*(Verse 1)*
You left your flannel in the backseat,
Still smells like smoke and midnight beer,
I drove past that old bar off Main Street,
Where we danced through our doubts and our fears.
Your voice still rings in this dashboard silence,
Like a ghost I forgot how to fight,
You were lightning in love, I was thunder in silence,
And we always broke up in the night.
*(Chorus)*
But I still drive that beat-up Ford,
Down roads we swore we’d leave before,
I sing our song to an empty mirror,
In the backseat of a broken year.
I’m older now, but not much wiser,
Still burnin’ out like a worn-out lighter,
And I’d give it all just to have you near —
In the backseat of a broken year.
*(Verse 2)*
My mama says I look more like my father,
Every time I come back through town,
But I’ve got your laugh in my back pocket,
And your memory won’t leave me now.
I heard you’re livin’ out West with a good man,
He don’t drink too much or stay out late,
But I wonder if he knows how you hated Sundays,
And how you kissed when you were afraid.
*(Chorus)*
And I still drive that beat-up Ford,
Down roads we swore we’d leave before,
I sing our song to an empty mirror,
In the backseat of a broken year.
I’m older now, but not much wiser,
Still burnin’ out like a worn-out lighter,
And I’d give it all just to have you near —
In the backseat of a broken year.
*(Bridge)*
There’s a photograph of us in my glovebox,
Folded up like we were at the end,
And I swear if I could go back once,
I wouldn’t just be your “almost” friend.
*(Final Chorus)*
Yeah, I still drive that beat-up Ford,
Playin’ songs we never wrote before,
Your ghost rides shotgun, holdin’ tears,
In the backseat of a broken year.
I’m older now, but you’re still clearer,
Than any damn church or crooked mirror,
And I’ll love you long as this truck steers —
In the backseat of a broken year.
