The Neighborhood Behind OJ'S

THE NEIGHBORHOOD BEHIND OJ'S

Yeah...

Down that road behind OJ's...

Where the streetlights flicker

And everybody knows everybody's business.

Yeah...

There's a busted street sign leaning sideways in the dirt,

Old porch light buzzing like it's trying to make it work,

Dogs start barking when the midnight engines roll,

And everybody's got a story that they'll never tell you whole.

Cracked-up driveways, rusted-out cars,

Kids grow up quick underneath them southern stars,

Mama said, "Boy, don't go wandering too far,"

But I learned more out there than I ever learned in school or behind bars.

You can smell the smoke before you see the fire,

Hear the tires spin when somebody's getting higher,

Everybody's looking for a way to get by,

In the neighborhood behind OJ's.

In the neighborhood behind OJ's,

Where the good die young and the bad don't change,

Where you learn real quick who's gonna stay and who's gonna fold,

And every backroad story gets a little more cold.

Behind OJ's, yeah, that's where I came from,

Where you make something outta nothing just to say you made one,

Got scars on my heart and mud on my tires,

Raised in the dark but I still climbed higher.

Old man sitting on the steps with a cigarette burning,

Says, "Boy, watch your back, everybody ain't learning."

Girl down the road crying on the telephone,

Saying she ain't coming back but she don't know where else to go.

Some chase money, some chase trouble,

Some lose everything trying to make it double,

Some got dreams underneath that tin roof,

Some got nothing but a worn-out pair of boots.

I've seen friendships turn into enemies overnight,

Seen somebody swear they're family then disappear from sight,

But I've also seen a stranger give you everything they got,

That's the thing about that neighborhood—

You never know what you've got.

In the neighborhood behind OJ's,

Where the good die young and the bad don't change,

Where you learn real quick who's gonna stay and who's gonna fold,

And every backroad story gets a little more cold.

Behind OJ's, yeah, that's where I came from,

Where you make something outta nothing just to say you made one,

Got scars on my heart and mud on my tires,

Raised in the dark but I still climbed higher.

I ain't proud of every road I took,

Or every bridge I watched burn,

But every scar became a page

In the story that I earned.

You can judge me from the outside,

You can talk about my past,

But you weren't there in that neighborhood

When I was fighting just to last.

In the neighborhood behind OJ's,

That's where I learned what the world don't say,

Where the nights were long and the roads were rough,

Where being broke taught me how to make something from nothing.

Behind OJ's—yeah, I still hear it calling,

Hear those old tires rolling, hear those old dogs barking,

I may have left that road behind,

But that place still lives inside my mind.

Yeah...

Neighborhood