[Verse]
I'd play the Red River Valley
He'd sit in the kitchen and cry
Run his fingers through seventy years of livin'
Wonder, "Lord, has every well I've ever drilled run dry?"
We was friends, me and this old man

[Chorus]
Like desperados waitin' for a train
Desperados waitin' for a train

[Verse]
He's a drifter and a driller of oil wells
And an old-school man of the world
He taught me how to drive his car when he's too drunk to
He'd wink and give me money for the girls
And our lives were like some old western movie

[Chorus]
Like desperados waitin' for a train
Desperados waitin' for a train

[Verse 3]
From the time that I could walk, he'd take me with him
To a bar called the Green Frog Cafe
There were old men with beer guts and dominoes
Just lying about their lives while they played
I was just a kid they called his sidekick
[Chorus]
Like desperados waitin' for a train
Desperados waitin' for a train

[Verse 4]
One day I looked up and he's pushin' eighty
Brown tobacco stains all down his chin
To me, he's one of the heroes of this country
So why is he all dressed up like them old men?
Drinkin' beer, playin' Moon and Forty-Two

[Chorus]
Like desperados waitin' for a train
Desperados waitin' for a train

[Verse 5]
A day before he died, I went to see him
I was grown and he was almost gone
So we closed our eyes and dreamed us up a kitchen
And sang another verse to that old song
"Come on, Jack, that son of a bitch is coming"

[Chorus]
Like desperados waitin' for a train
Desperados waitin' for a train
Desperados waitin' for a train
Desperados waitin' for a train