Lyrics
“You’re not from around here, are you?”
The barman said to me
As I ordered up a cold one
And settled in my seat
I said “I’m just passing through
On my way up to LaBelle”
That’s when I saw the flowers
In the shoes up on the shelf
He said “Starkville, Mississippi, it was 1965
They were right to pull me over
Too young and drunk to drive
They took me to the station
Handcuffed in the back
And they threw me in a cell
With the man in black”
The man said “Son, it’s kinda funny
I’ve been sitting here for hours
You can get away with murder
I got nailed for picking flowers”
The man, he got real angry
Started kicking on the cell
Until he grabbed ahold his foot
And he screamed like bloody hell
He pulled his shoe off
Touched his toe and then he swore
“June is gonna kill me
But this shoe won’t fit no more”
He handed me the pair, said
“Son, here’s a souvenir
My name is Johnny Cash
And I’m limping out of here”
He gave me more than shoes that night
Didn’t like the life I saw
I never got piss-drunk again
Or in trouble with the law
He wrote a song about that night
And mostly it was fact
But I never got to thank him
The man in black
