The Next Thing That I Knew

[Verse 1]

I was eighteen in a truck that barely ran

Bought a ring with money from a summer job

She said yes out by the reservoir

Then her daddy found out and I was gone

[Verse 2]

Ran through towns I couldn't spell on a map

Slept in the cab with the windows cracked

Played for tips at a roadside bar

Learned the fiddle from a man named Ray

[Pre-Chorus]

And Ray said boy

You can't outrun a thing that's true

You can only learn to carry it

[Chorus]

The next thing that I knew

I was standing on a stage

The next thing that I knew

I had a woman and a name

It all moved faster than the light could show

I swear that's how it goes

The next thing that I knew

[Verse 3]

Ray died in the spring with a fiddle in the room

I drove eleven hours just to say goodbye

His daughter gave me that worn-out bow

Said he wanted you to have it son

[Pre-Chorus]

So I played that night

For every soul who ever left a home

And every one who stayed

[Chorus]

The next thing that I knew

I was standing on a stage

The next thing that I knew

I had a woman and a name

It all moved faster than the light could show

I swear that's how it goes

The next thing that I knew

[Bridge]

Years roll by like water off a roof

I look back and I can hardly see

How the boy became the man he is

How the man became the one she leans on

[Chorus]

The next thing that I knew

I was standing on a stage

The next thing that I knew

I had a woman and a name

It all moved faster than the light could show

I swear that's how it goes

The next thing that I knew

[Outro]

The next thing that I knew

(Next thing that I knew)