A Backstage Pass

Hello, I'm Johnny Cash

One night I had a backstage pass

To a Willie Nelson show

There were wackos and weirdos and dingbats and dodos

And athletes and movie stars and David Allan Coe

There was leather and lace and every minority race

With a backstage pass to the Willie Nelson show

Kristofferson got an offer for a movie

Promoters closed another deal or two

Waylon got a call from his son Shooter

And he went home the minute he was through

I moved with the mob at intermission

To the green room where you see who you can see

There were has-been's and would-be's and never-were's

Paupers, punks and millionaires and me

And there were wackos and weirdos and dingbats and dodos

And athletes and movie stars and David Allan Coe

There was leather and lace and every minority race

With a backstage pass to the Willie Nelson show

Hell's Angels blocked the traffic to the building

In order for the beer truck to come through

And waitin' in the wings to sing with Willie

Were hopeful stars of flickering magnitude

There was a singer Willie knew back in the fifties

Who once paid him fifty dollars for a song

There were women who once did and some who still would

I heard one ask, "Did Connie come along?"

And there were wackos and weirdos and dingbats and dodos

And athletes and movie stars and David Allan Coe

Leather and lace and every minority race

With a backstage pass to the Willie Nelson show

I wish, you could've been there

But maybe you were