I Never Picked Cotton lyrics

Song information

Artist: Johnny Cash
Album: Unchained

Lyrics

(Chorus) I never picked cotton like my mother did or my brother did or my sister did and my daddy died young workin' in a coal mine

When I was just a baby too little for a cotton sack I played in the dirt while the others worked 'til they couldn't straighten up their backs I made myself a promise when I was old enough to run that I'd never stay a single day in that oklahoma sun

(Chorus) folks said I grew up early and that the farm couldn't hold me then so I stole ten bucks and a pickup truck and I never went back again then it was fast cars and whiskey long legged girls and fun I had everything that money could bring and I took it all with a gun

(Chorus) it was saturday night in memphis and a redneck grabbed my shirt when he said go back to your cotton sack I left him dying in the dirt they'll take me in the morning to the gallows just outside and in the time I got there ain't a hell of alot that I can look back on with pride

(Chorus)