertips Thought I was teaching lessons Turns out I was learning them How to stand back up when life gets hard How to lose and still come back again How some of the best friends you'll ever have Start out as strangers and become your kin Some things fade away With age and time But the best parts of us Stay stitched inside First it was my dad showing me Then it was me showing them Now the grandkids are running circles And the story starts again Funny how the years keep moving But some things never really change A summer night, a patch of dirt And the people who became family along the way Thought I was passing something down Turns out it was being passed to me Spent my whole life chasing the right grip Leather in my hand, dirt on my fingertips Thought I was teaching lessons Turns out I was learning them How to stand back up when life gets hard How to lose and still come back again How some of the best friends you'll ever have Start out as strangers and become your kin Some things fade away With age and time But the best parts of us Stay stitched inside And here I am at fifty Still chasing one more spring Still learning how to lose Still learning how to win Still showing up for my brothers Still grateful for the ride After all these years The game's still teaching me Some things fade away With age and time And some things... Stay stitched inside

Everybody thinks they got me figured out... Truth is... They've only read a page. City limits to the backroads Blacktop dreams and gravel dust Built my life on handshakes, heartbreaks Learning who and what to trust Some folks see a snapshot, half-crop Think they got the picture clear Whole damn story's still unfolding Page by page and year by year Westside raised with a backroad view Different boots, same point of view Still got bass when I'm rolling through Still got Cash when I'm rolling too Got some scars that don't show easy Got some miles I don't talk about Funny how folks build a story From the little bits they figured out They see the man I've become Not the miles it took to get here They hear a few old chapters Not the reasons they're still here Everybody thinks they got me figured out 'Til I turn another page Think they know the whole damn story Just from the cover and my age They see the boots and make assumptions Like they know the roads I walked Funny how the loudest opinions Come from the people standing closest They know the highlights, not the hard nights Not the battles that I fought They know the chapters that I showed 'em Not the ones I never talked Walk in clean, talk low Never needed all the noise Life'll teach you real quick What's important, what's a choice Blue-collar scholar, dollar-stretch survivor Learned more from hard times than I ever learned from titles Steel-toe wisdom with a little bit of Westside Small-town living but the city never left my mind Coached ball, raised kids Watched 'em grow and find their lane Now I'm watching from the bleachers Prouder than I can explain Some folks fit a box I never fit the frame That's why every chapter sounds a little different Than the page I've been the lesson and the blessing Been the question and the proof Been the hammer and the nail Long enough to know the truth Everybody thinks they got me figured out 'Til I turn another page Think they know the whole damn story Just from the cover and my age They see the boots and make assumptions Like they know the roads I walked Funny how the loudest opinions Come from the people standing closest They know the highlights, not the hard nights Not the battles that I fought They know the chapters that I showed 'em Not the ones I never talked Everybody thinks they got me figured out... Maybe they know a chapter. Maybe they know a page. But they don't know the whole book. Turn the page.

Pretty things cut sharp Most learn that truth too late Velvet on the surface Steel beneath the weight Soft tone, hard line Cool head, live wire Fire shaped the metal And tempered what’s inside Heat reveals the real Fire burns away the fake Some fold under pressure Some become the steel Soft touch, hard truth That’s just how I move Smooth when I slide through Steel when I need to Velvet in the silence Steel when lines get crossed Cheap words fade fast Real truth sits with weight Trust gets hard to hand out When time has shown its face Second hands keep moving Some things never rewind Truth don’t need a spotlight It gets clearer over time Soft don’t mean surrender Calm don’t mean subdued That’s why I move with velvet And carry steel when I do Soft touch, hard truth That’s just how I move Smooth when I slide through Steel when I need to Velvet in the silence Steel when lines get crossed Velvet on the outside Revolver underneath Soft until it matters Quiet till the steel speaks Soft touch, hard truth That’s just how I move Smooth when I slide through Steel when I need to Velvet in the silence Steel when lines get crossed

Silver moon on a rusted hood Boot heels hittin’ like they always should Gas station coffee and a Marlboro flame Half this county still knows my name Got a heart full of miles and bad decisions Rearview ghosts and blurred-out visions Every small town tries to hold me down But I burn too hot to stay around Yeah I light up the dark Then disappear Like a comet trail And a broke man’s prayer I’m a supernova cowboy Blowin’ through the midnight sky Boots on the dashboard Finger to the neon lights Half outlaw, half lost boy Full throttle till I fade away Leave a little fire in every town Before the stars forget my name Yeah I ride like thunder Burn like whiskey Supernova cowboy Baby don’t miss me Radio static and a motel sign Pretty girls and a fractured mind Talk real slow but my soul moves fast Livin’ like tonight might be my last There’s a Bible somewhere under that seat Next to old receipts and memories Momma said “boy you can’t outrun pain” Guess that’s why I stay untamed Some men rust Some men break Some just vanish without a trace But me I was born to burn Like a falling star across God’s plains I’m a supernova cowboy Last call king of the county line Black sky driftin’ Like the end of time Half heaven, half destroyed Still chasing something I can’t name If I go out tonight At least I went out in flames Yeah I ride like thunder Burn like whiskey Supernova cowboy Baby don’t miss me

I come from noise and quiet places Both left marks down in my bones One taught me pride and keep your guard up One taught me strength ain’t always shown Concrete cracked under my footsteps Now dirt roads roll under these tires Funny how two different worlds Built the man behind this fire You see it in my hands Hear it when I speak Built on sweat and sacrifice From the ones before me Every scar tells truth Every road taught why Still carry all of them Running through my bloodline I come from blood that carried burdens Heavy loads most never hold Built by fighters, built survivors More runs deep than most are told Some wounds lived long before me Some faith stood and never died Look past everything on the surface Generations live inside my eyes You see it in my hands Hear it when I speak Built on sweat and sacrifice From the ones before me Every scar tells truth Every road taught why Still carry all of them Running through my bloodline Can’t choose the world they grow in Only what I leave behind Hope they feel my loyalty Running deeper over time Not in money, not in glory In how you live and how you fight If they carry truth inside them That’s what makes a bloodline Running through my bloodline In my soul and in my stride Past and future flow together Every day I’m still alive In the scars and in the stories In the truth I can’t deny Running through my bloodline