Back in Drive
90s country, Americana, countrypolitan, honky tonk piano, fiddle fills, steel guitar swells, fingerpicked acoustic guitar, electric guitar licks, baritone male vocals, stacked background harmonies, spoken intro, four-on-the-floor chorus, mid-tempo shuffle, Nashville room reverb, tape saturation, road-trip grit, bittersweet redemption
Back in Drive
90s country, Americana, countrypolitan, honky tonk piano, fiddle fills, steel guitar swells, fingerpicked acoustic guitar, electric guitar licks, baritone male vocals, stacked background harmonies, spoken intro, four-on-the-floor chorus, mid-tempo shuffle, Nashville room reverb, tape saturation, road-trip grit, bittersweet redemption
Lyrics
Spoken Intro
Yeah…
Funny thing about rock bottom…
You think that’s where your story ends.
But sometimes God’ll let an old truck die on the side of the road
Just to force a man to stop… look around… and start over.
Spoken
Now I got diesel in the tank, a good woman beside me,
And a dog waiting on me every night.
Ain’t rich… but damn, I’m alive again.
Verse 1
I traded that rust bucket sitting in the weeds
For a blacked-out Ram with a Cummins diesel scream
Chrome shines bright under Friday night lights
Got my hands clean now and my money right
Ain’t sleeping on a couch at my buddy’s place
Ain’t staring at whiskey trying to numb the pain
Life hit hard, but it damn sure taught
Sometimes losing everything’s the thing you need most
Chorus
Now I’m back in drive, rolling smooth again
Got a blue-eyed girl riding shotgun grinning
Got a redbone dog with his head out the side
Tongue in the wind on a Saturday night
Got a full tank, new boots, cold beer on ice
And for the first time in years, I like my life
Funny how the road works out somehow
Ever since that old truck broke down
Verse 2
She don’t yell when I come home late
She just laughs and pulls me close to stay
Says “Baby, scars make a man more real”
And Lord knows she means the way she feels
This old dog waits by the front porch swing
Tail going wild every time I pull in
Ain’t trying to outrun what I’ve been through
Just finally found something worth driving to
Chorus
Yeah, I’m back in drive, rolling smooth again
Got a blue-eyed girl riding shotgun grinning
Got a redbone dog with his head out the side
Tongue in the wind on a Saturday night
Got a full tank, new boots, cold beer on ice
And for the first time in years, I like my life
Funny how the road works out somehow
Ever since that old truck broke down
Bridge
I still think about the man I was back then
Broken-down heart with a bottle for a friend
But smoke clears when the dawn breaks through
And sometimes goodbye leads straight to you
Final Chorus
Now I’m back in drive, stronger than before
Got a woman who loves me and a key to my door
That Cummins growls like a song in the dark
Every mile putting life back in my heart
Yeah, the hurt, the tears, all the hell I found
Built the man standing here right now
Funny how losing it all turned around
The day my old truck broke down
Outro
That old Chevy dying on the roadside…
Might’ve been the best thing that ever happened to me.