The Ride Video (MV)

I was thumbin' from Montgomery,
Had this guitar on my back,
When a stranger stopped beside me in an antique Cadillac.
He was dressed like 1950 - half drunk and hollow-eyed.
He said, "It's a long walk to Nashville. Would you like a ride, son? "

Well, I sit down in the front seat and turned on the radio,
And them sad old songs comin' out of them speakers was solid country gold.
Then I noticed the stranger was ghost-white pale when I'd asked him for a light
And I knew there was something strange about this ride.

He said, "Drifter, can you make folks cry when you play and sing?
Have you paid your dues? Can you moan the Blues?
Can you bend them guitar strings?
Son, can you make folks feel what you feel inside?
If you're big-star bound, let me warn you it's a long, hard ride."

Then he cried just south of Nashville and he turned that car around.
He said, "This is where you get off, boy, I'm headed back to Alabama"
When I stepped out of that Cadillac, I said, "Mister, many thanks."
He said, "You don't have to call me 'Mister', Mister;
The whole world called me 'Hank'! "
He said, "Drifter, can you make folks cry when you play and sing?
Have you paid your dues? Can you moan the Blues?
Can you bend them guitar strings?
Son, can you make folks feel what you feel inside?
If you're big-star bound, let me warn you it's a long, hard ride."

He said, "Drifter, can you make folks cry when you play and sing?
Have you paid your dues? Can you moan the Blues?
Can you bend them guitar strings?
Son, can you make folks feel what you feel inside?
If you're Colt Ford bound, let me warn you it's a long, hard ride."