Prologue

Well now, that was "Spanish Fandango American Style"

That's the first song my dad taught me how to play on a guitar

The way this album came about was when a lot of

People were trying to get me to write a book

About the story of my life, and I decided to try it

And I had written about two pages when I realized

That there was too many people still alive that might

Get killed or divorced if I told everything I knew

So I decided to write my autobiography

I'd recorded several songs that were written

By Roger Murra and I was a big fan of his

And when I decided it was time to do this

Album, I knew I was gonna need some help

So I called him up and asked him if he'd be

Interested in working on it with me, and he said yes

Now looking back on writing with Roger Murra

I think I know where the songs came from

Now we wrote these songs in a little room about eight by eight

And on Roger's side of the room, all of his pencils

And papers and everything was in the proper place

And on my side of the room, everything was

Scattered and covered with cigarette ashes

So I think it all came together somewhere between ragged and right

What we tried to do with this album is put it

In book form, chapter one through chapter ten

Chapter one is about my childhood, growing up in Littlefield, Texas

In fact, that's the name of the song

Chapter two, well, that's about Texas

And Texans are pretty proud

No matter if you leave there or stay there, you always take

Pride in knowing that they'll never take Texas out of you

Chapter three, well, that's about my first love

I guess everybody remembers their first love

And in the 1950s when I first went to New York

It's kind of a combination

Chapter four is about lost love and me being married more than

Most families, I think I ought to know something about that

Chapter five is about Nashville and checking on

Nashville's sense of humor, see if they still have one

And what old Hank would think if he could come back right now and

See all the digital machines and trucks and buses and Learjets

Chapter six is about the crazy years

And all of my rough and rowdy days and all my

Rough and rowdy buddies I used to run around with

Kicking down doors and acting crazy in general

Chapter seven, well, that's about drugs

I spent 21 years of my life on drugs and this is

About being able to survive that and come back

And be living proof that there's life after drugs

I hope somebody gets something out of that

Chapter eight is about Jessie, the light of my life

And if anybody ever did deserve the stars in anybody's crown, she does

Chapter nine is about reflections

It's all about looking back over your life at the good and

Bad times and the things that you would and wouldn't change

Chapter ten, well, we call that the beginning

All I can say about that is it ain't over till it's over