Tennessee Plates

I woke up in a hotel, I 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

Yeah I'm just stampin' out my time

Makin' Tennessee plates

Tennessee plates

Makin' Tennessee plates