I woke up in a hotel, didn't know what to do
I turned the TV on, wrote a letter to you
The news was talkin' 'bout a dead man up on the interstate
Seems they were lookin' for a Cadillac with Tennessee plates

Well since I left California, baby, things have gotten worse
Seems the land of opportunity for me it's just a curse
Tell that judge in Bakersfield my trial'll have to wait
Down here they're lookin' for a Cadillac with Tennessee plates

It was somewhere in Nevada, it was cold outside
She was shiverin' in the dark, so I offered her a ride
Three bank jobs later, four cars hot-wired
We crossed the Mississippi like an oil slick fire

Now if they'd known what we was up to they wouldn'ta let us in
And now we landed in Memphis like original sin
Elvis Presley Boulevard to the Graceland gates
See we were lookin' for a Cadillac with Tennessee plates

Well, there must have been a dozen of them parked in that garage
There wasn't one a'Lincoln and there wasn't one Dodge
There wasn't one Japanese model or make
Just pretty, pretty Cadillacs with Tennessee plates

She saw him singing once when she was seventeen
And ever since that day she's been livin' in between
I was never king of nothin' but this wild weekend
Anyway he wouldn't care, hell, he gave 'em to his friends
This ain't no hotel I'm writin' you from
I'm at the Tennessee prison up at Brushy Mountain
Where yours sincerely's doin' five to eight
I'm just stampin' out my time makin' Tennessee plates