Staring at the pictures of the runaways on the wall

Seems like, these days, you couldn't run away at all

And even if you did, what you got to run away to

Just another drunk daddy with a white man's point of view.

I can see you in my mind's eye, catching light

Sleep beside the river if we make it out of town tonight

You can strip in portland from the day you turn sixteen

You got one thing to sell and benzodiazepine.

Ten years ago I might have seen you dancing in a different light

And offered up my help in different ways

But those were different days

Those were different days.

Had a girl back home and we shared her single bed

When I whispered in her ear, she believed every word I said

If she didn't believe, she didn't dare give me slack

Or it was 'baby, I love you, get off of my goddamn back'.

Time went by and I left and I left again

Jesus loves a sinner but the highway loves a sin

My daddy told me, I believe he told me true that

'the right thing's always the hardest thing to do'.

Ten years ago I might have stuck around for another night

And used her in a thousand different ways

But those were different days

Those were different days.

And the story's only mine to live and die with

The answer's only mine to come across

But the ghosts that I got scared

And I got high with look a little lost.

Ten years ago I might have thought I didn't have the right

To say the things an outlaw wouldn't say

But those were different days

Those were different days.